Joseph Ross, Amazon (US)

5-STARS Recorded in Brooklyn, NY, and released on the Washington state-based Origin Records label in 2025, Blessed & Bewitched is a fine introduction to the music of Austria-based singer Maja Jaku. With her intriguing-sounding name and colorful background in her native Kosovo, Maja is sure to stir up interest with her Origin debut. Ostensibly free form jazz filled with a variety of jazz and pop influences, Blessed & Bewitched is tastefully driven by Maja’s strong vocals. In addition, Maja also wrote, or co-wrote, all the music here, so there’s also a spark of originality in her music that is equally enjoyable.

Co-produced by Maja and drummer/percussionist Adrian Varady, Blessed & Bewitched traverses a wide range of vocal-based jazz styles and moods, proving its diversity is its strength. Another element here is the R&B element in the sound of her voice. Moved by Maja’s solid voice, the album gives all the musicians here a strong focal point to not only support her voice but also provides a strong platform to solo. Assisting Maja and co-producer / drummer Adrian Varady is the solid backing of Michael Rodriguez (trumpet), Alan Bartuš (piano), Dezron Douglas (bass), and Johnathan Blake (drums).

Blessed & Bewitched finds Maja’s train-of-thought music guiding the listener through her own personal life experiences. The songs are powerful and relaxed, one obvious exception being “Blessing Will Come”, a good showcase song for the syncopated, punctuated drumming of Adrian Varady. Maja can take credit for writing and/or co-writing much of the music here, with the exception being the final track “Everything Must Change”, written by the late Bernard Ighner and “Never Let Me Go”, written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for singer Nat King Cole in 1956. Time well spent for jazz fans, Blessed & Bewitched is a resounding success from European-based singer-songwriter Maja Jaku.

Thierry De Clemensat, Paris Move (US-FR)

“Blessed & Bewitched”: Maja Jaku finds her voice between tradition and self-discovery.

In many ways, Blessed & Bewitched feels like the kind of album that might have arrived in the late 1980s or early ’90s, a period when jazz singers often sought a delicate balance between reverence for tradition and a hunger for personal reinvention. To be clear, this is not a revolutionary record, nor does it pretend to be. Instead, it is a work of fine craftsmanship, a collection that leans into the familiar textures of that era while weaving in elements of mysticism, longing, and romance.

Maja Jaku, the Montenegrin-born vocalist at the heart of the project, inhabits this space with grace. Her voice, singular in timbre and shaded with a hushed intensity, draws listeners into a private world. Yet one cannot help but feel a tinge of regret at her decision to include several well-known standards rather than relying solely on her own compositions. Given the originality of her instrument, one imagines how compelling a fully personal statement might have been. Perhaps that will come next time.

Jaku’s path into jazz was shaped by both inheritance and discipline. Raised in a household where music was omnipresent, her father was a trumpet player, she later pursued studies at the Conservatory of Graz, where she came under the tutelage of jazz legends like Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan, Andy Bey, and Jay Clayton. That education, steeped in both technical mastery and the art of storytelling, informs every phrase she sings.

Encouraged by drummer Johnathan Blake, Jaku assembled an all-star ensemble for her fifth album, recording in New York with Blake himself, bassist Dezron Douglas, pianist Alan Bartuš, and trumpeter Michael Rodriguez. Musically speaking, the result is a feast. Each player is given room to breathe, offering solos of elegance and fire that elevate the record far beyond the framework of a simple vocal showcase.

What emerges is not unlike the work of today’s most intriguing jazz singers, artists who stretch the definition of what it means to carry a tradition forward. Cécile McLorin Salvant, for example, has redefined the standard songbook with a blend of theatricality and scholarship, while Gretchen Parlato has made intimacy her signature, drawing listeners into songs that feel almost whispered in confidence. Veronica Swift, meanwhile, brings a fearless eclecticism, mixing hard-swinging standards with bold genre-crossing experiments. Jaku does not yet stand fully in their company, but Blessed & Bewitched places her on a similar trajectory: a singer seeking the balance between reverence and individuality.

The true magic occurs when Jaku allows herself to step away from pure technique and embrace the vulnerability of interpretation. In those moments, she becomes less a student of the tradition and more an artist telling her own story. That tension, between discipline and abandon, between polish and raw feeling, animates nearly every track on Blessed & Bewitched.

There is also the subtle challenge of singing in a language not one’s own. It is often in the smallest inflections, the slightest turn of phrase, that an artist’s sincerity is tested. Jaku meets this challenge with quiet conviction, and it is precisely in those fragile details that her success becomes most apparent.

If Blessed & Bewitched does not break new ground, it nonetheless affirms Maja Jaku as a voice worth following. She stands at the threshold of something larger, poised between tradition and the possibility of a fully personal statement. And that next step, when it comes, may well be the album that moves her from promising artist to indispensable one.

Bman, Bman's Blues Report (US)

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Blessed & Bewitched, by Maja Jaku, and its quiet and dynamic. Opening with The Witch, Maja Jaku applies her vocals like drops of silver on the lush piano chords by Alan Bartus. Michael Rodriguez on trumpet really adorns the track nicely with well-conceived lines making for a solid opener. Another quiet track, Lonely Little Fox, has Jaku’s vocal, working nicely on Bartus’s piano and accented by Rodriquez on trumpet, with Dezron Douglas on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums. I love the richness of Bartus’ piano intro on Never Let Me Go and Jaku’s vocals really work nicely with this standard and Rodriguez’s sensuous trumpet work is really outstanding with choice bottom work by Douglas and Blake. Wrapping the release is Everything Must Change, an easy paced ballad with solid balance between Jaku and Bartus on piano. Solid phrasing and choice instrumentation give this release the right balance.

Editor, Skope Magazine (US)

European jazz icon Maja Jaku steps confidently onto the American jazz stage with her fifth studio album, “Blessed and Bewitched.” Recorded in Brooklyn and released on Origin Records, this album is a carefully curated statement; balancing a range of emotional themes across originals and standards.

Intimate and assured in its delivery, Blessed and Bewitched It is not a radical reinvention of the jazz vocal tradition, but rather a deeply felt extension of it. It’s shaped purely on the strength of the ensemble, featuring strong compositions and thoughtful production.

At its core, Blessed & Bewitched is a modern jazz vocal album rooted in classic sensibilities. Jaku’s approach to singing is cinematic and image-driven, and she often phrases with patience, allowing silence and space to heighten the emotional impact. There’s a quiet intensity to her voice that’s sensual without excess, making the album feel contemplative and personal.

The instrumentation reflects a classic jazz quartet-plus configuration, elevated by the caliber of the musicians involved. Jaku’s group is highly responsive, and clearly understands how to frame a vocalist without crowding her. Alan Bartuš’ piano provides harmonic warmth and narrative momentum, while Michael Rodriguez emerges as a key voice on the album; his trumpet lines often acting as a second narrator.

The album opens with “The Witch,” a dark, atmospheric piece that immediately establishes mood. Jaku’s voice is understated but magnetic, drawing the listener in with subtle inflections rather than overt power. It’s a fitting introduction, suggesting mystery and inner strength while setting the album’s tonal palette.

From there, “I’m a Queen” shifts the energy decisively. Built on confidence and determination, the track allows Jaku to stretch rhythmically and emotionally, incorporating moments of scat singing and playful assertion.

The inclusion of standards is handled with care and intention, with “Never Let Me Go” being rendered with warmth and emotional immediacy, as Jaku’s phrasing breathes new life into familiar material. The album closes with “Everything Must Change,” delivered with dramatic pauses and out-of-tempo phrasing that underscore the song’s sense of inevitability and acceptance.

Ultimately, Blessed & Bewitched positions Maja Jaku as a jazz vocalist of depth and discernment. It’s an album that rewards close listening, built on nuance rather than spectacle. This is a well-crafted artistic statement that highlights Jaku’s expressive voice, strong compositional instincts, and ability to lead a world-class ensemble.

Anne Carlini, Exclusive Magazine (US)

For those not in the know, Blessed & Bewitched is a deeply personal reflection of Vienna vocalist Maja Jaku’s artistic spirit. Growing up immersed in the sounds of jazz with her trumpet player father, and later through studies with mentors at the Graz Conservatory — including Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan, Andy Bey and Jay Clayton — Jaku’s art evolved through her life-long devotion to the jazz legacy continuum.

With encouragement from drummer Johnathan Blake, Jaku assembled an extraordinary ensemble to mark this period of her path and recorded this, her fifth album, in New York City along with Blake, bassist Dezron Douglas, pianist Alan Bartuš, and trumpeter Michael Rodriguez. Co-producer/drummer Adrian Varady also performed on a track that he composed.

Jaku invites listeners into this set of five original songs and two classics, providing a journey through a space of reflection, connection, and emotional honesty.

This dutifully crafted and wholly embracing new recording opens on the sumptuously sculpted “The Witch” and the stridently delivered “I’m a Queen” and then we are gifted the veritably crystalline “Lonely Little Fox,” the joyfully embodied “Blessing Will Come,” the breathy beauty of “Never Let Me Go,” the set rounding out on the playfully soulful “Rituals,” closing on the smooth elegance of “Everything Must Change’’

Olivia Peeva, Jazz Blues (EU)

I’ll begin this article with a brief statement: what follows is about an artist whose album I consider the best jazz and jazz-pop record. Her unique voice and poignant, emotional style of singing have made her a well-known and highly respected artist in Europe and around the world.

If you listen to all of Vienna vocalist Maja Jaku’s recordings, it’s easy to notice that from album to album her songs have become more beautiful, deeper, and slightly different. Of course, the most relevant at the moment is her latest album Blessed & Bewitched, which is very intimate and emotionally powerful.

Maja Jaku’s talent lies in areas of intense spiritual tension that have haunted her people for centuries, and whose ghosts still remind her compatriots of the country’s bloody and difficult history. Through her songs and dances, Maja Jaku seems to illuminate the path from the past to the future.

This record came from a desire to leave my comfort zone and realize a long-held dream: to come to the United States and record with musicians I deeply admire. The experience of recording in New York was magical. We recorded at The Bunker Studio, and the environment, the players, the energy — everything was on point. I was able to give a completely authentic part of myself without effort; the sessions felt true and alive. A big part of the inspiration came from Adrian Varady, who contributed two compositions to the album — The Witch and Lonely Little Fox. Adrian’s voice as a composer and performer added a special spark to the project. The whole record grew from that collaboration and from the impulse to create something honest and heartfelt,- an interview with us said Maja Jaku.

A musical Cinderella story – it turns out that to win, you can record an album of high-quality and decent music – and you’ll become Number One.

In reality, everything is much simpler, and there are no calculated manifestations or demonstrations of political correctness here – in fact, Europeans simply love the kind of music that Maja Jaku makes.

And you can accuse the mass consciousness of depravity, limitations, and pop-jazz bias as much as you like, but the fact remains: these people only listen to what they like. And the deeper the roots – the sounds of her father’s jazz trumpet – the higher the heavens above and the brighter the white stars on the multi-colored flag.

Maja Jaku’s album – Blessed & Bewitched – is deep, roots music, where there is real authentic folk, echoes of country, a transparent jazz foundation, and a completely bluesy atmosphere.

Considering that Maja Jaku truly represents an amazing quintessence of the audience’s preferences and received all her awards completely deservedly. While there may not be much innovation in her music – it’s simply very good and sincere pop-blues-soul with jazz vocals.

If, due to a lack of sufficient information, readers still have the same question as the mainstream music press – “So, who is this Maja Jaku?” … Origin Records presents an international vocal talent based in Austria who bridges continents with her artistry and exceptional jazz performances.

Tim Larsen, Jazz Views (UK)

For many American listeners, Blessed & Bewitched will be an introduction to Maja Jaku, a Kosovo-born singer who has already built a strong reputation in Europe. She brings a voice that can be powerful and direct, yet she’s just as comfortable pulling it back to a hushed intensity, shaping phrases carefully and letting the meaning of the lyrics come through. That sense of control traces back to a musical household — her father was a trumpet player — and to her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, where singers like Sheila Jordan, Mark Murphy, Andy Bey, and Jay Clayton took notice of her talent.

For this New York-recorded debut, Jaku put together a strong quartet featuring trumpeter Michael Rodriguez, pianist Alan Bartuš, bassist Dezron Douglas, and drummer Johnathan Blake. It’s a band that listens closely, never crowding the singer or each other.

The album opener, “The Witch,” sets the tone. Piano and bass ease in first, resonant and steady, with light brushwork flickering on the cymbals. When Maja Jaku enters, her voice settled in the middle register, warm and slightly smoky. She stretches words to draw out the emotion, sliding upward when she needs to and adding just a touch of vibrato at the ends of phrases. At times it feels almost spoken, as if she’s letting the listener in on something private. Michael Rodriguez follows with a solo that’s crystal clear, unforced, and as inviting as the vocal that precedes it.

The album moves between originals and two standards. “Never Let Me Go” and “Everything Must Change,” are handled with restraint. “Never Let Me Go,” first sung by Johnny Ace, unfolds at an unhurried pace, accentuating some words, stretching others and sometimes dropping to a near whisper. “Everything Must Change,” written and originally recorded by Bernard Ighner on a Quincy Jones record, can lean toward melodrama, but so did the original. Jaku likes playing with the tempo and she lets silence carry as much weight as the notes.

Blessed & Bewitched is good at varying tempos, moving between ballads, mid-tempo pieces, and upbeat numbers like “I’m a Queen.” Piano and bass set the groove, drums lean in with assured stick work. Jaku’s delivery shifts too — more declarative, a clear “this is how it is.” She scats here, loose but determined, and Rodriguez answers with a solo that’s forceful yet precise, as if he already knows exactly where he’s going. The bass walks with a woody, resonant tone, and Alan Bartuš keeps a rolling rhythm, left-hand chords grounding the tune while his right hand darts off in imaginative runs.

Rodriguez plays an open horn throughout the album, but on “Blessing Will Come” he switches to a mute, and the soft, focused tone matches perfectly with Jaku’s soulful, gospel-inflected delivery. The song rides a repeated bass figure that’s mixed high enough to really let the notes bloom. The tempo sits in a comfortable mid-range groove, and Jaku shapes her phrases with a near-percussive rhythmic instinct.

For a singer new to many American listeners, Maja Jaku makes a striking first impression. Her voice is powerful yet nuanced, and she’s backed by a band that’s sharp, responsive, and endlessly musical. Blessed & Bewitched doesn’t shout — it captivates through the way Jaku inhabits every phrase, making each song feel personal and immediate. She sings as if in conversation, drawing the listener in, and that intimacy, paired with a band that knows exactly how to support her, makes the album impossible to ignore.

Editor, Jazz Journal (UK)

Blessed & Bewitched is Maja Jaku’s most personal and ambitious project, recorded at Bunker Studio, NYC. This all-original album fearlessly explores jazz emotional and spiritual depths raw, transcendent, and poetic. Leading a powerhouse ensemble featuring Johnathan Blake, Adrian Varady, Michael Rodriguez, Alan Bartus and Dezron Douglas, Maja brings her vision vividly to life. The album is a bold statement of authenticity, vulnerability, and uncompromising artistry.

Editor, Women in Jazz Media

A deeply personal, fully original album exploring the emotional and spiritual dimensions of jazz — raw, poetic, and transcendent. Blessed & Bewitched blends five original compositions with two reimagined jazz classics, recorded between New York City and Vienna with an international ensemble. The music bridges the intimacy and elegance of golden-era jazz with a modern, deeply personal sensibility.

The album is not just music—it is a declaration of authenticity, vulnerability, and uncompromising artistry. Maja Jaku is an acclaimed jazz and soul vocalist, composer, and respected university professor whose voice and artistry transcend cultural and musical boundaries. In 1991, she passed the fiercely competitive entrance exam for the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, where she studied under jazz legends Sheila Jordan, Mark Murphy, Andy Bey, and Jay Clayton. These formative years shaped her singular style—a sound rooted in emotional honesty, fearless improvisation, and technical brilliance. Since then, Maja has released several acclaimed albums, collaborated with world-class musicians, and performed across Europe and internationally. In addition to her career as a performer, she is a respected educator at Jam Music Lab University in Vienna, where she mentors the next generation of vocalists. Maja’s artistry has been described as courageous, poetic, and transcendent — a singular voice in contemporary jazz.

Otmar Klammer, Kleine Zeitung (AT)

Maja Jaku’s voice radiates soulful grace and raw honesty — intimate, effortless, and full of depth. A sound that feels timeless, yet strikingly modern — a natural answer to today’s global cool.

Dionizy Piątkowski, Era Jazzu (PL)

Austrian vocalist Maja Jaku sings with power, magic, depth, and a striking emotional range. Her new album ‘Soul Searching’ blends 1970s soul with a Blue Note aesthetic and West Coast groove – a sound both timeless and vibrant.

Jazz Journal (UK), Jazz Journal (UK)

Ms Jaku has a strong, powerful voice which is well-suited to jazz vocals.

Vento Azul, Vento Azul (JP)

Her powerful, soulful, and deeply emotional vocals, combined with the groovy quintet sound reminiscent of Blue Note and the West Coast, lift the listener’s spirits. Her talent conveys positivity, bringing messages of hope, joy, and a better tomorrow.

Jonathan Widran, The JW Vibe (US)

On her intriguingly titled debut American collection Blessed and Bewitched, she shares those magnificent, deeply lived vocal passions and cool soulful strutting with U.S. audience for the first time, artfully collaborating with a creatively intuitive quartet featuring trumpeter Michael Rodriguez, pianist Alan Bartus (a semi-finalist in the Herbie Hancock Piano Competition), bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Jonathan Blake.

With sparse arrangements that let her alternately dusky and exuberant emotional energy take center stage, Jaku builds off the foundations of two beautifully rendered standard ballads (“Never Let Me Go,” “Everything Must Change”) to showcase the immense depth of her artistry as a singer/songwriter of vision via her five originals, including the haunting opener “The Witch,” the confident, defiant and visceral “I’m a Queen” (which also features her intoxicating scat and a lush trumpet solo) and “Blessing Will Come,” a snappy, sashaying burst of optimism that hints towards a vibrant future for the artist.

https://www.jwvibe.com/single-post/maja-jaku-blessed-bewitched

Gabriel Rivera, Indie Boulevard

Jazz criticism has long developed a convenient way of talking about vocal albums — and that way, for all its refinement, has become a trap. We know how to describe technique, school, influences. We know how to construct a genealogy — who studied under whom, who inherited whose intonations, in which city and in which year it all began. This is useful, this is honest, but behind this apparatus we often lose sight of the very thing that makes someone sit down to record an album in 2026 — the desire to say something specific, personal, their own. Maja Jakupovic, who performs under the name MAJA JAKU, represents an interesting case in this regard: her biography is serious enough that critics could occupy themselves entirely with it and never speak of anything else.

Age seven — first festival performances. Adolescence — a move to Austria and an immersion in jazz as a profession rather than a pastime. From 1991 onward — Sheila Jordan, Andy Bey, Jay Clayton as teachers. Three names, each of which pulls behind it an entire tradition of working with the voice, with material, with the contact between singer and room. Add to this a university faculty position — Jakupovic teaches — and the portrait that emerges is almost too correct, almost academically impeccable. Which is precisely why Blessed & Bewitched surprises: the album was made by someone who could have hidden behind school and reputation but chose the opposite direction.

Seven tracks in which the professional armor has been removed deliberately and demonstrably. The voice as an instrument of confession — and that statement is free of any prettiness here, because Jakupovic handles this material without the safety net of skillful interpretation of someone else’s text. This is her album in the most direct sense of the word — not a showcase of abilities, but a conversation in which she says what she thinks, in a voice that knows how to do it.

The chamber ensemble — piano, saxophone, drums, vocals — functions here as a principled decision, and certainly not as a budgetary constraint. Jakupovic trusts the instruments and the voice to carry seven tracks without outside assistance — and that trust is rewarded. The album is structured along an interior arc: from dream through loss and rebirth to something resembling a reconciliation with one’s own desires. This arc is audible in the way the temperature and density of the voice shift from track to track, in how the saxophone holds to the periphery at the start and gradually moves forward, in how the drums are barely audible in the first tracks and by the middle of the album are holding the rhythm with an altogether different confidence.

“The Witch” opens with keys that take up space slowly and without hurry, and Jakupovic‘s voice enters that space organically. The drums exist here at the edge of audibility, creating atmosphere, while the saxophone solo arrives at the right moment and departs just as rightly. The track sets the pace and tone — dreamy, nocturnal, slow.

“I’m A Queen” shifts the temperature with noticeable sharpness. MAJA JAKU‘s voice becomes richer, more demanding; ambition here sounds concrete. The saxophone steps forward and presses — no longer an atmospheric presence, but a full participant in the conversation.

“Lonely Little Fox” is a slow ballad in which MAJA JAKU allows the voice to be vulnerable without making that vulnerability look like a display. Piano and voice occupy very close space, and that closeness is the chief thing that makes the track powerful.

“Blessing Will Come” is the turning point. After two ballads in succession, the album raises its temperature and moves forward with an insistence that was absent from the material before. Jakupovic‘s contralto works here at full capacity, a gravelly saxophone adding texture. The track feels like the point from which the album begins moving in a different direction.

“Never Let Me Go” is the best track on the album. Nostalgia is present, but the album does not flirt with it. The voice climbs into registers that went unused in the preceding tracks, and the range is impressive. The piano and the vocals carry on a separate conversation — one you want to listen to on repeat.

“Rituals” brings the retro atmosphere of the 1920s — reinterpreted rather than copied. The saxophone solo is self-sufficient. The track is the only one on the album that permits itself playfulness, and that is precisely why the playfulness works.

“Everything Must Change” closes the album at the peak of sensuality. The voice draws on the full range accumulated across seven tracks — and this registers as the culmination the album has been building toward from the very beginning.

If Blessed & Bewitched has a structural problem, it is concentrated in the first half. Three slow tracks in succession — “The Witch”, “Lonely Little Fox” — demand patience from a listener who has not yet developed any particular loyalty to MAJA JAKU, if they are encountering her for the first time. The album repays that patience handsomely, but the stakes are high. MAJA JAKU seems to be consciously testing you — are you ready for this conversation, or did you come for something else? Most listeners who make it to “Blessing Will Come” won’t be going anywhere. But those who drop off before that point will do so precisely here, and the album could have avoided this with a different track order. That said, it is exactly this sequence that builds the arc I described above — and to rearrange it for the sake of a more comfortable first listen would be to betray the album’s own logic. Jakupovic chooses logic. It is the right choice.

Blessed & Bewitched is an album that does not open immediately, and it is under no obligation to do so. Maja Jakupovic traveled from a festival stage at age seven through the Austrian jazz school, and somewhere along that road decided that professional distance from her material was no longer an option. The result is a recording that operates on its own terms: chamber, nocturnal, demanding, honest. Albums with such qualities rarely find a wide audience right away. But they stay with the people who find them for a long time — and you want to return to them precisely because each subsequent listen reveals something that passed unnoticed the first time around. Blessed & Bewitched is that kind of album. Jakupovic knew what she was doing when she recorded it — and knew what she was doing when she released it in exactly this form, without concessions toward accessibility. That counts for something.

Source: Indie Boulevard