Jazz singer Irina Sârbu launches her album At the End of July with a concert at the Godot Theatre in Bucharest on Thursday evening at 19:30. About the album and the release event we find out more details in the interview with Irina Sârbu, conducted by Viorel Grecu.

Irina Sârbu, you are preparing for a special event - the release of At the End of July. If you can elaborate on what this album is about... it sounds very personal.

And so it is. At the End of July is my first album as an author. It's the first time I've ever written lyrics and music, inspired by an event at the end of July - that's why the album is called that, because that's the name of the first song I ever wrote end-to-end; and I thought the album deserved to be named after that song. There are 10 songs on the album - 9 in English and one in French. I thought of English because we're talking about jazz and it's the international language of jazz. We want our music and this soul product to go abroad and be understood by everyone… And a track in French, because I always liked the sound of bossa nova in French..

The arrangements are signed by Sorin Zlat. On the album, Sorin Zlat is on piano, Adrian Flautistu on double bass, Iulian Nicolau on drums and we have as guests Cătălin Milea - saxophone, Sebastian Burneci - trumpet, Liviu Negru - electric guitar and Alex Man - acoustic guitar... and my little girl, Ana, on a song, because I wrote a song especially for her. It's called That's my girl. It's the third one on the album and we did a duet on this song.

A mother-daughter duet.

Yes, mother-daughter duet. It turned out really well. She'll also be performing tomorrow at the album launch concert.

Since you already mentioned the concert... where will it take place, who will you sing with? Is it the same formula as on the album?

The concert will take place on Thursday November 16th, 7.30 pm, at the Godot Theatre. Tickets and more information can be found on the Godot Theatre website. The formula is the same, but, unfortunately, without Sebastian Burneci; he won't be able to join us because he has another concert. But he is on the album and we hope he will join us next time.

Will there be other events, maybe a tour?

We are preparing a tour around the country, to all the jazz festivals in Romania, but this will start next year. Now we're waiting for this year to end. The holidays are coming, the carols are coming, and from January we'll take care of that.

About the album itself, as a physical object... does it already exist in stores?

Yes, there is. The album is available in physical form in all Cărturești bookshops in the country and online at carturești.ro. The album was released in August, but we haven't managed to do the launch concert yet. So, the album has been on the market since August, but we only managed to get together for the 16th of November.

This is how the stars have aligned for November 16th.

Yes, and it's better this way because in autumn there are more people. It's cold outside, people go inside where it is warm and listen to nice and soulful music. In summer it's maybe a bit harder, people are away on holiday... So it's better that it happened this way.

The album is available on CD for now.

On CD and, from Saturday November 18th, we will also upload it to the Internet. So it will be on all the audio streaming platforms, on YouTube... we will distribute it everywhere, it will be free.

Vinyl? Because vinyl records are in now.

Yes, it is. I've thought about it, but even though the vinyl is in and even I have a pickup, I buy everything with a CD - laptop, car - and I really enjoy driving and listening to music. So for now we're sticking with CDs, but I've been considering vinyl as well.