Rhythmix Island Arts Balkan Music Festival Featuring: Janam, Helladelics and Brass Menažeri June 1, 2012

The Rhythmix Island Arts Concert Series will present a medley of Mediterranean inspired music from the Balkans to Bollywood featuring Janam, Helladellics and Brass Menažeri Powerhouse Gypsy Brass Band. The Helladellics specialize in an uplifting mix of Greek, Turkish and Balkan dance and trance music. Drawing on musical inspirations from the islands and odd-meters of Greece, Turkey and Macedonia, the ensemble embraces regional Mediterranean traditions in a thoroughly modern way. Janam creates a compelling mix of Balkan, Romani, Turkish, Sephardic and American roots music & originals. Brass Menažeri’s Powerhouse Gypsy Brass Bandwill top off the evening with wild rhythms derived from the music of the Serbian, Macedonian, Greek & Rajasthani Roma. Opa!
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.

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.

Brass Menažeri (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 Menažeri 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.

Michele Simon of the Helladelics and Brass Menažeri will also present a free Balkan line dance workshop with Erin Kurtz for youth ages 8-18 at Girls Inc of the Island City followed by the concert the same evening. The free youth workshops are possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Helladelics: http://www.helladelics.com
Brass Menažeri: http://brass.menazeri.com
Janam: http://www.janamband.com
High Five! Rhythmix Cultural Works (RCW) is celebrating its fifth year in the East Bay since opening its doors in 2007 as a community arts center to bring people of all ages together for a wide range of high quality arts experiences. Only five minutes from downtown Oakland (just off Hwy 880 @ Fruitvale), RCW offers affordable space for live performances, exhibitions, arts education and cultural exchange for youth, families and adults. By providing a range of exhibits, workshops, classes and performances, RCW supports local, regional and international artists in the presentation of their work and strives to encourage community awareness through participation in the arts. Plenty of free parking is available.
For more information call 510-865-5060 or visit: www.rhythmix.org.
This concert made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.