We have a new album release next week, featuring vocalist Ana-Cristina Leonte. Now to Now is the name of her new work and it is presented as the first spoken word jazz album in Romania. It is a project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. For more details about this premiere, we talk with Ana-Cristina Leonte herself. Welcome back to Radio România Muzical.

Glad to be here.

If you could explain in more detail this term spoken word jazz for those who do not have a very clear idea of what it means.

In my characteristic style, it is quite a new idea, at least on the Romanian scene, and in general, spoken word jazz is not something very widespread globally. Spoken word, however, is an album whose structure lies at the intersection between contemporary jazz, spoken word, and touches of electronica. If we talk about spoken word, we talk about poetry set to music, and I think that is the difference, because many could say, okay, and what's the difference from hip-hop. I think it's the much stronger poetic content of the creation.

This title Now to Now reminded me of one of your concerts at Sala Radio with a similar title, From Now to Now. Is there a connection between these projects?

Yes, there is an important connection. A large part of the pieces that I performed then for the first time will be found on the album in this new arrangement of 10 musicians. That was a very important step in creating this project. Now, it is presented in a form that we could call more "slim portable."

Speaking about the genesis of Now to Now, almost six years and a pandemic have passed since your previous album.

The pandemic had a say in the entire cultural life of everyone, but in the meantime, I did another project, Artist in Church, with which I didn't necessarily release an album, but it is a completely new project, meaning I didn't completely disappear from the scene, and now I've come with this new album. It is also a difficult road to release a new album and demanding from every point of view, I'm not going to go into details now.

Since every album is accompanied by a tour, you have a few concerts next week, could you tell us about them?

We will have the first concert on November 11th at Expirat, in Bucharest, on the 13th in Cluj, at Edison House of Music, and on the 14th in Timișoara, at Escape Underground Hub, and I am waiting for everyone to come. It is, I would say, an unmissable concert, with such a rich setup of 10 musicians who are absolutely wonderful, and I am very grateful that I managed to gather this group of carefully chosen musicians, each one exceptional. I will never stop praising them, because they deserve it.