Hanka G

Her fascination with music

Her fascination with music dates back to her early childhood in Mongolia, where her parents worked as geologists on an expedition. Growing up, Hanka's vocals were tested in different musical genres ranging from rock to funk, until she found her niche while living in Washington D.C. having sung with local jazz musicians who had a profound influence on her future musical direction. Once she returned from the U.S., she used every opportunity to perfect her jazz art until her path crossed with one of the most respected jazz pianists in Slovakia, Gabriel Jonáš, who was so impressed with her natural feeling for jazz, that he invited to her to perform with his band.

Soon after

Soon after she was working with many professional jazz musicians, both on local as well as international scene, performing in various well-known clubs and music festivals (i.e. Bratislava's Jazz Days Festival, Jazzycolors Festival in Paris, Open Jazz Festival in Nové Mesto, etc.).

Debut album in 2007

Hanka was awarded a grant from the Slovak Music Fund to support the recording of her debut album "Reflections of my soul", which was produced by Radovan Tariška, a well-respected saxophone player of the Slovak jazz scene, who also performs on the album together with other elite musicians – virtuoso jazz pianist Ondrej Krajňák, Tomáš Baroš on double bass and Marián Ševčík on drums.

Writing skills

For many years, Hanka has been one of the most sought after Slovak jazz singers getting invited for various projects, not only for her vocal ability, but also for her writing skills converting instrumental tunes into songs. To name just a few, she has been a special guest in various projects of Štefan Pišta Bartuš and Nikolaj Nikitin bands, on Sisa Michalidesova's album "Expressions". In 2015 she started to cooperate with Marcus McLaurin writing lyrics to his tunes.[1]

Also joined

Chris Byars Quartet from New York on their tour of Slovakia in 2013, performed as an opening act for Matt Bianco (2011 in Košice, Slovakia), shared the same stage with Kurt Elling during his concert in (2014, Bratislava, Slovakia) and Cassandra Wilson (2014 in Bratislava, Slovakia), which was no doubt one of her most prestigious and memorable performances. In fall 2014 performed in South Africa and joined also Rodney Kendrick trio.

2. solo album

In 2014, Hanka was signed by Hevhetia Publishing House and released in July second solo album produced by jazz pianist Ondrej Krajňák, who also worked with her on her first CD. The album is called Essence and it is a tribute to Slovak folklore songs rearranged into jazzy tunes by Krajňák creating a unique fusion. Only the Slovak & Czech jazz finest worked with her on this album, such as Josef Fečo (double bass, cymbalo), Radovan Tariška (alt and soprano saxophone), Marián Ševčík (drums), Štefan Bugala (percussion), and Ivan Herák's cymbalo band. In addition to that, over July 2014 Hanka went on a tour in Slovakia, Hungary and Czech Republic performing with a special guest from New York, Eric Wyatt, an extraordinarily talented tenor saxophone player who belongs to the global top jazz league, a son of the legendary tenor player Charles Wyatt.

3. solo album

In December 2016, Hanka released her third solo album recorded in duo with pianist Ondrej Krajňák, who also worked on her previous two CDs. The album is called Twin Flame and pays tribute to celebrated jazz pianists. Hanka decided to work with selected instrumental tunes written by well-known jazz pianists, vocalized them and wrote her own lyrics. (Oscar Peterson, Ernest Oláh – famous gipsy Slovak pianist, Chick Corea, McCoy Tyner, Thelonious Monk, Ondrej Krajňák and Mal Waldron). At the same time, this album represents the pinnacle of cooperation with one of the Europe best composers-pianists, Ondrej Krajňák originally from Slovakia. The album was named after his original composition Twin Flames. This name captures the essence of both artists whose music is something like karmic twin flames, representing one soul in two bodies, the exquisite balance between a female and male principle.

U.S.A.

Later in August 2014, Hanka visited the U.S.A. and performed at Arts & Architecture Festival in New Bedford Massachusetts, Ronald Mcnair Jazz Festival in Brooklyn and prestigious New York jazz clubs like Smalls Jazz Club, Smoke, Zinc Bar, Cleopatra's Needle, Village Under-ground featuring Eric Wyatt Quartet as well as many fine jazz musicians. In Smalls Jazz Club, she had featured Eric Wyatt Quartet and performed jazz standards, Slovak folklore music and was given a standing ovation while performing her Slovak folklore song "Red Apple" from her CD Essence. The band featured Essiet Okon Essiet on bass, Theo Hill on piano and Shinnosuke Takahashi on drums. Hanka re-visited U.S.A. in summer 2015 and performed with many great jazz musicians in New York City as well as Philadelphia jazz club scene like Marc Cary, Anthony Wonsey, Marcus McLaurine, Aaron D. James, Charles Turner, Russell Carter, Essiet Okon Essiet, Ron Affif, etc...

Jazz radio stations

One of her major accomplishments while in USA was that her music has continued to be played on following jazz radio stations: KCSM.org (San Francisco) DJ Pete Fallico; WPFWfm.org (Washington D.C.) DJ Rusty Hassan & DJ Tim Masters; WHPK.org (Chicago) DJ Lofton A Emenari; WCLK.com (Atlanta) DJ Jay Edwards; 893WUMD.org (New Bedford Massachusetts) DJ Dave Reis; WKCR FM 89.9 (New York) DJ Sharif Abdul Salam; WCDBfm.com 90.9 (New York) DJ Bill McCann; WAMC.org (New York) DJ Tim Coakley. While in New York, Hanka also did several interviews for jazz publications and jazz radio stations. Steve Lee's Jazz InConcert magazine featured story on Hanka and her recent tour with Eric Wyatt in Europe performing music from her CD Essence. DJ Jay Edwards from WCLK Jazz radio in Atlanta interviewed Hanka for his show "Jazz Tones".

Performed with

Throughout her career, Hanka has worked and performed with many jazz musicians: Marc Cary, Essiet Okon Essiet, Rodney Kendrick, Anthony Wonsey, Marcus McLaurine, Benito Gonzales, Eric Wyatt, Theo Hill, George Gray, Ron Affif, Patches Stewart, Shedrick Mitchell, Aaron D. James, Charles Turner, Russell Carter, Clifton Anderson, Duane Eubanks, Kendrick Scott, Ameen Saleem, Greg Murphy, Eric Wheeler, Shinnosuke Takahashi, Ron Grant, Rael–Wesley Grant, Chris Byars, Ari Roland, Zaid Nasser, Keith Balla, Chris Poudrier Sr., John Harrison, Bill Miele, Jure Pukl, Klemens Markl, Dusan Novakov, Gabor Winand, Karel Ružička jr., Peter Lipa, Jozef Dodo Šošoka, Ondřej Štveráček, Juraj Griglák, Martin Valihora, Ondrej Krajňák, Radovan Tariška, Štefan Pišta Bartuš, Nikolaj Nikitin, Gabriel Jonáš, Josef Fečo, Tomáš Baroš, Marián Ševčík, and many others…[2]

Discography

Leader

Sideman