GRAZIA LP by GRAZIA

The crown jewel of Koliphone Records, Grazia's debut album is by far one of the most intriguing pieces of music to ever be recorded in Israel, and perhaps one of the rarest too. Now reissued on the excellent Fortuna imprint!Jaffa in the late sixties and early seventies had an exciting and exotic sound to offer, where folk musicians performed live at its taverns seven nights a week. The biggest and most influential artist of the time was Aris San. San's huge popularity attracted many other artists to record the new style he had pioneered. Artists such as Trifonas, Levitros, Nino Nikolaidis and many more began to appear on Jaffa's record stands. Among them was a young girl who sang in Turkish. Her name was Grazia Peretz. Grazia was a wonder kid in the early seventies. She started singing at the age of nine, performing at Turkish weddings and Mediterranean nightclubs, sharing a stage with local legends such as Aris San and Trifonas. For her 16th birthday, her father sent her to record a full length "Hafla" style album at the Koliphone studios. Marko Bachar, who was the label's in-house producer, arranger and keyboard player, was in charge of the project. Bachar had just sold his organ and bought a monophonic Moog synthesizer. The heavy and unique sound of his synth is heard well throughout the album, encouraged by Grazia herself, who wanted to break free from the conformities of Greek and Turkish folk music and introduce the early sounds of disco she and her peers were getting into.