Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series, featuring Vienna-based jazz vocalist Maja Jaku and producer/drummer Adrian Varady. We caught up with this creative duo in Vienna to talk about their new 2025 album Blessed & Bewitched, how they first connected, their collaborative process, creative dreams, and much more.

This new release is a deeply personal reflection of Maja Jaku’s artistic spirit. Raised in a jazz-rich environment by her trumpet-playing father, and later shaped through her studies at the Graz Conservatory, Maja worked closely with legendary mentors including Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan, Andy Bey, and Jay Clayton. Her voice and vision have evolved through a lifelong devotion to the jazz Legacy continuum.

Joined by a stellar group of musicians, Blessed & Bewitched shines with nuance, swing, and emotional depth. In this conversation, both Maja and Adrian dive into the many facets of creating the album, their musical histories, and the shared vision that brought this project to life.

🎧 Get the album – Blessed & Bewitched

👉 https://originarts.com/recordings/recording.php?TitleID=82934

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Joe Dimino Podcaster/Artist

Joe Dimino has been writing & creating in a variety of capacities since his college days at the University of Missouri-Kansas City somewhere around 1993. If you are keeping score, that would be about 29 years+. It all began at UMKCs University News as a Sports Writer & turned into a myriad of expressive avenues. Inventing poems, art, video & audio has always been in the proverbial cards.