Welcome, ye all, known and unknown jazz cyber travelers, ye curious knowledge and information seekers, welcome to the "New Deal" Family Page! Who, how, why and why not “New Deal”? Sounds good as an introduction, doesn’t it? I wish I came up with such a well formulated question. Well, I didn’t, but I have friends… so, I paraphrase – with his kind permission - my actor colleague, Davor Svedružić. The Godfather of “New Deal” is the legendary Boško Petrović! Of, course, who else? B.P. is the milestone of my music life, my School and my Academy. B.P. Club has been, through the many years of my professional maturation, my second home, my classroom and my stage. There I fell in love with music and everything that goes with it, that fascinating, irresistible world of musicians. I had to learn so much to become a part of it. I am one of Boško’s faithful “babies” , I regularly make my offerings at his “altar”, that is his “Captain’s Table” at the Club. From this lofty vista I follow all the movements, all the usual suspects whom Boško summons to take the B.P. Club stage and have their moment of fun and fame. Not so strictly, purely jazz stage any more, it is more open and tolerant these days to other modes of musical expression. But still, although it is not an exclusively jazz club, to play and sing there still bears significance and responsibility. All the more, if Boško’s all-seeing eye and all-hearing ear rest relentlessly upon you. So, I do my regular rounds at the Club throughout a season plus I take part every year at the “Hrvatski Jazz Sabor”, which is the Jazz Autumn Festival that Boško organizes. The festival gathers together all the jazz club musicians and by that opens the clubbing season. Such was my routine. And then the summer of 2008 came and I recognized a perfect constellation. All good chances in life reach us, but if we don’t recognize them they pass us by. I stopped mine and made a big step forward in my music development; I wrapped the last twelve years of my professional life spent in the company of the jazz aggregation called “Cool Date” in a silk paper and put them away to the memory box. I call it an “aggregation” because this is what it really was: except for my standing collaborator, the pianist Julije Njikoš and me, the band as such did not really exist. Members would gather and disperse driven by a demand or a “monetary force” of motivation to accept or decline a gig. I had no other option but to accept such a situation although it has been a constant source of frustration which got deeper and deeper with time, until I was overwhelmed by apathy and resignation. I am a social animal and though music for me is an act of creation (every time we play), deliverance and passion it also is an act of socializing, of the cognition of self in the eyes of those who take part in the act. And this is what has always been missing in the “Cool Date”. So, memory box closed shut, I decided to put a new band together. It could be small but it had to be harmonious and – above all – permanent. At least as permanent as anything in life could possibly be. Our first chance to perform came at the “Hrvatski Jazz Sabor” of 2008. Suspicious at my decision to start a new band, Boško asked me whether I had a name for it, he needed it for the festival program schedule. He nailed me there. It was the last thing on my mind then. I just stared at him. He stared back and, not without a certain irony in his voice, fired away, “It’s a New Deal then!” And so it was. Dixi, et animam levavi! A visionary that he was, Boško once again hit the right thing: the name fit perfectly, it got the substance and the meaning. A kind of responsibility, too. Small but united company comprises of Saša Borovec and Hrvoje Galler. And last, but not least, me, Jasna Bilušić. Saša Borovec is our backbone. He is not only a brilliant bass player and an exceptional musician, he is also my close and reliable friend. An irresistible person of nimble spirit, deliciously nutty and an inexhaustible source of optimism and joy. When he is at the peak of inspiration, his ideas and energy are just amazing, as if The Great Manitou Himself possessed him. This phenomenon earned him rightly the name of the Chief Bold Coyote. Hrvoje Galler is a phenomenal pianist and a wonderful, one-of-a-kind guy; sincerely in love with jazz, hard working, modest and self-effacing . Musically, he is “open minded” but always true to his own, unique style that got me at first hearing – subtle, imaginative and brimming with emotion. A real Goldfinger! For the “New Deal” this one has been a wonderful year, the year of the birth of “our sound”, laden with gigs, rehearsals, testing and feelings of various materials, countless coffees, beers, chocolates, talks, phone calls, exchanges of “you must listen to this piece”-s, discussions, professional and private getting to know one another in the hours and hours of playing music in private rooms, rented rehearsal spaces, garages… This, our first CD, “Fifty Ways…” is the result of all of the above. I believe there will be many more to follow.