Biography

AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS

• Best Album 05 OMA, USA
• Winner, Billboard Song Contest (Jazz) 2001
• Gold Disc for #1 Single, Ireland 1993
• GLAMA for Best Jazz (New York) 2000
• Irish Arts Council Awards 1999 & 2003
• Best New Band 1993 Hot Press/Smithwicks Music Critics

MUSIC, VIDEO & FILM

• Dream On ('04 Ireland)
• Living Our Lives ('03)
• Private Wars ('99)
• Permanent Happiness ('96)
• Give It All Up ('93)

Soundtracks for film/documentaries for:

• RTE TV, Ireland
• ARTE TV, France
• Channel 4 TV, UK
• NBC TV in USA

Irish vocalist Maria Walsh and UK saxophonist/pianist Carole Nelson, formed Zrazy in 1992, winning the Hot Press Irish Music Critics Award for Best New Band the following year. Their first two CDs, Give it All Up and Permanent Happiness, were pure pop/dance delights, integrating Celtic lyricism, poetic sensibility and traditional instruments with funky loops and techno grooves.

In 1999 they released their third album Private Wars. Recorded in Ireland with their jazz quintet and released on their own ALFI label, it was a stunning collection of eleven original jazz songs. Irish music critics were unanimous: "...the single most sensuous, moody, set of love songs released by an Irish act this year." (Joe Jackson, The Irish Times).

Dream On is Zrazy's newest 2004 release, recorded in Ireland on their own ALFI label and mixed in Nashville, TN by Michael Moryc and guitar supremo Denny Jiosa.

Dream On is an album of joyous ambient creations that burst with vibrancy and warm jazzy soulfulness. With Zrazy's trademark sensual vocals from Maria Walsh & superlative songwriting from saxophonist Carole Nelson, Dream On has already received rave reviews from the Irish critics.

From the ecstatic groove of Angel Walking, the 9 min funkathon of Drive, to the Cuban swing of Keep It Real & the irresistible Dream On title track, the Zrazy gang get happy & get down. Dream On winds down with the ultimate chill out, the elegiac Amen.

Dream On wins the OutMusic Award for Best Album 2005 in Chicago Cultural Institute June 05.

The other Zrazy CDs

First released in 1999, Private Wars was re-released in the USA July 2002 by Morada Music & has received significant airplay on jazz, college, satellite DMX, and national public radio (NPR) stations.

The collection includes 11 originals and two jazz standards, with the accompaniment of Geraint Roberts, Myles Drennan and Andrew Bold. Zrazy recorded most of the songs on this critically acclaimed jazz album in one take. The song 'Remember That You Did it First With Me' won the USA 2000 GLAMA Award for 'Best Jazz'. The title track 'Private Wars' was a winner in the 2002 Billboard International Song Competition.

Living Our Lives was recorded live in Columbus, Ohio and released in June 2003. Combining original celtic with jazz and electronica, it begins with the calm simplicity of 'Amen', powers its way through the anti-war dance track 'Make the Connection' to the goofy humor of 'Suburban Girl' and 'Going Up', and winds up with Denny Jiosa's remix of their jazz groove 'Ecstasy'.

Living Our Lives is a sensual, spiritual, emotional and political ride through the uncategorizable world of Zrazy, with all the excitement a live performance can bring.

Released in 1995, Permanent Happiness ranges from pulsating techno to undulating dance rhythms to disco to classic piano/voice ballads. Carole and Maria describe this recording as "their Berlin techno period".

The album earned Zrazy a record deal with Pure Records/Mercury USA and was re-released as Come Out Everybody in '97. The track 'Confession' was used by filmmaker Paula Crickard for the short film 'John x 2' broadcast on UK's Channel 4 in 1999. The album also features the joyous and sexy anthem 'Come Out Everybody', nominated for the USA Gay and Lesbian Music Awards.

Zrazy's 1993 debut album Give It All Up features 'I'm In Love With Mother Nature', described by the Irish Times as "one of the most important singles ever released in Ireland."

Combining rhythm and blues, soul, jazz and traditional Irish ingredients, Give It All Up catapulted Zrazy into the Irish music scene and earned them the Hot Press/ Smithwicks Music Critics Award for Best New Band in 1993.

Two music videos were made for the album, Laughing So Hard and When U Cry", and the controversial dance track "679-4700" was featured in a French ARTE documentary on the future of Irish music.

About the Members of Zrazy

Maria Walsh

A native of rural Tipperary, Maria Walsh grew up on a farm, played the piano and sang to herself.

Maria jokes that her childhood spent in a "convent boarding school/prison" deprived her of hearing much of anything. However in her late twenties, after hearing jazz vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Maria began her career as professional vocalist.

Today, her most-recognized quality as a vocalist is her sincerity."I hope to express an authentic self without cliché or affectation" Maria says.

Always with an interest in percussion, she also plays flute and harmonica, programmes, and co-writes some of Zrazy's material.

Maria has also hosted a weekly program on Jazz FM Radio in Dublin, focusing on female musicians.

Carole Nelson

Born and raised in London, Carole studied piano to ARCM performance level. By 17 however, she was performing in her first pro band on the London jazz & R 'n B scene. In 1985 Carole moved to Dublin where she met Maria.

A prolific songwriter, she writes most of Zrazy’s material. Her instrumental virtuosity encompasses piano, Irish tin whistle, alto, soprano, &tenor saxophones and programming. She has written for film, theatre and television, and has composed an opera, ‘Gilgamesh’.