Lolita

Contact

Lolita

http://www.ljudmila.org/lolita/

Events abroad

Past Events

• 13 Jun 2014

  Serbia Sombor Sombor National Theatre

  
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  Chekhov's The Bear, directed by Zijah A. Sokolović with music by Lolita, at the Theatre Marathon

  
  

  
  

  
  

• 13 Oct 2013

  Albania Elbasan

  
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  Chekhov's The Bear, directed by Zijah A. Sokolović with music by Lolita, at the Skampa International Theatre Festival

  
  

  
  

  
  

• 21 Apr 2013

  Kosovo Peć Kosovski festivalski grad Peć

  
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  Chekhov's The Bear, directed by Zijah A. Sokolović with music by Lolita, at the

  
  

  
  

  
  

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Established in 1987, Lolita is a veteran Ljubljana band with a marked looseness concerning their line-up as well as their genre orientation. Throughout their 12 albums and numerous live shows and projects they have flexed their jazz foundation into many other fields, especially rock, ethno and free improvisation. They themselves say it's a "HiEnergy Turbo Porno Minimal SugarFree Pop Funky Overdrive Ethno Broootaal HardGroovie NuJawzz kind" of music. And even though change is the only musical direction they follow, they still have a distinctively trademark sound to themselves; a free floating, sometimes laid back and more often energetic groove.

Their musical flexibility is very much defined by their ever evolving line-up. As musicians come (and go) their own musical visions and preferences are keeping the band's sound fresh even after almost a quarter of a century.

Line-up

In 1987, the band was founded by Blaž Grm (drums), Primož Simončič (saxophone) and Iztok Vidmar (electric bass). The later two have remained the band's core since than. A year later, the band was re-enforced by a guitar player Samo Ljubešič. In 1991, Samo and Blaž left the band and the new drummer became Mirsad Šabič. A new drummer is again introduced in 1997. Marjan Stanič, today one of the most sought after drummers in Slovenia, remained in the band till 2010 and left a decisive mark in the band’s sound. Other musicians, involved for shorter periods, were Jelena Ždrale and Matjaž Sekne (violin), Igor Bezget (guitar) and vocalists Mojca Dimec, Alenka Vidrih and Alenka Marsenič. The band also played with some notable foreign musicians; trumpeters Axel Doerner and Ventzislav Blagoev, saxophone player Jessica Lurie and pianist Antoni Donchev. The later three were part of a side project called Lolita Libre, which also featured Matjaž Manček on guitar and Tomaž Grom on double bass.

The current permutation's drummer is Uroš Srpčič, while the fourth member is Neža Naglič on piano. Due to her temporary absence, the band at the moment features Matjaž Sekne on violin and Neža Trobec on vocals. As the band's musical collaborations are hard to follow, the list is probably still far from perfect.

Projects

They started collaborating within performance arts in 1991, when they made music for a Ana Monró Theatre play called George Dandin. That year they also performed (with music and movement) in a dance performance Vso srečo ti želim (I wish you all the luck). First presented in Cankarjev dom, it was also featured in a Budapest dance theater festival, and they afterwards collaborated in some other performance arts projects. In 1996 they first worked with Zijah A. Sokolović, a Bosnian actor, with whom they created a show called Medved (Bear) in 1997. Based on a play by Anton P. Čehov, the show was awarded at the Bitola monodrama festival in 2003 and has since than toured throughout the middle and eastern Europe festivals. It has gotten awards on most of them ((Bitola, Kijev, Mostar, Erevan, Moscow, Kiel, Ruma, Nizhnevartovsk, Smederevo).

With the aforementioned project Lolita Libre they played on various stages between 2002 and 2006; it was marked by a more lose approach to musical structures and a much bigger emphasis on improvisation and experimentation. Even then, it was still very much "Lolitesque". A CD called Nero e Bianco was recorded in 2003 and can be freely downloaded from the web.

Performances and discography

They played on a number of music festivals; they appeared twice on the stage of Jazz Cerkno Festival and the Ljubljana Jazz Festival, and also played at Pepsi Sziget Festival (Hungary), Kumanovo Jazz festival (Macedonia), Nishville Jazz festival and Jazz Festival Kragujevac (Serbia), Jazzeuropa Festival 2004 Tel-Aviv (Izrael) and many others.

Their discography at the present consists of 12 albums, many of them recorded live. Most of them are freely available on the internet (whole cd's or just a few songs).

Other band's members projects

It is hard to list all the other bands and projects that the band members are or were involved in. To name a few, Vidmar vas a member of notable 80s bands Čao Pičke and Borghesia, Uroš Srpčič played in Demolition Group and Neža Naglič in Salamandra Salamandra. The band's former and still occasional member Marjan Stanič is or was involved in Žoambo Žoet Workestrao, Bast, Alzheimer3, Jimmy Barka Experience, Bratko Bibič & The Madleys, Vasko Atanovski trio, Jessica Lurie Ensmeble, Uršula Ramoveš in fantje iz jazbecove grape etc.

See also

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External links

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