Different Point of View

Matilda Leko is one of the most interesting and diverse composers in modern jazz. Coming from a musically gifted family that migrated from Serbia to Austria in the 1960s, Matilda began dancing and sin- ging at an early age, listening to the folkloristic music of the Balkans, rock, pop and soul. Later through the blues she discovered jazz as having the greatest freedom of musical expression. With a desire to gain education in this genre, she left Serbia in 1998 and entered the Jazz Academy in Vienna—the city of her early childhood. Her talent and musicality soon attracted attention in the Viennese jazz scene, where her subsequent successes enabled Matilda to form her own ensembles. Later she became intimately familiar with the music of Brazil. After working for several years in the jazz idiom, she began to fuse traditional Balkan music and rhythms with jazz. This is how her concept of “world music” was born. While many of Matilda’s compositions reflect the genre of traditional jazz, she can just as easily reach back to her roots—the rhythms and melodies of the mystic Balkan. Matilda’s music is authentic and crosses borders. In her projects she demonstrates her full musical range as well as insight into the life of a musician. Her compositions are discretely accentuated with ethnic motives; they challenge and underscore her unusual and creative improvisations, so reminiscent of instrumental passages. Her lyrics are courageous and poignant narrations of a very sensuous way of life.