MP3 Rebecca Zapen - Japanese Bathhouse

Rebecca Zapen's light and airy folk-pop music has a calming effect on listeners. Her vocals are subtle and amazingly professional...and they are lovingly caressed in some thoroughly creative and unusual arrangements.

13 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Folk Pop, FOLK: Gentle



Details:
The first band Rebecca Zapen ever played in had Celtic harp, keyboard, violin, and a guy singing through a CB radio mouthpiece; they played Johnny Cash and Tom Waits covers. This was a sure sign she would have varied musical experiences down the road.

Her beginnings were traditional enough, with a classical music education beginning at age 3 with the Suzuki Method, and culminating with her earning music and biology degrees while attending Florida State University on a music scholarship. Since then, her musical involvements have been with groups whose styles include jazz, swing, classical, klezmer, country, folk, and rock. Zapen has performed with or opened for artists such as Vassar Clements, Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys, Trisha Yearwood, Chris Botti, and Tracy Shedd, and has played in musical groups, symphony orchestras, and music festivals throughout the United States, and in the UK and Europe.

Her versatile violin/guitar/ukulele playing, pure clear voice, and ability to write nostalgia-infused music have earned her comparisons to Suzanne Vega, Julie Doiron, Mary Hopkin, and Sean Lennon. Her influences include Stephane Grappelli, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chet Baker, and Nick Drake.

Rebecca Zapen's new release, Japanese Bathhouse, features songs about anything from pirate love gone wrong to bread crumb trails to nudity in foreign lands. Her nostalgic indie folk-pop has a sound that ranges from simple ukulele and vocals to lush arrangements of strings and brass, and musical accents from melodica and glockenspiel. Rebecca's discography also includes her debut release Hummingbird (Bashert Records 2003), laden with bossa nova and blending violin, voice, sax, marimba, and rhythm section into a warm spacious sound; self-titled folk EP Michelle Payne & Rebecca Zapen (2003); and single Songs of Bother and Woe (Bashert Records 2005).

Rebecca's music has been featured on NPR's All Songs Considered: Open Mic. Other career highlights have been her recent appearance as jazz vocal soloist with the Hollywood Philharmonic Orchestra, and as the mandolin soloist in Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra's production of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. An in-demand session musician, Zapen has composed for and performed on recordings for film soundtracks, television, public radio, theme parks, and various musical groups.

Quirky talent: "I can play just about every TV show theme from the late 70's and 80's. Don't ask me why."

Unusual performing experience: "Scrambling down a Mayan pyramid, running across a huge field, and hiking my way up another pyramid, to meet a violinist playing his Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. We met, and I played an American fiddle tune on it. It was rather surreal."