Festival opener and first time ever!
Gypsy funk grooves from Bucharest to Istanbul

 
ADRIAN GASPAR ORCHESTRA

(Romania/Macedonia/Serbia & Montenegro/Philippines/Austria)

 

 

Adrian C. Gaspar: keyboards
Erhan Mamudoski: clarinet, alto saxophone
Patrick Kummeneker: alto and tenor saxophone
Aynur: electric bass
Goran: drums, percussion
Emran Mustafovski: drums, percussion

 

The sensational debut of a band whose members are all younger than 20 (some considerably younger) but don’t fail to add a high level of musicianship to their passion for letting it fly. Under the stewardship of 18 year old jazz pianist, arranger and composer Adrian Gaspar, a big band has formed in the Musikgymnasium Neustiftgasse whose core are Austrian Roma with a Balkanic background . They enhance hot Gypsy-Mahala grooves from Bucharest to Istanbul with a worldly funk-jazz. Their biggest role model is the Turkish Roma-band Laço Tayfa. A hot musical evening and stunning debut is expected.

 

Friday, 21. April 2006
8:00 p.m.

(( SZENE WIEN ))

Hauffgasse 26
1110 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 749 33 41
Tickets: € 12,–/ € 13,50/ € 15,–
www.szenewien.com

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Sensation no 2: The Three Superstars of the Balkan-Jazz Accordion

RALCHEV/CARSTENSEN/LUBENOV

(Bulgaria/Norway)

 

Peter Ralchev: Akkordeon

 

 

Stian Carstensen: Akkordeon

 

 

Martin Lubenov: Akkordeon

 

 

The three greatest virtuosos and innovators as well as whimsical players (let’s just call them the cocktail-party dandies) of the Balkan accordion come together exclusively for Balkan Fever. Peter Ralchev (ZigZag-Trio), Stian Carstensen (Farmer’s Market) and Martin Lubenov (Jazzta Prasta) have, each in his own way, made Bulgarian accordion music part of an internationally acclaimed ethno-jazz genre without sacrificing  smartness, irony and levity. They manage at the same time to respect the pathos and archaic dignity of the complex Southeastern folk tradition while unlacing its peasant’s costume with all the tricks and knacks of jazz improvisation.
A concert experience which will be hard to forget: intense and sexy, unimaginably complicated rhythms, breathtaking melody loops and witty improvisational duels.

 

Saturday, 22. April 2006
8:00 p.m.

PORGY & BESS

Riemergasse 11
1010 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 512 88 11
Tickets: € 15,–
www.porgy.at

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Balkanic Northern Lights

FARMER´S MARKET

(Norway/Bulgaria)

 

Stian Carstensen: accordion, guitar, banjo, tambura
Trifon Trifonov: saxophone, clarinet
Finn Guttormsen: upright bass, electric bass
Nils Olav Johansen: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals
Jarle Vespestad: drums, percussion

 

 

The day after his performance with Lubenov and Ralchev, Stian Carstensen will present his own band Farmer’s Market. Yes, Balkan music has its most western outpost in Norway, and one of its most original and inventive at that.With impudent joy Farmer’s Market indulge in plundering raids of all possible musical genres: musette, tango, heavy metal rock, bebop, ragtime, bossa nova… and much, much more. No matter what musical balls they juggle, a serious relationship to Bulgarian music paired with boundless wit never fails to be detectable in their incomparable sound which owes a lot to Bulgarian master musician Trifon Trifonow on clarinet and saxophone.

 

Sunday, 23. April 2006
8:00 p.m.

PORGY & BESS

Riemergasse 11
1010 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 512 88 11
Tickets: € 15,–
www.porgy.at

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Ajvar & Sterz – CD-Presentation

NATAŠA MIRKOVIĆ-DE RO & MATHIAS LOIBNER

(Bosnia & Herzegovina/Styria)

 

Nataša Mirković-De Ro: vocals
Mathias Loibner: hurdy-gurdy

 

 

Nataša Mirković-De Ro, opera, jazz, and rock singer and ethnomusicologist from Sarajevo, together with Mathias Loibner, one of Europe’s most innovative hurdy-gurdy players and founder of the band Deishovida, present their CD “Ajvar & Sterz”. They met at the Sandy Lopičić Orkestar, to date a two-time participant in Balkan Fever. This will be their second appearance on stage at Porgy & Bess since last December when their smart and powerful performance secured them the WORLD MUSIC FÖRDERPREIS. Expect a memorable evening!

Tuesday, 25. April 2006
21 Uhr

PORGY & BESS

Riemergasse 11
1010 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 512 88 11
Tickets: € 15,–
www.porgy.at

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BALKAN SESSION at PORGY & BESS

Led by ALEXANDER & KOSTADIN WLADIGEROFF

(Bulgaria)

 

BALKAN FEVER takes the opportunity to feature at the usual Wednesday jazz session the particularly high number of excellent and creative musicians of Southern European descent among Austrian jazz musicians. Hitherto operating in parallel Balkanic universes, musicians from Bulgaria and Former Yugoslavia are now collaborating more frequently.

 

Wednesday, 26. April 2006
9:00 p.m.

PORGY & BESS

Riemergasse 11
1010 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 512 88 11
Tickets: € 5,–
www.porgy.at

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The King of Lautari

ANATOL STEFANET & TRIGON

(Moldavia)

 

Anatol Stefanet Folk Orchestra
Anatol Stefanet: viola
Edgar Stefanet: accordion
Andrei Prohnitchi: pan flute
Valeriu Boghean: trumpet, kaval, ocarina
Ion Croitoru: upright bass
Sandu Sura: cymbalon
Gari Tverbohleb: drums
Dorel Burlacu: harmonica

Trigon:
Anatol Stefanet: viola, vocals
Dorel Burlacu: keyboards, piano, harmonica
Gari Tverdohleb: saxophone, trumpet, kaval, flügelhorn, transverse flute, shepherd’s flutes, vocals
Valeriu Bogheanu: drums, percussion, xylophone

 

Anatol Stefanet has the distinction of being the greatest virtuoso folk musician and at the same time most creative ethno-jazzman of his homeland Moldavia. He comes from one of the most important clans of the so-called “Lautari”- travelling wedding musicians from Moldavia and Northern Rumania. At the Sargfabrik this master of the viola and his Folk Ensemble will first feature fiery folk tradition and then showcase one of the most interesting ethno-jazz projects of our time with his quartet Trigon.

 

Thursday, 27. April 2006
8:00 p.m.

SARGFABRIK

Goldschlaggasse 169
1140 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 988 98 111
Tickets: € 22,–
www.sargfabrik.at

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CD release party: Deladap meets Besch O Drom

!DELADAP

(Austria/Hungary/Slovakia/Serbia & Montenegro)

 

!DelaDap:

Stani Vana: turntables
Tibor Barkoczy: keyboards
Melinda Stojka: vocals
Stefan Banyak: violin
Aleksandar „Aca“ Stojić: guitar

Besh O Drom:
Gergo Barcza: saxophone, kaval
László Békési: saxophone
Géza Orczy: percussion

At the turntables:
Felix Haaksman (Haaksman&Haaksman, Berlin)
Stani Vana (!DelaDap)
Dunkelbunt
Balkan Hot Step

 

What began four years ago as a project idea in the studio of producer Stani Vana and then, driven by his creative impulses, developed into a trio, and lately into a seven-piece live ensemble, is spreading fast to become a world music platform for Gypsy-roots. Nu-Gigpsy, the band calls its sound: Sinti and Roma songs stretch themselves in a gently rocking hammock knotted with dub, soul, electronic and downbeats.
In the Ost Klub they present their new CD “Dela Paji” with a furious release party. As guests, they invite famous DJs from within the scene and musicians from the Budapest
superband, Besh O Drom (who appeared at Balkan Fever in 2004).

 

Friday, 28. April 2006
8:30 p.m. – Live-CD-Presentation
11:00 p.m. – !DelaDapCLUB

OST KLUB
(ex Atrium)

Schwindgasse 1
1040 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 505 62 28
www.ost-klub.at

Tickets:
ab 20 Uhr: € 13,–
ab 22:30 Uhr: € 10,–

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KRIES

(Croatia)

 

 

Mojmir Novaković: vocals
Ivo Letunić: Lijerica, bass guitar
Krešimir Oreški: percussion
Andor Vegh: bagpipes
Davor Batisweiler: DJ

“Mojmir Novaković i Kries have a rare gift of getting deep into the essence of (traditional) songs. Their concerts are passionate rituals in which even people with less imagination can easily travel through the space and time.”

                                                                        Denis Derk (Večernji list)

 

With his band Legen Mojmir Novaković has already fused a reconstructed archaic Croatian folklore with electronic beats and ambient sound-textures, marrying the exceptionally old to the completely new. Since Legen retired in 2002, Novaković inched even closer towards his vision of an Ur-Croation-Early Middle Ages- shaman -dancefloor music with his band Kries. The magic-ritual archaisms bring to mind Scandinavian bands like Hedningarna and Hoven Troven. Kries’s musical ambition is universal in nature and harks back to a time when ethnic identities between Venice, Istria, Dalmatia, Pannonia and Bosnia were less rigidly fixed than nowadays.

Saturday, 29. April 2006
8:00 p.m.

JOE ZAWINUL’S BIRDLAND

Am Stadtpark 1 (Entrance Landstraßer Hauptstr. 2)
1030 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 588 85
Tickets: € 20,–
http://www.birdland.at
www.kries.info

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NEDYALKO NEDYALKOV & IKADEM ORCHESTAR

(Bulgaria)

 

Nedyalko Nedyalkov: kaval, vocals
Venelina Hadjieva: vocals
Minko Lambov: piano
Radi Dankov: bass
Ventzislav Radev: drums

 

Lovers of the elegant sound and good looks of the shepherd’s flute, the kaval, who like the breathtaking jazz-experiments of Theodosii Spassov, won’t be disappointed with the music of Nedyalko Nedyalkov. He is playing in the top league of Bulgarian Ethno-jazz, having worked with Stoyan Yanloulov, Ivo Papasov, Milcho Leviev, Yildiz Ibrahimova and many others. He has been a member of the Irish Riverdance orchestra and used to play with the Norwegian band extraordinaire, Farmer’s Market (at Porgy & Bess on April 22), and guests on Nenad Vasilić’s new CD “Blood & Honey” (CD presentation on Mai 12 at Porgy & Bess).
The music of his band of young bloods, IKADEM, tends towards Latin and classical idioms, as well as twelve-tone, electronic and serial music.

 

Attention !!!

The venue has been changed. Instead in Porgy&Bess the event has been moved in OST CLUB !!!

 

Sunday, 30. April 2006
9:00 p.m.

OST KLUB
(ex Atrium)

Schwindgasse 1
1040 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 505 62 28
Tickets: € 15,–
www.ost-klub.at
www.nedyalkov.org

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MISTAKEMISTAKE

(Serbia & Montenegro/Slovenia)

 

Ivan Bon: Samples, Grooveboxes
Edi Bon: Effects, Mix
Milovan “Minja” Bošković: Voice
Zoe Kidah (aka Ana Janković): Voice
Constracta (aka Ana Ignjatović): Voice
Shobaya (aka Nebojša Andjelković): Voice

DJ Line: Sugar B, Sweet Susie & Gümix

In Belgrade, Mistakemistake and their electric, electrifying mixture of ragga, reggae and garage-2step (hip-electro-ragga-2-hop-reggae-step the band calls it) are the kings of the clubbing scene and have topped all the charts in their native country, Serbia. Brothers Ivan and Edi Bon started their project in 1997, their first single released by the Austrian label Masterplan. Mistakemistake thrive as a team of accomplished individuals, each one showing an impressive artistic biography. Singer Elena Lange has close connections to the Hamburg band Stella.

 

Monday, 1. May 2006
11:00 p.m.

FLEX

Am Donaukanal/Abgang Augartenbrücke
1010 Vienna
Tel. +43 (01) 533 75 25
Tickets: € 10,–
http://www.flex.at

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VLATKO STEFANOVSKI, MIROSLAV TADIĆ & THEODOSII SPASSOV

(Macedonia/Serbia & Montenegro/Bulgaria)

 

 

 

Not just the musicians’ illustriousness will make these two concerts highlights of this year’s Balkan Fever Festival. Of interest will be the diverse audience this line up might attract: First, three different ethnic communities, then among the former Yugoslavs many a rock fan, among the Bulgarians many jazz enthusiasts; plus connoisseurs of acoustic guitar music and aficionados of subtle world and jazz music fusion.The line up: Vlatko Stefanoski, formerly leader of the Macedonian band Leb i Sol and most important Yugoslav rock guitarist. Miroslav Tadić, internationally acclaimed concert guitarist playing everything from ethnic to jazz and classical music, and  Theodosii Spassov, ethno-jazz pioneer on the kaval (a shepherd’s flute). Together they rework traditional themes from Serbia to Anatolia into intricate, melodically beautiful suites incorporating improvisational charges and technical finesse of arrangement.

 

Tuesday, 2. May, und Wednesday, 3. May 2006
8:00 p.m.

JOE ZAWINUL’S BIRDLAND

Am Stadtpark 1 (Entrance Landstraßer Hauptstr. 2)
1030 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 588 85
Tickets: € 20,–/€ 25,–
http://www.birdland.at 
www.vlatkostefanovski.com.mk

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BRANKICA VASIĆ alias VASILISA

(Serbia & Montenegro/Macedonia/Lebanon)

 

Brankica Vasić: vocals
Vasil Hadzhimanov: piano, keyboardsToni Kitanovski: electric guitar, tamburaDragan Banović: accordion
Hustref Said: quanun
Asan Rashid: trumpet

Possible Guests:
Members of the Čerkezi Orchestra
Bachar Khalife (Lebanon): percussion  
Aleksandar Petrov (Macedonia): percussion

 

 

Brankica Vasić is (aside from Biljana Krstić) possibly the only Serbian chanteuse who steered clear of pop-musical shallows and stodgy academicism in her interpretation of the old songs and became a star nonetheless (or maybe because of it?). She was first vocalist for Goran Bregović’s Ensemble; her song « Dreams » from the soundtrack of Emir Kusturica’s « Arizona Dream » topped the French charts for several months. Her voice appeared in Patrice Chéreau’s film « La Reine Margot » and in  « Saviour », the war drama directed by Pedrag Antonijević (produced by Oliver Stone). Brankica Vasić was a member of Sanja Iljić’s Ensemble Balkanika and is a sought-after vocalist for the top Serbian ethno- and jazz bands.
She will sing only songs from Kosovo and Macedonia, together with her carefully picked accompanists, among them her son-in-law Vasil Hadzimanov (Serbia’s number one jazz pianist) and the Macedonian jazz guitarist Toni Kitanovski. Kitanovski will take the stage again a day later in the Szene Wien with his Gypsy brass band Cherkezi. Individual members of this orchestra are expected to guest at Vasilia’s performance.

Thursday, 4. May 2006
9:00 p.m.

PORGY & BESS

Riemergasse 11
1010 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 512 88 11
Tickets: € 15,–
www.porgy.at

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TONI KITANOVSKI & CHERKEZI

(Macedonia)

 

Toni Kitanovski: electric guitar
Cherkezi Rashid: trumpet
Asan Rashid: trumpet
Ali Rashid: alto saxophone
Vilhen Mamudov: tuba
Sefer Ismailov: tupan
Aleksandar “Sascha” Sekulovski: drums

The musical genius of the Rashids spans more than three generations and is the core of the band Cherkezi from the Gypsy-Mahala of Skopje. The group is named after its patriarch, founder and feistiest member, Cherkezi Rashid. Toni Kitanovski studied at the renowned Berkelee College of Music in Boston and used to be a regular in New York’s and Boston’s jazz scene. Returned to Macedonia, he now is the “good soul” of the local jazz scene, participates in the all-star orchestra “Balkan Winds” and functions as guiding spirit of Cherkezi, by now thanks to him well versed in playing Mingus and Satie. The outcome is a feverish, scarily high-class amalgam, combining the best from the Balkanic Orient with a timeless and world-savvy chic, all the while steadily propelled forward by Toni’s funky guitar riffs. A most unusual and very grooving music experiment from the Balkans.

 

Friday, 5. May 2006
8:00 p.m.

(( SZENE WIEN ))

Hauffgasse 26
1110 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 749 33 41
Tickets: € 12,–/ € 13,50/ € 15,–
www.szenewien.com

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Pan-Balkanic guitar-jazz

ARMEND XHAFERI & MARIMANGA GROUP

(Kosova/Bosnia & Herzegovina/Croatia/Slovenia) 

 

Armend Xhaferi: E-Gitarre
Saša Mutić : Piano
Enes Seferović: Kontrabass
Juke Pukl: Saxophon
Marco Quarantotto: Drums

 

A whole week before he’ll take the stage as guitarist for the Nenad Vasilić Balkan Band (CD presentation on May 12 at Porgy & Bess) Armend Xhaferi from Prishtina/Priština will present his own CD at Ost Klub. It’s high time this 29-year old maestro of the electric guitar finds as wide an audience as possible, not just because he builds his compositions mainly on the foundation of an Albanian tradition and thus infuses Balkan Jazz with a culturally important injection, but more so due to his incomparable style of guitar playing, entirely his own and beyond all ethnic restraints.
For his CD “Marimanga Trio” -by now already a year old - he managed to recruit Bojan Zulfikarpašić, most venerated of all the “fathers” of Balkan Jazz. When not transferring John Coltrane standards into a 7/8 meter, he unfurls his compositional imagination and captivates with a technique at once so artful and fleet-footed as to invoke an orientalized John Scofield- if compare we must.
A stormy Kosovar-Macedonian session will wrap up the evening, augmented by Toni Kitanovski and his Gypsy brass band Cherkezi (the day before at Szene Wien) as well as singer Irina Karamarković (Sandy Lopičić Orkestar). Go for it!

 

Saturday, 6. May 2006
9:30 p.m.

OST KLUB
(ex Atrium)

Schwindgasse 1
1040 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 505 62 28
Tickets: € 15,–
www.ost-klub.at

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The Godmother of the 2nd District

LJUBINKA JOKIĆ & OTTO LECHNERS WINDHUND ORCHESTER

(Bosnia & Herzegovina/Austria/Croatia/Serbia & Montenegro/Brazil)

 

Ljubinka Jokić: vocals, electric guitar
Otto Lechner: piano
Matthias Jakišić: fiddle
Christoph Petschina: double bass
João de Bruçó: percussion, drums
Peter Rosmanith: percussion, drums
Marko Marušić: guitar

It didn’t remain a secret for long that Ljubinka Jokić serves Vienna’s best Cevapčići at her Pomali-grill at Gaussplatz. Last spring her customers were floored, though, when the tough hostess from Banja Luki (Bosnia) buckled on her electric guitar and started to jam with Otto Lechner. She revealed a powerful Yugo-soul voice so sublime as to make one wonder if a world star had to bide her time for seven long years as grill proprietor in the witness protection program. And indeed, for some time she has been singing and playing guitar. Taking the stage at Porgy & Bess with Otto Lechner and his Windhund Orchester, she’ll perform traditional songs, Roma-chansons from the Balkans to Russia, Yugo-pop-rock classics from the 70s and 80s, plus songs from Josipa Lisac, Vlatko Stefanovski, Ljiljana Petrović (aka Buttler) and Šaban Bajramović.

Sunday, 7. May 2006
9:30 p.m.

PORGY & BESS

Riemergasse 11
1010 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 512 88 11
Tickets: € 15,–
www.porgy.at

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LAKIS & ACHWACH

(Greece/Turkey/Austria/Germany/Liechtenstein)

 

Lakis Jordanopoulos: vocals, guitar
Antonis Vounelakos: classical guitar, MIDI guitar
Hakan Gürses: vocals, oud, guitar, transverse flute
Hartmut Kamm: electric guitar
Manfred Balacz: saxophone, flute
Herwig Thöny: bass guitar, frettless- and  double bass
Yıldırim Fakilar: percussion
Jusuf Topcu: drums

“Those at the bottom of the sea fear no longer getting wet. They drink saltwater, water of the Mediterranean. Who is not afraid of getting burnt? The combusted?”

Many here know Lakis Jordanopoulos as anchor of the TV program “Heimat, fremde Heimat”. By the mid-80s he and his band Lakis & Achwach already wrote Austrian world music history. Gradually he supplanted tourist clichés his audience might have harbored about Greek music with the knowledge about an independent and thoroughly modern Greek music.
His neo-rebetiko is assembled by an interesting band, mixing not just different ethnic pedigrees but also various music genres: from flamenco and oriental to rock and jazz.

Wednesday, 10. May 2006
8:00 p.m.

JOE ZAWINUL’S BIRDLAND

Am Stadtpark 1 (Entrance Landstraßer Hauptstr. 2)
1030 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 588 85
Tickets: € 18,–
http://www.birdland.at
www.lakis-achwach.com

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AMIRA & BAND

(Bosnia & Herzegovina)

 

Amira: vocals
Kim Burton: piano, accordion, kaval
Slobodan Stančić: violin
Ješenko Krpo: guitar
Gordan Kranjčić: percussion
Marko Jakovljević: bass guitar

“…Anyone familiar with that timeless Portuguese emotion known as saudade will detect a similar sense of longing and nostalgia in the sevdah tradition of the Sarajevo-born singer Amira. “
Clive Davis (Times online)

Amira from Sarajevo is considered to be the great hope for the Bosnian Sevdalinka, those richly ornamented, mostly urban love songs, loved and sung by all ethnic groups in Bosnia and less threatened by the war itself, it seems, than menaced by folk pop. She salvages the original spirit of these songs for the 21st century, infusing them gently, but assuredly with contemporary elements. She is an optimistic survival of that cosmopolitan modern Sarajevo which now only survives in traces. That it is she who wraps the old Sevdalinka in a timeless, velvety beauty with her fantastic voice is a kind of preemptive strike against the possible provincialization of Sarajevo.
In her band, by the way, is Kim Burton, former member of Working Week, co-founder of 3Mustaphas3 and in her capacity as music journalist the perhaps most versed authority of Balkan Music (Rough Guide to World Music, Songlines etc.).

Thursday, 11. May 2006
8:00 p.m.

SARGFABRIK

Goldschlaggasse 169
1140 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 988 98 111
Tickets: € 25,–
www.sargfabrik.at

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“Blood & Honey“ – CD presentation

NENAD VASILIĆ BALKAN BAND

(Serbia & Montenegro/Kosova/Bulgaria/Austria)

 

Nenad Vasilić: double bass
Vladimir Karparov: saxophone
Armend Xhaferi: guitar, electric guitar
John Hollenbeck: drums

"There's a palpable sense of joy in the face of great sorrow, optimism despite a series of crushing defeats, and a real beauty that can be terrible and magnificent simultaneously."
                                                                                                            Jazz Steps

 

Balkan jazz is a fairly young phenomenon, sired by a handful of progenitors. One of its youngest fathers is Nenad Vasilić. With his “Balkan Band” he drew ever deeper from the well of Balkanic tradition while exploring and transgressing the boundaries of adaptive possibilities. In addition he experiments with quartertones, South American and Oriental rhythms and sounds. His incomparable sensitive double bass playing is in equal parts painfully melancholic and blithely cheerful within the same bar, even in the same tone.
While “Balkan Band’s” first two CDs, “Folk Songs” and “Joe Jack”, were of a somewhat melancholic and contemplative temperament, the new CD “Honey & Blood” bursts with optimism and life-affirmation, like a sunny morn after years of raging storms and restless searching- not a happy ending but a promising step towards the further evolution of Balkan jazz.

 

Friday, 12. May 2006
9:00 p.m.

PORGY & BESS

Riemergasse 11
1010 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 512 88 11
Tickets: € 15,–
www.porgy.at
 

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The Ivo Papasov of Bulgarian Gypsy Violin

GEORGI YANEV & THE ORPHEUS ORCHESTRA

(Bulgaria)

 

Georgi Yanev: violin
Pepa Yaneva: vocals
Toncho Tonev: accordion
Orlin Pamukov: clarinet
Dimitar Stanev: piano
Ventzislav Ivanov: percussion

 

“He is an exceptional musician – a paragon for all folk music violinists.”

                                                                                                        Peter Ralchev

“It is almost impossible to describe the music what I've heard from the Orpheus band. I can only give you an idea by making comparison. The Georgi Yanev violin is something in between the violins of Jean-Luc Ponty and Lakshminarayana Shankar, maybe because Bulgaria is somewhere in the middle of the way between France and India.”

                                                                                                        Milen Panayotov

When Gypsy violinist Georgi Yanev, together with Peter Ralchev (on April 22 at Porgy & Bess), founded the Orpheus Orchestra in 1978 at the Plovdiv School of Music, the world witnessed the beginning of a unique musical development which came to be admired worldwide as “Bulgarian exceptionalism”. First Yanev and Ralchev infiltrated the standardized state folklore, insinuating the impetuous outbursts of Gypsy Wedding Band music into it- back then very much frowned upon by officialdom. Then they worked their way ever closer towards jazz.

Georgi Yanev may be called- just as Anatol Stefanet in the case of Moldova (on April 27 at the Sargfabrik) - the greatest virtuoso and most brilliant innovator of the Bulgarian violin. Jazz-phrasings are just ingredients in his music which experiments largely within the boundaries of the traditional idiom.

He tells meticulously crafted stories on his instrument. And he bedazzles not for effect’s sake but with his artistic originality, confirming ever anew his status as a Bulgarian cultural icon.

 

 

 

Saturday, 13. May 2006
9:00 p.m.

PORGY & BESS

Riemergasse 11
1010 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 512 88 11
Tickets: € 15,–
www.porgy.at

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MAHALA RAÏ BANDA

(Romania)

 

Aurel Ionita: violin, vocals
Sorin Constantin: vocals, clarinet
Bosnea Aurel: baritone horn
Oprica Aurel: trumpet
Mihail Enache: darbuka
Tudor Marian: electric bass
Dinu Marian: drums
Marian Enache: accordion
Cantea Cristinel: trumpet
Cantea Giorgiel: bass horn

Mahala Rai Banda from Bucharest caused a sensation in Western Europe, and not just with their clubbing hit “Iest Sexy” (You are Sexy!). How appropriate then to have them at our festival. The Wallachian Taraf-tradition (consisting of psychopathically speeding fiddles, accordions and cimbalons) and Fanfare-tradition (brass!!) are crosswired with oriental-pop (Turkish and Arabic), Serbian and Bulgarian pop and folk, latin-jazz, dancefloor elements, ragga, ska and toasting- the Jamaican variant of rap. The resulting jolt is a superhot urban dance music that brings together once again the influences from three old Roma centers- Rio, Bucharest and Istanbul. Several former members of the legendary Taraf de Haïduks seeded Rai Banda and brought players from Moldavian military bands on board. The grandkids of Gypsy fiddle great and Taraf founder Nicolae Neascsu from the village of Clejani in Wallachia grew up in the slums of Bucharest amongst crime, violence and wild, life-affirming music- and they have chosen the latter.

 

Sunday, 14. May 2006
8:00 p.m.
 

(( SZENE WIEN ))

Hauffgasse 26
1110 Vienna
Tel.: +43 (01) 7493341
Tickets: € 16,–/€ 18,–/€ 20,–
www.szenewien.com