About Me
Marko Ramljak – Rebaltadura
Violinists that left their own personal mark in contemporary jazz music history are rare. Stephane Grappelli and Stuff Smith left their legacy in jazz, David Cross of King Crimson, Edie Jobson who played with Frank Zappa and UK, Darryl Way of Curved Air in rock, Jerry Goodman of Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jean-Luc Ponty that also played with Frank Zappa but achieved a brilliant solo career in fusion.The Croatian music scene remembers only a few... One of the best is Marko Ramljak, multiple winner of music branch award Status, violinist, guitarist and composer who is undoubtedly a connoisseur of mentioned virtuosos work, but has not succumbed to their musical influence. He is referring to their legacy, but successfully avoiding the trap of copying it.Music we can hear on his second solo album significantly named 'Rebaltadura' (in the Komiža Island dialect it signifies a rash change, for example a sudden change of the weather) truly brings a change in his career. It is, in terms of style, completely different than the music on his first album, the music he performs as a member of the Gibonni band, or the music he performs as a guest with the gypsy swing trio Hot Club Zagreb. Although he's mostly involved with fusion and jazz-rock, his music is much more than that. In his work Ramljak also uses the approach of jazz and world music. In his music one can sense the influences of many musical cultures, such as Latin or Irish music where the violin plays a significant role. In the shaping of his music the crucial influence was his upbringing and experiences he gathered growing up in Šibenik, Dalmatia, where he played with the band Secret Life, and during his stay in South Africa. This CD, alongside Marko's songs and two songs composed by Nino Nimac, contains the song 'Mambo for Ruth' composed by contrabass(double bass) player Charlie Haden, a well-known jazz musician, who dedicated it to his wife, singer Ruth Cameron. The fact that Ramljak chose this particular song tells a lot about his love for Cuban music and his tendency towards contemporary jazz.Unlike most fusion bands from the 70's to the present-day that prefer the electric sound, Marko Ramljak uses the natural sounds of his instruments, preferring meaningful and nonpretrentious improvisations over egotistical, manic and never-ending 'raping' of instruments we often hear from fusion masters. In these improvisations all of his fellow-musicians share equal contributions: Matija Dedić, Kristijan Terzić, Marko Matošević, Dado Marinković, Luka Veselinović, Marko Reljanović, Nino Nimac and Matko Petrić.In his interpretations you can hear the routine and certainty that Ramljak adopted while playing a great number of live performances with Gibonni, in front of numerous audiences those most well-known jazz players could not attract.The most important things that distinguish the music on this album are the love, unity and fabulous energy...Davor Hrvoj
