One single woman turns into an enchanting choir
Thanks Kalle Künkel for the English Translation
http://www.merkur-online.de/lokales/dachau/eine-einzige-frau-wird-bezaubernden-chor-2723308.htmlphoto Cafe Gramsci Dachau Jan 2013
Dachau – Standing all alone on stage she succeeds in enchanting the audience even polyphonically: Prita Grealy makes HipHop, Soul and Funk a treat.
All of a sudden the audience crane their necks, particularly the guests on the rear seats try to catch a glimpse of the stage. It’s the second voice which causes this temporary confusion while Prita Grealy continues all alone on stage. The polyphonic vocals support is coming from a tape – or rather a loop pedal, and the Australian songwriter sure knows how to make a lot of this technical accessory.
You can use it to create your own little choir’ Prita explains to the audience and shows how to do this: She sings and records line after line and then lets these vocal tracks accompany her vocals, all live on stage, ‘no pre-recorded stuff’. The addition of some beatbox rhythms and soulfully picked guitar chords then complete the One-Man- or rather One-Woman-Band.
‚Hip-So-Fo’ is how Prita calls her music, a combination of HipHop rhythms, the spirit of Soul music and Songwritng and guitar accompaniments from Folk Musik styles. In this context particularly her flawless voice is so outstanding that usually nobody will notice that there is no other instrument involved when she accompanies her acapella songs merely with a stomp box.
Already last year the Dachau audience had the opportunity to get an idea of Prita Grealy’s stage presence at the ‘Jazz in allen Gassen’ festival (Jazz in every lane). After playing the support slot at Jaimi Faulkner’s open air concert at the Rathausplatz she joined the Australian guitar virtuoso on stage as his backing vocalist. Like Faulkner Prita Grealy currently lives in Berlin. The short-term trip to Dachau she straightforwardly made by rideshare together with eight unknown passengers. Experiences of that kind easily end up in new Prita songs, just like several ones she wrote when she was working on a cruise liner. On the other hand the song ‘Blue for you’ is about her grandfather on whose farm at the Australian east coast she lived for one year.
It’s those simple stories written by life that Prita tells on stage. All of a sudden she starts giggling whimsically between the songs. ‘I have a giggle over my own thoughts’ she explains apologetically.
She has already won the audience’s sympathies at that moment, and as the loop machine goes off by itself during a song which makes her burst into laughter a permanent smile can be seen on everybody’s face at the venue from then on.
In the end she is rewarded with so much applause that she has to come back on stage twice to play encores – at the second time she calls the Gramsci’s landlord Christian Salvermoser to join in on his guitar – and doesn’t have to ask him twice – so people crane their necks one more time.
(Dominik Göttler)