Tatiana Eva-Marie’s brand new project sprang from a desire to reconnect with her Gypsy origins and become a spokesperson for the music she grew up with. Her latest album focuses on celebrating the music of Django Reinhardt – the precursor of Gypsy jazz / jazz Manouche and one of the most influential guitarists of all time. Instead of focusing on the emblematic style of playing that he created, her latest album Djangology highlights the music of Django the composer, with her own original lyrics and arrangements.
“I grew up in the jazz manouche circles, which are dominated by swarms of guitarists – it’s not always easy to fit in as a singer! The microcosm fascinated me and I too wanted to participate in the Django repertoire… I saw only one option: I had to write my own lyrics, tell my own stories, reinvent his music in my own image.” Through lyrics in English, French, Romanian, and Rromanes (the Gypsy language), Tatiana narrates – with humour and poetry – her journey from the dark alleys of the Latin Quarter to the chic New York society salons and shares her unique heritage with the audience.
“This is the first time I make an album cover for myself. I have been doing collage for many years and because this project is so personal and intimate, I really wanted to put every aspect of myself into it. The bits of fabric that I used in my collage are photos of my ancestors’ Gypsy dresses from my family’s village in Romania. They are over a century old and still strong and beautiful. They feel alive when I wear them. To me this resonated with the music of Django Reinhardt, which still sounds fresh today and can still be “worn” in different styles, by different people, taking on a different life but never losing its essence.”
Born into a family of musicians, painters, and poets, Tatiana Eva-Marie began her career at age four, as a singer and actress, immersed in a world of show business, arts, and culture. Before her twenties, she had already recorded many albums, established herself as an actress on the Paris stage, and written and directed two musicals, while pursuing a Master’s Degree in medieval literature at the Sorbonne University. She developed a fascination for the Renaissance Man archetype and began to travel the world collaborating with artists of various spheres. She then chose New York as her home base, where she quickly built up a reputation as a singer, and started the Avalon Jazz Band, which became overnight the number one reference for French swing around the world, now accruing over 80 million views on YouTube. She performed on some of the most important American stages and has been regarded as the international ambassador of “1930s Paris”.
In 2022, Tatiana became Gérome Barry’s leading lady in his first feature film Swing Rendez-Vous, loosely based on her New York lifestyle as a jazz singer. In the past few years, Tatiana released five albums, starred as guest singer in various projects, wrote the libretto of a “prohibition opera” Eden Park by composer Gérard Massini, and started an online arts and culture publication – Shrine Magazine. Completely dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to artistic creation, she is at the same time lyricist, arranger, producer, and artistic director on most of her projects. Also a collage artist, she conceived and created the artwork for her latest album Djangology.
She is currently working on publishing a Django songbook with her original lyrics, writing the libretto for a second opera – an adaptation of a novel by Boris Vian – and touring worldwide. Her next album ‘A Whole New World,’ a collection of Disney songs in French, will be released in April 2025 on Burton Avenue with a Virgin International distribution.
