Wednesday, May 18, 8:30pm. 30 minutes to showtime. Magda is desperately looking for her shoes in the dressing room: «You know, it’s always nice to wear them on stage and then to take them off!». Tonight she is performing for her first time in Milano, at Blue Note, with her team mates Ignacio Hernandez (guitar), Andres Rotmistrovsky (bass) and Keita Ogawa (percussions). On the stage, they are known as Banda Magda.

Born and raised in Athens, Magda Giannikou is a polyhedric artist – singer, pianist, accordionist, composer and producer. A graduate in Film Music at Berklee College of Music, Boston, and winner of several film scoring awards, after her studies she moves to New York, the famously electrifying environment where she engages with the contemporary jazz scene and where the project Banda Magda takes off.

«I left Greece, I left a family and made a new one. In my homeland people talk about their feelings, they express themselves a lot and they talk loud. I find those features in me: when I am on stage they make me connect more with the audience. Then band leading and touring with my band mates makes the relationships closer… My favourite composer? Manos Hatzidakis, of course!»

Her music is a melting-pot of cultures and sounds, ranging from French ballads to Greek folk, with a taste for latin-jazz grooves and with lyrics in (as long as I can count all of them) five different languages! Various collaborations, Grammy-awarded band Snarky Puppy, the bassist and composer Petros Klampanis, among others. Two albums published, Amour t’es la and Yerakina, and a forthcoming third, Tigre.

«This album is about Courage and Fearlessness. The tiger mask that appears on the cover represents our fears all together. You take it off and reveal your own self. How? Through music, friendship, risking. Le Tigre Malin, the song that gives the title to the album, is about a girl who is told not to go out in the night and confront the tiger. It is the moment when she takes the risk that she finally sees in herself all the great things that she can do».

Where have you met the tiger?
«The last three years have been full of challenges, and I must say, having a band is not an easy thing: the touring, the sleep deprivation, the failures and then being able to overcome every difficulty and rise again. The solitude and the patience. At some point, it was January and freezing in New York. I had a hard time, it was a mess… and suddenly the lyrics came to my mind: I thought, I will fight this!»

Are you thinking about a visual component too?
«There will be a short movie too, Andy LaViolette is directing. Last time (Yerakina, ed.) he filmed the live recording in a studio. This time we want to create something more theatrical: the songs are connected with each other with the main theme of courage in different kind of ways, and we want to give them a narrative by incorporating small vignettes, set design, dance choreographies… but we are not disclosing anything yet! It’s an exciting new realm for us».

You are financing your project by crowdfunding: how does it work? And, besides, does it work?
«It does! But you have to be super dedicated, it’s a full time job. When you start a crowdfunding campaign you have to think it through really well, because you have to present your backers a project that is not done yet. We are musicians, we create music, that’s what we do best – it is not as easy to talk about it. So, when we shot the campaign video, we tried to give a very abstract idea, not about what it sounds like but what it feels like. That’s what I think it’s best, to tell people what the purpose is, you know…»

What’s next? Have you ever thought about playing Neapolitan songs?
«I need to practice the accent first! You know, when I was younger I have studied some Italian. Also, I have been raised with the songs of Ornella Vanoni and Mina, they are my gods. In the future we have this plan to do more residencies, studying the local music and making a projects with the local communities – that counts for Italy too. We want to get to know more of the world and then really get deeper inside the culture».

Prep-time is almost over (the shoes are probably left in the hotel, never mind). Magda remembers that she has to rehearse a speech in Italian and needs our help to improve her pronunciation – an amusing occasion to spend a few more minutes together. As we are spelling tongue twister names of tropical animals and other Italian lemmas, I can understand what Greeks mean when they say, about both themselves and about the Italians, Μια φαζα μια ραζα – one face, one race!

The show is an absorbing experience, beyond our expectations. Banda Magda performs a set list of original pieces and re-arrangements of classics, from Aigua De Beber to their hit Sabia. A pleasant surprise, two Italian covers: a touching version of La carezza in un pugno by Adriano Celentano and a playful Senza Paura by Vanoni and Toquinho. Between the musicians there is a magnetic interplay, a party on the stage. The stage itself is merely a barrier between the artists and the audience: Magda manages to break through it effortlessly, walking to the center of the music hall to direct a choir of surprised spectators. There I see her, the girl from the song, taking off the mask and revealing the tiger within.

Fotografie © Banda Magda al Blue Note  di Giulio Gipsy Crespi