Fatima Spar: Vocals
Milos Todorovski: accordion
Erwin Schober: drums
Philip Moosburger: double bass
Florian Wagner: guitar
Alexander Wladigeoff: trumpet
Philip Yaeger: trombone

A Vienna-based group formed in 2004, Fatima Spar and the Freedom Fries is a Euro-Asian indie jazz band with a Turkish singer that integrates swing and musical styles from the Balkans. Their music encompasses an artistic blend of multiple instruments like trumpet, saxophone, accordion and bass. The band derives its name from the euphemism for French Fries used in the U.S. after the French government’s refusal to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

The group which averages around 100 concerts every year has performed in many renowned concert halls throughout Europe including Notting Hill Arts Club in London, Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as well as leading music clubs in Belgrade and Istanbul.

The lyrics, which find emotion in Fatima Spar’s contemporary jazz voice, are mostly in English and Turkish. Falling somewhere between 1930’s and today’s music, the band’s tunes resemble avant garde artists such as Pink Martini and Paris Combo and yet retain their own individuality.

Some of their most popular songs including Egyptian Ella (a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald), Bosa Noga, Kızılcıklar Oldu Mu, and Kibirli Ceviz are covered in their second album Zirzop and their latest album Trust was recorded in Frankfurt’s renowned Hazelwood Studio. Trust contains a skillful mix of romantic and political songs such as My Little Someone, which tells the story of a great love, and Biting Creepers, which continues with the same theme, depicting love and kisses as best antidotes to hypocrisy.
Fatima Spar has been nominated for the Amadeus Austrian Music Award and the BBC World Music Award, among others, and her band was also the first Austrian band that played in the official program of Womex, the world music expo.