Simone Helle

Since April 2004 the German-Persian singer Simone Helle has built up the band “Simone Helle & the 6th sense”. Among the “excellent musicians” (WAZ 2005), who “…distinguish themselves through very good teamwork and exude an infectious enthusiasm …” (Jazzpodium 2005) are Noel Stevens on the Hammond B3 and piano, Stefan Werni on Bass and Jürgen Scholz on the drums. Simone Helle, who also writes lyrics and composes music herself, creates with her band insightful and independent interpretations of established standards. At the end of 2005 the band released its first joint CD “The Right Night”. Here are a few press commentaries, which give an impression:
NRZ, April 2004: “They are still existing, the natural vocal talents. All those passages Simone Helle was presenting in a silver-rough timbre, with broken force and with smoothly breathed Blues-pathos were classical marks of a through bread singer. The remarkable variety of her voice acoustically recalled the history and development of jazz. …This lady has a voice and she uses it in a virtuoso vocal pilgrimage. Her voice seems like the joint testament of Mahalia Jackson and Ella Fitzgerald.”
CD-Kritik, Jazzpodium, September 2005: "The singer Simone Helle has a charisma of warmths. Her voice is subtliy differenciated, rich in faced, of remarkable volume in pitches - impressive in its heights and depths. Influences by Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan are perceptible. Unconventional interpretations take turns with individual Scat-passages. Her repertoire shows a convincing mixture."
CD-Kritik, WAZ, October 2005: "Simone Helle breathes new life into classical songs like „Cry me a river“ and „Unchain my heart“. The distinctive feature of the album „The Right Night“is the sound of the steaming Hammond B3, which is played by Noel Stevens a native of Nottingham in the tradition of the recently late founding father Jimy Smith. Sovereign and with black timbre Simone Helle moves among Jazz, Soul and Blues, entirely knowing to mix up tradition and innovation."
In January 2007 Simone Helle gave her first international tour. In Greece she delighted the audience – together with the Oleg Charly Quintett – and was celebrated as the “upcoming European star” of the jazz scene.