Spring Is Here is the name of the concert that the Radio Big Band will perform on Thursday, the 27^th of March, at 7:00 pm, together with the vocal ensemble Jazzapella. Zoltan Andras, the leader of Jazzapella, tells us a few things about the repertoire we will hear tomorrow at the Sala Radio, in an interview by Viorel Grecu.

It is a concert that you have been waiting for a long time, you confessed on Facebook. How did this new collaboration with the Radio Big Band come about?

I have dreamed for quite a long time that this a cappella style that Jazzappella cultivates goes very well with what is called vocal jazz, that is to say singing with several voices accompanied by an instrumental ensemble. And, after collecting all the pieces we dreamed of and liked, we got in touch with Simona Strungaru and the Big Band, presented the project to them and they were impressed and enthusiastic. Then we had to wait for the right moment, because the Big Band's season is always very full, it's a very busy big band and we had to find the right moment to have a free Thursday to play. That's how we ended up with this beautiful 27^th of March.

What songs will you sing and what arrangements will there be?

All arrangements are being performed for the first time in Romania, they are arrangements that are sung by established vocal jazz groups, which are accompanied by the great jazz orchestras of the world, there are jazz standards, swing pieces, bossa nova pieces, samba pieces - a very cheerful and very energetic repertoire.

We benefit from working with a lot of arrangers either virtually, by buying these arrangements from them, or by actually commissioning smallerarrangements for vocals and trio. We have a friend of the Big Band Radio in Bucharest who lives in Austria, Tobias Hoffmann, who was very, very happy to be commissioned to do big band arrangements for two of the pieces, including Spring Is Here.

Please introduce us to the current Jazzappella line-up. From what I understand, there are some new members. You've reached the septet dimension.

Yes, we will also have a piece that we will sing only a cappella, strictly a cappella, in which the 6 voices that sing accompanied by the big band will be enriched by a vocal percussionist, who has been with us for a year, so that the 6 voices who areIoanaMîrți, Raluca Stoica, Raluca Ursu, Zoltán András, Tomy Weissbuch and Alexandru Grăjdeanu, will be joined by this beatboxer, Codrin Pascariu.

So that's the current line-up.

Exactly. These are the Magnificent Seven. And we're also going to play an a cappella only piece, a surprise hopefully, especially after hearing so many sounds and harmonies and instruments and there's such a richness of sound. The moment you turn the volume down a bit you have the challenge to somehow keep the connection and energy with the audience as well as you had with the big band, but to capture their attention and their curiosity of what the voices alone are capable of.