Balkan Music & Dance Festival June 1!!

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Juliana Graffagna

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May 10, 2012, 2:50:21 PM5/10/12
to Janam-Events, Black-Olive-Events
Greetings Friends,
    Please join Janam, The Helladelics & Brass Menažeri Friday, June 1 for a very special evening of Balkan music and dancing on the lovely island of Alameda. This event is part of Rhythmix Cultural Works' Island Arts Series and it will be a full evening of music and merry-making in a beautiful venue with an enormous dance floor. Buy your tickets now! Bring your friends, your family, & your dancing shoes and we hope to see you there!

Juliana, Gari, Dan, Tom and Peter

Friday, June 1
Rhythmix Island Arts Presents:
Balkan Music & Dance Festival featuring Janam, The Helladelics & Brass Menažeri
Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda, CA
7:00pm dance lesson
7:30-11:30pm live music and dancing
$15 advance, $20 at the door, $10 students
$30 includes Mediterranean dinner from Little House Cafe
Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/242506

All ages welcome!

Janam (“My Soul”), led by golden-throated Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble veteran Juliana Graffagna,Janam proves that the foothills of the Balkans and the Appalachians lie in Oakland.Janam’s funky meters, bittersweet modes, driving tunes, and sultry ballads invoke the nightingales and dark eyes, the hot love and cold hollows of Europe and America’s most musical mountains. Janam unites the Bay Area's most imaginative and devoted practitioners of Balkan & Near Eastern music, to follow the universal threads of folk songs of disparate traditions. The resulting music is transcendent, sensuous and irresistible. http://www.janamband.com

The Helladelics create richness and grit, low gears and deep grooves of mostly traditional Greek dance and trance tunes. Captivating melodies, driving rhythms and passionate improvisations drive the hypnotic, bluesy material of Epirus, upbeat dance tunes from Thrace, lilting songs of the islands with a taste of Armenia and Turkey. Four familiar Bay Area musicians make up this ensemble: soulful clarinetist Mary Farris, laouto-strummer extraordinaire Tom Farris, Gari Hegedus on the rippling violin and oud, and velvet-voiced Michele Simon with her percolating percussion. http://www.helladelics.com

Brass Menazeri (pronounced "Menagerie") is the San Francisco Bay Area's ultra-hip Balkan Romani ("Gypsy") powerhouse Brass Band. Soulful vocals & hot improvisations fuel the band’s performance with funky infectious beats—toes tap, bodies slam, sweat flies as vital energy radiates from the dance floor. The Brass Menazeri is a shining example of traditional Balkan repertoire combined with new sensibilities, innovative arrangements & original compositions at the hands & lips of American devotees. Reimagining traditional Balkan songs with rock beats, funk bass and inspirations from Bosnia to Bollywood are a trademark of the Brass Menazeri’s approach to exploring new sounds. Director, Peter Jaques and his bandmates have travelled extensively around the former Yugoslavia, discovering brass festivals, expanding musical traditions and creating signature compositions of their own. Brass Menazeri was the winner of the SF Weekly’s "Best Crazed Gypsy Brass Band Dance Party” and 2008 Music awards in the "Best International Band" category. http://www.brassmenazeri.com

Upcoming Janam events:
July 6, Croatian American Cultural Center
October 5, Red Poppy Art House


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