Rajka Vali or our Lady of "Blue Smoke"

Rajka Vali (b.1924) was first post-WW2 Croatian female pop star - her beginnings were in Trio Delinski during 1940s when she recorded famous "Tri Palme" ("Three Palms") which is now forever saved in radio archives. Apparently music was her side-hobby because young singer had actually studied architecture and performed on weekends, where she was backed by some of than most popular Jazz bands. One of those Jazz cats she would end up marrying. Colleagues like venerable Miljenko Prohaska have only nice things to say about her and in fact young Vali was used as a vocalist when Jazz bands would audition for National Radio.

Today Rajka Vali is remembered - if at all - only for curious fact that due to lack of "pop singers" the whole repertoire of very first pop festival "Zagreb" was divided between herself and Ivo Robić. Yes, that's correct, two singers. You see, festival was initially planned as a presentation of works by composers and singers were here simply utilized as afterthought. I find this a little bit strange since there were quite a lot of pop singers of previous generation (Nina Selak for one) but perhaps they were not active anymore, who knows. In any case Rajka Vali was our first pioneer in post WW2 pop music and her repertoire reflects western influences like June Christy and movie themes. That singing was not perceived as a serious career shows the fact that Vali took to architecture upon getting her degree and never looked back since, in fact she even relocated in Germany and Switzerland.

This lovingly assembled CD collects all known music Rajka Vali recorded during 1950s and it is quite  discovery. To be honest, personally I don't find her voice particularly interesting or unique (she had a thin sound and was not so different from other female singers who started before her) but from historical perspective its fascinating to hear our own Croatian songbird breaking the post-WW2 pop ice and singing movie themes. By far her biggest hit is romantic "Plavi dim" (Blue smoke) that actually sound quite nice even today but she does some interesting swing numbers, duets with (who else) Ivo Robić and there is early version of now classic "Kapljice kiše" that I know from covers. 

It was released in a beautiful package called "Zaboravljene zvijezde" ("Forgotten Stars of 50's Pop in Croatia") along with similar CD compilations by Zvonimir Krkljuš and Bruno Petrali, lavishly illustrated booklet and informative liner notes by Siniša Škarica, late Dražen Vrodljak and the whole team of music enthusiasts who were determined to save the memory of this era. It is a sweetly nostalgic, beautiful project.