Nina Spirova

Very excited by my newest discovery - these music discoveries are nothing truly new, of course, its just that I love to play around with my adventures in music archeology and occasionally there is excellent voice that was completely unknown to me and deserves to be celebrated. Nina Spirova (also known as Нина Спирова) is naturally well-known in her native Macedonia, because she was always recognized there as outstanding singer and in fact Macedonians were often sending her as their representative to than-famous pop festivals in Opatija and such - her name can be found along with any of the performers on these wonderful old LP albums. To be honest, I did noticed her on festival Opatija '62 but later she slipped off my radar and I assumed she probably stopped singing - to my surprise, there is a small but impressive discography and apparently she actually got better with time.

"Pastirica" was the title of cute, little EP released by PGP RTB where Spirova was backed with elegant, almost classical orchestra conducted by wonderful Ilija Genić, the man I remember from some other releases from early 1960s - every time you hear sophisticated arrangements on PGP RTB records it was usually Genić behind them and his orchestrations were magnificent. It might sound a little strange to today's listeners but Mexican music was very popular back than and pop singers were expected to play the game so Spirova heroically weeps trough Mexican original Pastora and emotes trough the rest very much like Italian singer Milva (so much that it could be said that Spirova was Macedonian Milva). Very much time capsule of early 1960s pop music, this is little curiosity but best is yet to come.

Again Mexican music and some romantic Latin American melodies cushioned in dreamy orchestration courtesy of excellent Ansambl Milana Kotlića and Spirova sings like a dream, this time using more intimacy and less weeping. You can't go wrong with titles like "Amor, amor, amor" and "Besame Mucho" although it does make you think that popular music of Ex Yu was seriously very much behind what was going around in the world around 1964 - this could easily have been recorded a good decade earlier. There is one original ("Pelisterske oči") very much in style of Bolero and is very good example that Macedonian composers could easily rise to occasion and be as good as anybody in bigger cities.

Spirova was well served by Belgrade's PGP RTB where they usually gave her first rate orchestras and conductors, like in this case Ansambel Mojmira Sepeta who was more known for his Jazz recordings. You would expect that this kind of backing will result with some at least step towards Jazz but apparently guys at PGP RTB were happy to present Spirova as romantic, torch singer and once you get over cover of cowboy song by Caterina Valente the rest are smoldering ballads, very much of their time and only singer's voice lifts this above usual mid-1960s production. She was really excellent singer, though.

Now we are talking - this compilation, released in 2002 has majority of now-classic Jazzy late-night recordings by wonderful Nina Spirova, previously never available on album. Judging by the orchestrations and sound of her voice, this was not 1960s Spirova but later, mature singer who was truly at the peak of her powers and had the best of Macedonian songwriters composing for her. Most of these people I never heard of (Gjoko Georgiev, Ljubomir Brandjolica, Hristo Krstevski, Dimitar Masevski) but it reminds me of all those great, sophisticated pop composers I heard behind Elda Viler in Slovenia and how impressed I was with their work, it was truly an exciting discovery and this is very much same thing but in Macedonia. Just like in the case with Viler, Spirova was simply too good for pop music and since her repertoire was not commercial one both ladies never had proper album back than. You listen this today and marvel at the level of elegance and inspiration behind these recordings, can't help but wondering how did they live amongst their commercially minded contemporaries who left them in the dust behind. Pure poetry. Respect.

Who finally released Spirova's first proper LP album but RTL from Slovenia - you couldn't get much further from her native Macedonia - and this is not a collection of her sophisticated pop but true Macedonian traditional folk. It might sound as a gimmick, but since Spirova could sing anything and everything (check her Mexican recordings from 1960s) she was talented enough to easily adopt to this genre, in fact she is brilliant. Cover photo might be a little silly with that obvious blonde wig but don't let this fool you, the music inside is beautiful and deeply soulful. Spirova is backed with two different bands and her singing is truly magnificent, you can feel that this is music close to her heart. 

By 1984 Spirova was approaching 50 and as veteran she was probably far from being relevant in current pop music, although her voice was still magnificent. Considering who were hit makers at the time, Spirova found comfort zone in traditional folk music and this album was actually released by prestigious Croatian "Jugoton" who probably saw commercial worth in going for Macedonian folk music as sung by one of the greatest Macedonian voices. There is absolutely nothing wrong with titles like "Ajde Slušaj, Slušaj, Kaleš Bre Anđo", "Zajdi, Zajdi, Jasno Sonce", "Kaži, Kaži, Libe Stano" or my favorite "Belo lice ljubam jas" except that it makes me worry why such excellent singer was not given chance to sing different type of music, since she was still in excellent voice. The interview from this time finds her singing in restaurants and such, grateful for still having offers to perform and explaining herself to bewildered journalists who found this below someone of her reputation. Gigs were still gigs and they paid the rent, claimed Spirova. Whatever circumstances were behind this album, the music is first rate traditional Macedonian folk and Spirova had nothing to be ashamed of. It is actually worthy sequel to her previous folk album. But we know that she was also singing different type of music and was brilliant in it.