Gee Gee & Soluna
Gee Gee & Soluna is the band name of the folk and street music duo Gee Gee Kettel (* 1959 near Stuttgart ) and his daughter Soluna Samay . 2012 represented Samay as a solo artist Denmark at the Euro Vision Song Contest 2012 in Azerbaijan Baku .
biography
Gee Gee Kettel (bourgeois: Gerd George Kettel) began his career as a "one-man street music band" in the late 1970s. Partly under the name Bombadil's Big Band , partly together with the pantomime Habbe Ehrenfeld, he appeared as a street musician in German pedestrian zones and at the first festivals . In 1983 he toured the United States , toured the West Coast on an old school bus and occasionally appeared on radio programs. In 1984/1985, longer stays and tours followed in Thailand , Malaysia , the Philippines , Indonesia and Japan . On the Thai beaches, Kettel sometimes performed together with street musicians Chris Lejeune, Jim Franklin and Bernd Snyder. Back in the USA, the first album , distributed in cassette form , was created with the name Hot Feet.
Together with his then partner Annelis, a Swiss woman, Kettel went on a long trip to South America in 1989 . In 1990 they settled in Guatemala, where their daughter Soluna Samay was born in August. In 1992/1993 tours followed in Eastern Europe as well as several television guest performances ( ZDF-Fernsehgarten as well as with Hans Meiser on RTL ). In the meantime, a second cassette album, recorded in Guatemala, was released, entitled Live at the Circus Bar . Through the mediation of guitarist Dagobert Böhm, Kettel produced the first regular CD in 1993: One Man Bandstand . CD two, Rockin 'the Rhythm, Rollin' the Blues , followed a year later in October 1994. Interrupted by winter stays in Guatemala, he completed further tours until the end of the nineties - including to the Middle East and several African countries . The appearance constellation with his daughter Soluna resulted from Kettel's website biography according to the situation. After walking around with the hat at performances as a child, Kettel bought her a children's drum kit when she was five . Soluna was also increasingly an integral part of the program on summer tours. The duo of father and daughter left lasting impressions at folk festivals such as the Notodden Blues Festival and the Tonder Folk Festival . Soluna made her debut as a drummer and background singer on the CD Road Songs . In the years that followed, other appearances, tours and CDs followed, in which Soluna increasingly took over the part of the bass guitar or the double bass . Since the mid-nineties, the Scandinavian countries , especially Norway , have been the focus of performance and life . The first CD with a common repertoire and under the name Gee Gee & Soluna was the album The Beat goes on . From 2000 to 2010 further tours followed, including in Cuba , festival appearances and CD releases. Further CD releases followed: "Thinking Of You" (2004), "Movin 'On" (2006), "Just Passing Through" (2009) the live album "Streetwise: Live in Bergen, Norway" (2011) and the CD " The Best Of Soluna Samay & Gee Gee Kettel "(2012) Most of the repertoire published on CD is now also available as a music download in Apple's iTunes Music Store , Amazon and other download and streaming portals such as Spotify.
As a solo artist, Soluna Samay, who now lives in Copenhagen , released the album Sing Out Loud in 2011 . In January 2012 she entered the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix with the song Should've Known Better and won the preliminary round for the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, Azerbaijan . The song was from Remee , Chief 1 and Isam B. created.
Musical style
On his website and on his MySpace page , Gee Gee Kettel names blues musicians like Mississippi John Hurt and Doc Watson , folk singers like Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie , roots rock greats like the Kinks , John Fogerty and the reggae icon Bob Marley as role models. Although more recent releases by Gee Gee & Soluna also contain original compositions, the main part of the repertoire consists of cover versions . The straightforward, straight to the point interpretation takes place in the stripped-down, acoustic guitar- dominated folk and street music sound enriched with only a few roots instruments. The repertoire of the two is not limited to folk and American roots classics (examples: 500 Miles , Hit the Road Jack , Sixteen Tons , The Cuckoo ), but also includes pop titles such as California Dreamin ' or the Sade hit Smooth Operator . Typical for the music of Gee Gee & Soluna are the changeable vocal passages (sometimes Kettel sings alone, sometimes both; on some newer recordings Soluna Samay plays the lead vocals) and the resulting contrast - between Gee Gee Kettel's smoky Folksinger voice and the bright teenage voice of Soluna Samay.
Discography
Gee Gee Kettel
- One Man Bandstand (1992)
- Rockin 'The Rhythm, Rollin' The Blues (1993)
- Road Songs (1999)
- Lucky 7 (2007)
- One Man Band (2010)
- Songster's Paradise (2012)
- Still Working For Your Smile (A Leonard Cohen Tribute) (2016)
Gee Gee & Soluna
- The Beat Goes On (Ozella Music; 2001)
- Thinking Of You (Ozella Music; 2004)
- Movin 'On (Chocolate Factory; 2006)
- Lucky Seven (Funky Farm Records; 2007)
- Just Passing Through (Chocolate Factory; 2008)
- Streetwise (Funky Farm; 2009)
- The Best Of Soluna Samay & Gee Gee Kettel (Chocolate Factory; 2011)
Individual evidence
- ^ Website of Gee Gee Kettel
- ↑ Official biography ( Memento of the original from January 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at solunasamay.com (accessed January 21, 2012).
- ↑ Soluna Samay to represent Denmark in Baku at eurovision.tv, January 21, 2012 (accessed on January 21, 2012).
- ↑ Portrait at dr.dk (Danish; accessed on January 21, 2012).
