MACHA GHARIBIAN

PHENOMENAL WOMEN

Rue Bleue Meredith Records

Macha Gharibian, vocals/composer/piano/Fender Rhodes; Dré Pallemaerts, drums; Sylvain ‘Kenny’ Ruby, electric bass/keyboards; Lea Maria Fries, Linda Olah & Isabel Sörling, vocals.

Macha Gharibian is of Armenian ancestry, making a dent in the New York City musical landscape with a revolutionary spirit and a Parisian heart.  This international talent who sings and writes her own songs, brings a fresh perspective to music that is uniquely her own.  Greatly influenced by trailblazers like Nina Simone, Jeanne Lee and Joni Mitchell, (although she sounds nothing like them) Gharibian brings her own fresh perspective to the music.  She combines cultures like cake batter where separately the eggs, sugar, milk, butter and self-rise flour stand strong.  But when we combine these ingredients, the result is a sweet cake.  You hear the sweetness on Macha Gharibian’s very first original tune called “You Love Her.” The lyrics are interesting, about a lover who can’t commit to love over his obsession with ‘the bottle’ and his addiction.  With this album, each song unfolds, a piece of human culture with an international theme.  “Man Mana” is very reminiscent of African chants and Island rhythms.

Macha Gharibian borrowed the album title.  It was inspired by the poem that Maya Angelo wrote, “Phenomenal Women” and it becomes the theme of this music. She is also greatly influenced by the music of her childhood, especially her father’s voice.  He was co-founder of a group called ‘Bratsch’ and she grew up hearing them sing in Armenian, Russian, Greek and Romani.

On this project, Gharibian has added singers to her trio.  Together their voices create a comfortable, harmonic warmth.  Her musical format is simplistic, with Belgian drummer, and longtime collaborator, Dré Pallemaerts holding the tempos tightly in place and with Kenny Ruby on bass. Together, they create her comfort-level trio.  Gharibian grew this project to celebrate a testament to feminine power by adding female background voices and composing music to reflect the strength and power of women. For example, on a tune called “Celebrate” she expresses how women manage to ‘find a way’ through life challenges, to stay strong and empowered.  On a song sung in French called “Survoler La Lune” the production is reggae. This is followed by “Nare Nare” a traditional Armenian folk song, where Gharibian sings in her native tongue.

This artist projects music rich with various cultures and sings in five languages, combining cultures with contemporary style. The simplistic production is not cluttered. However, I don’t think of this music as jazz.

For me, this project leans more towards World Music, not jazz.  It lacks the special components that delineate jazz. Those unique components are the blues, the element of ‘swing,’ and the most important element of all is improvisation. This project leans more towards World, pop & European classical music.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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