Nina Stiller

Polish Theatre Portal
Nina Stiller sings in the Puppet Theatre

Rafa³ Zieliñski: Nina Stiller’s concert in XXVIII Actors’ Singing Festival of Wroclaw. “Gazeta Wyborcza”, March 14th, 2007.

The concert of Nina Stiller felt like a fresh breath of air in the Festival’s singers’ and actors’ atmosphere.
First, a wonderful combination of popular Jewish songs and modern electronics, club music sounds, almost perfectly displayed (almost so, because the acoustician couldn’t cope with it in the beginning), hotter than in the record, with perfect visualisations and light effects.
Nina Stiller, raven-haired, in a long tightly fitting black dress, enchants with her deep voice. She dances – and how! Not only the male part of the audience was unable to stop gazing at her. Her looks make it hard to believe that she had won the same competition almost twenty years ago!
I hope Nina’s and Agim Dzeljilji’s project will come to Wroclaw again: not only the Festival’s audience, but all fans should enjoy it.

- Gazeta Wyborcza_March 14th, 2007

“IN HER EYES”
Nina Stiller’ recital of Jewish songs in jazz stylization, Xith Day of Judaism
Blue Note Jazz Club
http://coexist.org.pl/?strona=aktualnosc&id=52
January 18th, 2008

Der Yiddisher Taam

„Singing old and new Jewish songs is my way to unerstanding my own identity,” stated Nina Stiller on Friday, January 18th, during the concert in Blue Note. He was a grownup woman when she discovered her Jewish origins and returned to them. Her singing was full of strength and passion, of her longing for the known and the unknown, for the world that has passed and stays present, at the same time.
Now and then one could see she did not quite fit the smallness of the Blue Note stage; mostly she appears in theatres.

In her deep and strong voice she was singing in Yiddish, New and Old Hebrew, as well as Polish (in Robert Stiller’s translations), telling the story of the Jews, their dispersion all over the world, and of Israel. She sang ancient songs (the oldest of them dating from XVIth century), songs in which “one can hear hear the desert sands”, about the birth of Judaism, the departure from Egypt; and new ones, composed in pre-war Poland, not so far fom cabaret, and probably most popular. They revealed the nature of Jewishness, of the suffering, joy, yearning, and proudness included in being part of the Chosen People. One of the most dramatic songs was related to a tragic chapter of Jewish history during the Second War. She also drew from the repertoire of contemporary female singers of Israel.
She demonstrated how much in various nations’ culture is derived from the Jewish culture. In her recital she tried to give the audencie the feeling of “Der Yiddisher Taam”: the Jewish savour.
Jazzing musical arrangements of Joachim Mencel perfectly fitted Jewish poetry, melody, and contents of the songs. Beside Mencel (piano) the accompaniment was provided by Tomasz Kupiec (double bass) and Arek Skolik (drums).

dk
- COEXIST_January 18th 2008

DZIENNIK POLSKI Nr 156

JAN POPRAWA

„Scandalous, and beautiful evenings”

... I cannot keep silent about the fascinating concert of Nina Stiller, and I must give a witness to my admiration and emotions. Her recital was revelation of a great artist. Both in traditional Yemenite or Hebrew songs, and in the Ashkenazi Jewish repertoire (which she sung in Yiddish and Polish), she has demonstrated phenomenal values of her voice, exceptional vocal and scenic abilities, high art of interpretation. She is a wonderful actress on stage; her voice and body are obedient instruments to attain artistic expression.

Even the voice of Nina Stiller – deep, dark, sonorous –has no rival or equivalent in today’s stage art in Poland!
It is simply incomprehensible that an artist of such a quality remains practically unknown outside of the circles of experts and hobbyists. And yet she hed won various competitions in Wroclaw, Lublin and Warsaw, played in films, has been present in Polish artistic world for ten years or more…

An additional value of Nina Stiller’s recital was the musical arangement of Joachim Mencel. This excellent jazz pianist is cooperating with exquisite musicians, all of them raising the production of the singing actress to a still more towering level of artistic experience. Nina’s beautiful duos with the bassist Zbigniew Wegehaupt or the guitarist Marek Walawender will remain in my memory for a long time. And the interludes – fantastic solos of Maciej Sika³a – reminding me of the moments I lived through listening to the jazz of Komeda and Rosengren…
Oh yes, it was a beautiful evening, most wonderful of all which I have experienced in the “Bagatela” theatre this year.
- Dziennik Polski_Jan Poprawa_ 6.07.2000

ZYCIE WARSZAWY 20.X. 2006

ADAM CIESIELSKI

“Intriguing and Climatic”

Nina Stiller – a Phenomenon Worth Showing to the World

Old Jewish hits combined with modern beats, and the fascinating vocal of Nina Stiller, are an event in the world of musical records the like of which we haven’t had for a long time.

Jewish motives and hits have functioned in entertaiment for years immemorial. They are lately exploited – occasionally, ad nauseam – by the klezmer music, ever fashionable, combining ethnic elements with jazz simplified. In that field, the loss of freshness has occured: until Nina Stiller has made her appearance, to lrend quite new attraction to old repertoire.

Warsaw, Paris, Berlin

Few have ever head of her in Polish show business, nevertheless, the artist, endowed with a marvellous deep voice has a chance to attain international career. Crowds of people have swarmed to listen to her singing in Paris, and she is expected to appear in Berlin, the climates of the German cabarets, the style of Bertolt Brecht and Otto Diks up to Ute Lemper as naturally fitting the peculiarity of her own style as can be.
Her career is full of mysterious turns. In 1988, she won the Grand Prix at the Festival of Actors’ Song in Wroclaw, with some other awards to follow. She played in films of Wajda, Kawalerowicz, Wosiewicz, and Polanski, to get out of sight again. Connoisseurs highly apprediated her infrequent recitals, sung in Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew, in French an German.

The Talent Mysterious

The staggering range of her unusual talent was reveald in her newest record “Nina Stiller (Pomaton-EMI). It is a combination of Jewish folk and entertainment music with new sounds imaginatively created by Agim D¿eljilji and Magiera-Magierski, producers associated with independent stage of Wroclaw and with hip-hop. Variable rhythms and spots of sound expose the qualitty of Nina Stiller’s magnetically sleepy yet deeply alarming voice singing a Yiddish version of “Rebecca” by Bia³ostocki and W³ast, once famous in a Polish version as sung by Ewa Demarczyk; “Small Town of Belz” by Jacobs and Olshanecky; the classic “Ron the motives ozhinkes mit mandlen” lullaby on the motives of Abraham Goldfade, all of them raing to universal and intriguing dimensions, yet losing nothing of the authenticity of the original dramatic. Herman Yablokoff’s modestly autobiographic “Papirosn” about a boy selling cigaretes in the streets of Grodno during World War I becomes, in her interpretation, a climatic revelation comparable to the greatest hits of a Marlene Dietrich. The similarly haunting and pulsating “Spring” (“Friling”) by Kaczerginski and Brudno, once staged in the ghetto of Vilna, remains an incomparable apotheosis of life always countering the ubiquitous and unavoidable death.

Molly Picon, the well-known actress of pre-warJewish film and theatre, wrote “A Bit of Sun” (composed by Ellstein); now an excellent trick invented by the producers enables Nina Stiller to sing it simultaneously on two planes, modern in sound, and harshly patinated, to make the quotation in the style of the 30’s very credible indeed. Hats off!

The record is exceptionally careful in technical quality (including the graphic side of it), and supplied with excellent commentaries to every song by the famous polyglot and translator Robert Stiller. All in all, a sensational achievement not on³y in club music. An evenement like that has not occurred in Polish entertainment art for a long time.
- ZYCIE WARSZAWY_20.X.2006

FORUM ¯YDÓW POLSKICH_september 2006
http://www.fzp.jewish.org.pl/kultura26.html

“Nina Stiller” - Nina Stiller
Pomaton EMI
September 2006

Up to the end of the September with EMI Music circulation Poland appeared tremendously interesting plate - album Niny Stiller.
Ninê Stiller they awarded already at many competitions and festivals. She became the winner of Prix Rip-offs among others on the Wroc³aw Competition of the Drama Song. Interpretations of works were compensated also her Edith Piaf. Stiller has the very diverse repertoire, and now its part - perhaps the most interesting - we are supposed to know the chance thanks to its first plate.
Nina Stiller is singing in many languages, among others in the Yiddish. On the plate "Nina Stiller" we will find classics of the Jewish song in the very language.
If somebody in this moment sighed in it heart of hearts "then again Jewish cepelia", let Stiller absolutely reach for the surface. Hard because it for something more distant than proverbial is already cepeliowo-sentymentalnych and of tearful performances of the classical small town Be³z. Thanks to these recordings it is possible to become convinced that the classical Jewish music is not having .. to stay in the form of every now and then dusted museum exhibit items. It is a lively music.
Plates are producers leader of the formation Öszibarack Agim D¿eljilji and Tomasz Janiszewski - Magiera - very much known well for everyone for listeners of the Polish hip hop. In the effect of their cooperation around Nin¹ Stiller former Jewish are wreathing the load oneself exceptionally harmoniously with the modernity, club rhythms or moods but the r'n'b la. Thanks to new arrangements works around sztetla picked the new life up not losing their identity all at the same time. The sensitivity and sensing authors caused plates that the modernity hadn't overwhelmed the past.

BK

- http://www.fzp.jewish.org.pl/kultura26.html_september 2006

SCHOENE-TOENE
„Nina Stiller“ – Nina Stiller
ednett, 15. Mai 2007, 11:29
http://schoenetoene.blogger.de/stories/790267/

In den letzten beiden Monaten versteckte sich in den World Music Charts eine Platte aus Polen, dessen Hörproben ich äußerst faszinierend fand: Nina Stiller heißt die Interpretin der gleichnamigen CD und bis auf die Tatsache, dass es sich um eine polnische Sängerin handelt, weiß ich trotz intensiver Suche nichts über diese Platte.

Aber wichtig sind ja nicht irgendwelche Infos, sondern die Musik – und die hat es in sich: Elektronische Beats sorgen für einen dichten Soundteppich, auf dem dann die betörende Stimme Nina Stillers mit jiddischsprachigen Texten für einen eigentümlichen Gegensatz zwischen Tradition und Moderne sorgt. Bei einigen Stücken ist dies hervorragend gelungen – die digitalen Sounds geben den Songs eine eigene Note und erzeugen eine dichte Atmosphäre. Es gibt allerdings auch einige Lieder auf der Platte, die für mich nur schwer zu ertragen sind – die vorher sorgsame Balance verschiebt sich hin zu einer schwülstigen, elektronisch überladenen Ballade, der jede Ecke und Kante zu fehlen scheint.

Insgesamt ist die CD von Nina Stiller aber ein hochinteressanter und größtenteils gelungener Versuch, jiddischem Liedgut mittels neuer Sounds ein neues Gesicht zu verleihen.
- http://schoenetoene.blogger.de/stories/790267/_15. Mai 2007

Recenzor

"NOSTALGY AND ECSTASY"

Nina Stiller, the excellent interpreter of Jewish music – both traditional and popular – has decided to try her hand in the world of club music this time. It may seem not so exceptional: droning on smoothjazz with electronic background seems a way to obtain quick and easy success lately... With this record, however, it was by no means so obvious. First of all, she provided herself with the help of two very conscious producers – Agim D¿eljilji and Magiera – who provided her, in return, with music remote by lightyears from the club clichés. Both of them have perfectly sensed the nuances of Jewish music, that combination of nostalgy and ecstatic enthusiasm which has been wandering around Europe for centuries. Intertwining it with electronic microsounds, and with dance beat if necessary, they emphasized the intensity of experience. Nina Stiller herself had no problem at all finding herself in such climates. Her deep voice, vibrating with hidden emotions, adds a bit of Oriental taste to the whole on one side, and the very specific colour of the Yiddish language introduces a shade of the atmosphere of decadent turn of the century cabarets on the other side. The excellent music is both modern, and full of irresistible respect for the ethnic tradition. This is really a revelation on the generally depressing Polish market.

Wojciech Lada

”Wprost” weekly, October 22nd, 2006

- "WPROST" Nr 1245_22.X.2006

There are some records which make one’s heart rejoice. Still more so if they are Polish records which one can take abroad, to present them to any expert in music and be sure his proverbial jaw would drop.
Such records are not more than could be counted on the fingers of one hand;
but I’m glad to to say this one easily forces its way among the world’s best.
Nina Stiller calls herself a singer of songs, but she is a talented dancer and actress as well. Have you seen „Korczak” and „The Pianist”? So have a look at her photos which go with the record, and don’t hesitate to imagine the parts she played in the films.
The album "Nina Stiller" is a masterly fusion of Jewish culture and club beats, and moreover, leading Polish producers, including Agim D¿eljilji and Magierski, enriched them with elements which some other producers draw from even if they don’t know the first thing about them.
So we have some elements of hip-hop in „Tshiri bim”, of trip-hop in "Mayn shtetele Belz", down tempo e.g. in "Papirosn", and the lately so fashionable dance hall beautifully exposed in "Rivke". My interview with Nina will show you the artist herself is proud of the fusion of click house with elements of pop in "Friling" and of r`n`b strongly beaconing to the production as a whole, as well as underlying the "Rozhinkes mit mandlen".
Obviously, "Nina Stiller" is a low bow, and tribute, to her Jewish identity, including some traces of other Eastern music cultus. After all, she sings in the Yiddish language, basically going out of the standards of Jewish – let us say – pop culture, slightly coloring it with the style of jazz (“Rozhinkes mit mandeln”) and of World Music: there’s no escaping the comparison to the achievements of Delerium. And that’s the best recommendation to this plate, so rich in unusual sounds.
This is a very beautiful record, a hit, rich in special atmosphere... It’s enough to start listening to the introductory „Mayn shtetele Belz”, the „Small town of Belz”, sudden³y to feel the chills wandering along your spine and in all directions.

This phonographic debut of Nina Stiller amounts to her setting very high standars for herself. Yet her emotional engagement, her vocal power, and musical feeling make it rather certain she live up to the them in her forthcoming project. A world hit, I hope!
Adam Dobrzyñski

- "Radio dla Ciebie" 2007

Gazeta Wyborcza

THE “SMALL TOWN BELZ” IN CLUB MUSIC

A suggestive fusion of old Jewish songs with modern sounds and rhythms. And an intriguing clash of personalities to boot.

Nina Stiller, dancer, choreographer and singing actress, has been continuously passing throug various festivals, regularly collecting awards, and enrapturing critics with her interpretations of Jewish music. On the other side two producers: the leader of the Öszibarack formation Agim D¿eljilji, and Magiera, responsible for the sound of many hip-hop productions. Under the care of them, old songs from the past, sung by Nina Stiller with her deep and sensuous voice, are acquiring new life.

When due sensitivity an proportions are observed, such cultural confrontations usually produce interesting results. The British project Oi Va Voi had demonstrated what can be conjured up from the elements of traditional Jewish music. Magiera and D¿eljilji follow a somewhat similar course. Their most important achievement is they did not succumb to the temptation to overwhelm Nina Stiller’s original interpretations with their own concepts of musical arrangement. Sometimes, they totally deconstruct known motives (I bet some listeners wouldn’t immediately recognize “Rebecca”, and the “Small Town Belz” at te beginning may be surprising too), in most cases, however, they confine themselves to embroiling some elements modern or associated with the folklore of Asia Minor. “Small Town Belz” emanates, beside typically Jewish melancholy, also gloom and anxiety to be associated with the doings of a DJShadow, or U.N.C.L.E. On the other hand, the finale Of “Rozhinkes mit Mandlen” taste of a r’n’b production.

The majority of the Songs, however, take on a shade of club music. “Beutiful Like the Moon” and “Tshiri bim” would do very well on the dancing floor of an ambitious club. All of which has been conjured up from songs not less than a couple of generations old.

Robert Sankowski
- "GAZETA WYBORCZA" 2007