Gypsy in a Tree is the new installment in a journey that has brought Sanda Weigl from Romania, to East Berlin, to New York and back. The singer is now backed by an all-star, all-Japanese band, but the feel and the repertoire come straight from her Bucharest childhood. Sanda began her career as a child star on Romanian national television, singing Gypsy songs learned from street singers. At age 13, political persecution forced her family to move to East Berlin where she was reunited with her only surviving relative, Helene Weigel, Bertolt Brecht s widow. There, Sanda met Lotte Lenya and studied with Helene. She joined Team 4, East Germany s most famous rock band, and soon became somewhat of a rock star. In the following years, she would be imprisoned as an enemy of the state and expelled to West Germany, where she eventually wound up working with theater legend Robert Wilson. Sanda found her way back into music with the help of the musicians in Tom Waits play Black Rider, who were the first ones to back up her Romanian Gypsy repertoire. Her debut album, recorded in New York, featured downtown luminaries Marc Ribot and Anthony Coleman. This new album takes her back full circle, closer than ever to 1960s Romania.