© 2010 Content; Gil Medovoy© Design: fidlweb
Qadim is a word found in both Arabic and Hebrew meaning 'ancient' as well as 'that which will come.' The ensemble’s repertoire includes Arabic, Jewish, Turkish Sufi, Hebrew-Yemenite, Armenian, Greek, Ladino and Moroccan music, celebrating the common musical and spiritual heritage of the region's cultures, while honoring the great diversity found within them.
Acclaimed for their passionate performances, The Qadim Ensemble is comprised of accomplished and acclaimed musicians. The San Francisco based band has attracted a growing global audience who are responding to their authentic musicianship and timely message of peace and cross-cultural appreciation.
Eliyahu Sills: Ney, Bansuri Flute, Oud
Rachel Valfer: Vocals, Oud
Amir Etemadzadeh: Percussion
Reviews:
“An amazing talent . . .Their instrumental capabilities are incredible to behold and the interplay is remarkable . . . breathtaking, sweeping vocals . . . The voices and instruments swell with sumptuousness, filling traditional Jewish, Armenian, Moroccan, Egyptian, and Turkish music with life.”
Jordan Richardson, blogcritics.org
"From the moment the members of Eliyahu Sills' ensemble pick up their instruments, the music of some of the world's most ancient cultures comes pouring from the stage in staggering waves."
Oakland Tribune
"The music of Qadim is based on the deeply-rooted connections between faiths and traditions. The virtuosity and dedication of each of the band-members is felt in
every aspect of their live performances. This group produces more than music; it gives a wordless summons to contemplation, intimacy and trust.”
David Sander, professor of religious studies, Stonehill College
"The amber tone of the oud, the plaintive cry of the ney, and the cyclic percussion intertwine in sublime fashion . . . truly world music, some of the most open, human music you'll hear this year. Essential."
Mark Keresman, East Bay Express
The Qadim Ensemble
Sunday January 27, 2013 at 7 pm
Village Homes Community Center
2661 Portage Bay East, Davis
Tickets: $13 reserved, $15 at the door
Call Gil: (530) 867-1032 for reservations & info.
for reservations & info or online at the top right corner of the page
or via email: info@TimnaTalmusic.com
True Life Trio
Saturday February 23, 2013 at 7 pm
Village Homes Community Center
2661 Portage Bay East, Davis
Tickets: $13 reserved, $15 at the door
Call : (530) 867-1032 for reservations & info.
or at the top right corner of the page
or via email: info@TimnaTalmusic.com
True Life Trio weaves sumptuous vocal harmonies and sultry rhythms from Eastern Europe, the Americas & beyond. This innovative trio explores the creative possibilities of cross-fertilization of different traditions with unlikely timbres connecting Bulgaria to the Bayou. TLT’s improvisation-laced repertoire includes original songs and folk tunes from far-flung lands such as Macedonia, Louisiana, Albania, South Africa, Ukraine, Mexico, Poland, Italy and Georgia. Featuring the powerful vocal talents of three dynamic performers whose musical collaboration was forged in Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble, the trio delves deep into a vast array of folk music that lends itself to three-part vocal harmony, massaging and expanding the boundaries of these traditional styles. The result is a sweet, sonic explosion that melts in the listener’s ear and that is uniquely True Life Trio.
What fans are saying about this new trio:
"True Life Trio has created a unique musical journey...each song is a small auditory work of art meant to be intently listened to." Ginger Murray, SF Weekly
" Trance-porting and trance-formative"
"Beautiful singing - the blend and attitude is as one"
"Sustained spinal tingles"
True Life Trio is:
Leslie Bonnett: voice, fiddle, percussion
Briget Boyle: voice, guitar, percussion
Juliana Graffagna: voice, bass, percussion
East-West Guitar Summit
Saturday, March 30 7 pm
Village Homes Community Center
2661 Portage Bay East, Davis
Tickets: $13 reserved, $15 at the door
Call : (530) 867-1032 for reservations & info.
or at the top right corner of the page
or via email: info@TimnaTalmusic.com
East-West Guitar Summit
Matthew Montfort and Matthew Grasso
Two unique master guitar players – with unusual approaches to combining Indian and Western traditions
Montfort and Grasso are both extremely versatile musicians and composers, who bring years of experimentation and unusual modifications to their unique instruments. This concert will be their first collaboration.
Matthew Montfort – world guitar innovator, founder of Ancient Future – playing scalloped fretboard guitar
Matthew Grasso - classical and Indian style guitarist, founding member of Trio Seven & Nada Brahma Music Ensemble– playing 25-stringed raga guitar
Parteek Bansal – playing tabla
Matthew Montfort (scalloped fretboard guitar): The leader of Ancient Future is a pioneer of the scalloped fretboard guitar, an instrument combining qualities of the South Indian vina and the steel string guitar. It has a fretboard from which part of the wood has been removed between the frets to reduce friction when bending notes. Montfort studied intensively with vina master K.S. Subramanian in order to apply the note-bending techniques to the guitar. He has studied with the masters of many world music traditions, from sarod master Ali Akbar Khan to gamelan director K.R.T. Wasitodipuro. He has worked with legendary world music figures such as Swapan Chaudhuri and Zakir Hussain. http://www.ancient-future.com
Matthew Grasso is a classical guitarist, composer, arranger, musical instrument innovator, and improviser who began playing guitar at age twelve. He attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, were he studied with Scott Tennant, Dusan Bogdanovic, and Lawrence Ferrara and participated in master classes held by artists including Eliot Fisk, David Russell, and the L.A. Guitar Quartet. Matthew complemented this training by studying the classical music of North India at the Ali Akbar College of Music with the late sarod master Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Through his understanding of musical systems of the east and west, he has created a flexible and creative voice in improvisation and has developed a unique style of rendering classical ragas.
This music can be heard on his 25-stringed raga guitar with his group, Nada Brahma Music Ensemble. http://www.matthewgrasso.com
REVIEWS:
“Matt plays with energy, confidence and amazing virtuosity” Lawrence Ferrara, Concert Guitarist
“I think Matthew Grasso is one of the most original, distinctive and accomplished guitarists that I have ever heard. His technique, intensity, tonal palette, and concentration make his performances unique and unforgettable experiences” Marc Teicholz, Concert Guitarist
“Rolling Stones of fusion.” – The Beat
“Matthew Montfort's synthesis of styles and sounds isn't superficial — he plucks the essential musicality of several traditions without discounting them. Beautiful world fusion music." — Roger Carlberg, Electronic Musician
"Marvelous rhythmic patterns ... truly magnificent tonal balances ... the shifting dynamics,the fabric of the ensemble, the emergence, (then gradual disappearance) of melodic lines and the esprit de corps are MESMERIZING." — Philip Elwood, San Francisco Examiner
"One of world music's finest expressions." — Renee Gelpi, Dimensions, Toronto
Cookie Segelstein - Violin, Viola
Joshua Horowitz – Cimbalom, Chromatic Button Accordion, Piano
Stuart Brotman - Bass, Basy, Tilinca, Baraban
In Eastern Europe, the roots of World Music go back centuries. Jews and
Moslems, Magyars, Rumanians, Ukrainians and Roma played music together in an atmosphere of sharing, in a multicultural area where professional musicians had to know as many musical styles as the diverse languages of the people with whom they lived and worked. Across the Veretski Pass, the mountain pass in theCarpathians through which Magyar tribes into crossed into the Carpathian basin in 895 AD, and through which the emigrating Jews first settled in Transcarpathia, the musical traditions were as varied as the people who lived there.
Taking it’s name from this cultural hotbed, Veretski Pass offers a unique and exciting combination of virtuosic musicianship and raw energy that has excited concertgoers across the world. With colorful instrumentation, unique arrangements and compositions, Veretski Pass plays "Old Country" music; music with origins in the Ottoman Empire, once fabled as the borderlands of the East and the West. In a true collage of Carpathian, Jewish, Rumanian and Ottoman styles, typical suites contain dances from Moldavia and Bessarabia; Jewish melodies from Poland and Rumania, Hutzul wedding music from Carpathian-Ruthenia, and haunting Rebetic aires from Smyrna, seamlessly integrated with original compositions. Much of this rare music has been gleaned from field recordings gathered by the musicians in numerous trips throughout Europe, as well as from family members.
Often touring in Europe, they have twice been chosen as ambassadors
representing traditional Jewish Instrumental Music of Eastern Europe for the German World Exhibition of Klezmer History (Klezmerwelten) and have headlined the Jewish Music Festival of the University of London. They recently performed at the prestigious Concertgebouw Concert Hall in Amsterdam to a sold out audience with a standing ovation, and their CDs have repeatedly been on the 10-best recordings lists of journalists. Cookie’s unique violin style was featured for a Jewish wedding scene on HBO’s “Sex and the City” and Josh and Stu’s compositions provided the music for Jes Benstock's award-winning film “The Holocaust Tourist."
Veretski Pass will give a sneak preview of their new work:
Lilith, the Night Demon, a choral mystery drama based on the Medieval “alternate” Jewish story of creation. The fully composed work is in collaboration with the San Francisco Choral Artists and will premiere June 15 in San Francisco:
SUKHAWAT ALI KHAN
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 7PM
Village Homes Community Center
2661 Portage Bay East, Davis
Tickets: $13 reserved, $15 at the door
Call : (530) 867-1032 for reservations & info.
or at the top right corner of the page
or via email: info@TimnaTalmusic.com
Gurdeep Sing - TABLA, DHOLAK & BHANGRA DHOL
SAPAN GHANDI - Bansuri Flute
http://www.jahnur.com/sukhawat
SUKHAWAT ALI KHAN represents the family lineage of the 600-year-old Sham Chorasi traditional school of music, which was established during the reign of Emperor Akbar of India. His training in both classical raga and Sufi Qawwali singing began at the age of seven under his father, legendary Pakistani/Indian vocalist Ustad Salamat Ali Khan. A San Francisco Bay Area resident, Sukhawat teaches this musical style and performs concerts for dance and world music lovers everywhere. Sukhawat's unique ability to draw from traditional and contemporary musical forms has helped him develop collaborations that are truly cross-cultural, such as the group Shabaz. Sukhawat has performed at the Montreal, Monterey and Prospect Park jazz festivals, the Fillmore in San Francisco, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and many other major venues and music festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe. He has been working recently with the Yuval Ron Ensemble touring & recording extensively. His vocal abilities have been used on other recordings as well, including the Disney film, Hidalgo (2004)
An evening of Flamenco del Oro
From Jerez de la Frontera, Spain: Kina Mendez!
Saturday, June 22, 2013, 8pm
Village Homes Community Center
2661 Portage Bay East, Davis
Tickets: $13 reserved, $15 at the door
Call : (530) 867-1032 for reservations & info.
or at the top right corner of the page
or via email: info@TimnaTalmusic.com
Gopal Slavonic - Flamenco Guitar
Stephanie Narvaez, and Sara McKenney - dancers and palmas.
Singer and dancer KINA MENDEZ grew up in the Mendez clan of Gypsy artists from Jerez. She began singing under the influence of her aunt, legendary singer La Paquera de Jerez. Her professional career began when she joined Manuel Morao's company. She later worked with Mario Maya and toured internationally with Salvador Tavora's productions Carmen and Carmina Burana. Performing in festivals such as La Fiesta de las Bulerias and Las Fiestas de la Vendimia in Jerez de la Frontera, she has shared the stage with Agujetas, El Grilo, La Macanita and others. A featured artist at last year's Festival de Jerez, her solo CD De Sevilla a Jerez was released 2008 in Madrid.
Gopal Slavonic has studied and played flamenco for 16 years and studied Flamenco guitar in Sevilla, Spain at La Fundacion Christina Heeren. He studied at the Foundation for two years where he received the opportunity to study with many great guitarists. Gopal has returned to Spain to study many times over the last decade. Gopal has worked with California Flamenco artists Mark Taylor, Cerro Negro, La Fibi, La Carola, Roberto Zamora, Pilar Moreno and recently released his second CD "Dos Orillas".
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VouPdlUE5I4&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0xls6U3JZg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiksJa4S-90
An Evening Of Balkan Brass Band Music with MWE
Sunday, October 20, 2013, 7pm
Village Homes Community Center
2661 Portage Bay East, Davis
Tickets: $13 reserved, $15 at the door
Call : (530) 867-1032 for reservations & info.
or at the top right corner of the page
or via email: info@TimnaTalmusic.com
MWE
1 Zurna, 1 Davul, 1 Sax, 2 Clarinets: 1 million decibels
MWE put a modern and eclectic twist on Turkish and Balkan folk music. As a six member acoustic wind ensemble, MWE plays traditional songs with the rarely paired clarinet and the double-reeded zurna. Add three clarinets, some dumbek, some riqq, and a Davul, a shoulder slung marching drum, and you’re about the closest to heavy metal you can get without amplification. Their shows are loud, wild and raucous affairs known for drawing entire audiences on their feet in one song or less. Often found playing hit-and-run gigs in San Francisco’s Mission District, they’ve also played at established world music venues including Ashkenaz and Yoshi’s Lounge. MWE is a mystery name! some ideas were suggested but the member of the band could only agree on the initials. My own favorite is Mighty Wind Ensemble.
Calvin Lai (zurna)
Greg Jenkins (clarinet)
Morgan Nilsen (clarinet)
Teddy Raven (sax)
Sean Tergis (davul, darabuka)
© 2013, Reuben Radding
STELLAMARA
ORIGINAL MUSIC FROM THE BALKANS, THE NEAR EAST, AND BEYOND…
Sunday, November 17, 2013 at 7 PM
Village Homes Community Center
2661 Portage Bay East, Davis, CA
www.TimnaTalMusic.com 530-867-1032
Tickets: $13 in advance, $17 at the door
Sonja Drakulich - Vocals, Hammered Dulcimer, Frame Drum
Gari Hegedus - Oud, Saz, Tarhu, Mandocello, Settar, Cümbüs
Rufus Cappodocia - 5 String Cello
Tobias Roberson - Percussion
Stellamara began when vocalist Sonja Drakulich followed her vision and created a vehicle for the development of devotional music based in Near Eastern and medieval modal traditions. Extraordinary musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds have since come together within the vessel of Stellamara, creating original music with a common intention: to celebrate love, beauty and unity through transcendent harmony, perfect dissonance, and passionate rhythm.
Rooted in Turkish, Arabic, Balkan, Medieval European and Persian musical traditions, Stellamara carries a deep devotion to the music of these cultures and transmits it with a unique timeless expression.
At Stellamara’s core are Sonja Drakulich and multi-instrumentalist Gari Hegedus. Their ensemble includes an all-star cast of musicians from near and far: co-writer and cellist Rufus Cappodocia and Tobias Roberson on Percussion. This is the line-up you hear (minus Ross Daly & Kelly Thoma) on their most recent album, "The Golden Thread". With their world-renowned discography, licensing, and film score placements, Stellamara is at the forefront in creating highly innovative recordings and performances. They are internationally regarded as being at the forefront of contemporary world music, giving new life and a fresh, modern expression to the beautiful and mysterious qualities of traditional modal music.
Praise from the International Press
"Imagine an impressionist voice painting of a flickering candle flame. Sonja Drakulich and the other half of Stellamara’s core, multi-instrumental string lord Gari Hegedus, were joined by a lively percussionist and a cellist Rufus Cappadocia, who exorcised notes from his instrument with a near obsessive passion."
— Good Times, “Music Seen”
Right from the start, the virtuoso playing of the members of Stellamara becomes ever-present, while the stellar interplay lends an even greater power to their wonderful web of sound. You’ll find yourself wishing for an even stronger vocal emphasis if only because of the magnificent vehicle of vocal expression that Sonja possesses. Her voice is at a never-ending peak of clarity and luminosity, from soft, distant and tailing off into the night, to lively and ignited by fires that burn brightly within. At times she may bring to mind Lisa Gerrard, Loreena McKennit or Azam Ali, but the magnificent way she uses her voice is hers alone. There is no lack of power or presence in this intricately realized music, and those who favor Balkan, Medieval, Persian, Arabic, Greek, Turkish or Far Eastern music will find themselves captured quite easily in the free-flowing marvel that is created.
— Lloyd Barde, Common Ground Magazine
Something astonishing…. Drakulich pulls lyrics from 13th century Galicia, Croatia, Persia and from deep within her own musical experience and inspiration. The music thus produced defies simple description. This is one to hear with ears and mind open. Given the opportunity, Stellamara will transport you to a place outside of time…. This is world music for another world—one well worth a visit.
— Cosmik Debris
Exotic instruments have been carefully and gently molded to form an other-worldly base for the evocative, gossamer, rich-as-a-golden-bell voice of Sonja Drakulich. Stellamara is stellar.
— Anodyne
Past Concerts 2013
