The Fishtank Ensemble

Sunday  March 2, 2008     at  7 pm

Tickets:   $12 reserved,   $15 at the door

Village Homes Community Center

2655 Portage Bay  East, Davis

For tickets and information, call 530-867-1032

In the upcoming event in the series of Traditional/Contemporary World Music concerts, Timna-Tal Music brings to Davis two outstanding performance groups:

From Los Angeles and the S.F. Bay Area, The Fishtank Ensemble, an all acoustic band that has been known to ROCK every venue they play at. The group is led by French-born violinist, Fabrice Martinez who learned the inner workings of the Romani (gypsy) Violin traveling for 7 years in a mule caravan throughout Eastern Europe. His partner in life and on stage, Ursula Knudson, an amazing Vocalist and fidller who also doubles on the Musical Saw and Banjoleelee, shared some of these amazing musical travels. The rest of the ensemble consists of: Aaron Seeman (Accordion), Douglas Smolens (Guitar), Mike Penny (Shamisen)

Press Reviews:

“… the Bay Area’s Fishtank Ensemble are the rompin’, stompin’ leaders of cross-pollinated Gypsy music.”

                                                                                                                      -Michael Simmons, LA Weekly

“Their repertoire flows naturally from flamenco to klezmer to Romanian and Hungarian folk and beyond.  There’s no catch here and nothing conceptual at work … It’s just great music played by great musicians.”

                                                                                                            -Will York, San Francisco Bay Guardian

Check the Fishtank Ensemble’s own site at: www.fishtankensemble.com

GUTPUPPET - slide guitar & chromatic harmonica duo!

Sunday, October 12, 2008 at 7:00pm
Village Homes Community Center
2661 Portage Bay East, Davis, CA
For information and reservations: 530-867-1032
Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door

The Indo swami bluegrass duo Gutpuppet is comprised of LA based chromatic harmonica innovator Bill Barrett alongside multi-instrumentalist Scot Ray on 6, 12, & 22 string slide guitars and slide banjo. Gutpuppet is a genre-bending acoustic project that swings the sonic trapeze between Delta Blues, North Indian raga, Bluegrass, and Gypsy imbued transmutations. Come check out what the press has called...

"‘the most inventive and unusual sounding music on the market, mixing dazzling jazz improv’ with musical influences from around the world and
especially from the orient.’’ - Benoit Felten, France

"The best of many worlds...all blended superbly together.’ - DMG, NY

"Another nail in the coffin of dead-end blues, the demonstration that, if we’re lucky enough, heaven-made acoustic music enters our humble garden one way or another.” -- Touching Extremes, Italy

“Shitkick stuff, keening India mojo, balladic meditation.” -- Metaljazz, LA

Scot Ray - slide guitar myspace.com/gutpuppet, myspace.com/scotray

3 Leg Torso

Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 8 pm
Village Homes Community Center
2661 Portage Bay East, Davis, CA
For information and reservations: 530-867-1032
Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 at the door An all acoustic band that creates high energy, charming, elegant and modern chamber music infused with equal parts tradition and innovation. Influenced by tango, eastern European folk, and other world music traditions.

Reviews:
5/04/2005 - "The quintet's level of musicianship is uniformly high, and their ensemble was tight as a drum Saturday night, with fluid transitions and edge-of-the-seat energy." The Oregonian
1/30/2004 - "The 200 folks who sold out Chamber Music on Tap at BridgePort Brew Pub this month... "- The Oregonian A&E
"All the beauty of Astor Piazolla's music and all the spunk of Kronos Quartet's."- CMJ

"Wildly exciting, wildly eclectic, rather difficult to describe." - Dirty Linen

"A success in the fluid netherworld between serious art and popular culture." - The Oregonian

"3 Leg Torso's classically tinged combination of gypsy folk and whirling tangos is both devilishly clever and damn beautiful." - Willamette Week

"A wonderful surprise" Randy Silver, Amazon.com

"Impassioned and idiosyncratic music"MP3.com

"3 Leg Torso is just about as creative as a group can get... music that is evocative, varied, non cliché" Joe Natoli, Jan Press

"Daring, intelligent music!" Lauren Ruth Wiener, Mongrel Music

La Musgaña

Sunday, September 21, 2008 at 4pm
The Davis Community Church
412 C St. Davis, California

FREE admission
This concert is sponsored by The Davis Community Church Music Series

Take the traditional music of Spain, dance tunes, love songs, music for rituals such as weddings and village celebrations, perform it on traditional instruments — bagpipes, wooden flutes., zanfona (hurdy-gurdy)..., then add something contemporary with accordion, guitar, fiddle and clarinets. This is the sound of La Musgaña. Except that you haven´t taken into consideration the basic verve and energy of the band. It is the passion of their performance, their flare for fun, and their commitment to pass this along to their audiences that makes La Musgaña concert the exhilarating event that it is. Even the name of the group is an attempt to get away from the serious treatment of Spanish music. The name means, the water rat.

JAIME MUÑOZ - wooden flutes, clarinets, accordion, bagpipe & soprano sax
CARLOS BECEIRO - cittern, acoustic guitar, bouzouki, bass, hurdy-gurdy
JORGE ARRIBAS - Accordion
DIEGO GALÁZ - violín

Reviews:

"La Musgaña know their onions. They play heartfelt tunes with prodigious whooping and leaping about...A glorious mutant of prime Malicorne versatility and the crack of Silly wizard." --Simon Jones, FOLK ROOTS (England)

"Don’t think, however, that because this is Spanish music it’s a variant of any snappy flamenco. What La Musgaña produces is a dense, more darkly intense music. By turns, it may sound Arab, Irish or vaguely Asian."

--Achy Obejas, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"La Musgaña’s take on the folk music of central Spain is as old as the troubadors and as young as the electric guitar, airy stuff - fruited with exquisite melodies, freighted with melancholy and frenzied with irresistible rhythms."

--Kevin R, Convey, BOSTON HERALD

"...an enchanting celebration of indigenous Spanish music - merged with Gypsy, Moorish and Celtic influences - performed on an exotic combination of traditional and modern instruments." --Henry Doctorsky, THE FREE-REED REVIEW

"There’s a deep vein of Celtic-influenced culture in West-central Spain. From it, La Musgaña (literally “water rat”) mine rare musical gems. If dancing to 13/8 meters is your metier, La Musgaña is your band. La Musgaña stir bagpipes, hurdy gurdy, cittern, accordion, clarinet and a dozen or so other instruments into a festive musical dish with decidedly Medieval aromas."

--GLOBAL RHYTHM MAGAZINE