New York Gypsy All-Stars - High energy Balkan funk & jazz
with special guest Selim Sesler - "The Coltrane of the Clarinet" from Turkey! Romashka - Madcap Gypsy dancing from Russia, Romania & beyond Frank London - Legendary Trumpeter of the Klezmer underground
+ DJ Pepe - Bosporus-meets-Balkans Mix
and introducing DJs Wonderlust - Grannies from the curves of the Volga River
Gypsy Dance by Kristina Melike
Visuals & Decor by Wonderlust
Palm reading by Mephulia
About:
Enter the wild, underground world of the Gypsies on April 11 when an all-star cast of performers, DJs, dancers and colorful characters gather to launch the 5th anniversary season of the NY Gypsy Festival. The annual festival hosted bands like Gogol Bordello, KAL, Ivo Papasov, Beirut, Balkan Beat Box, Baba Zula, Dotschy Reinhardt since 2005 and this year the celebrations are starting early with several months to warm up before the 4-day grand finale in the end of September.
We have invited Selim Sesler, one of Turkey's top clarinet players, to help us kick off the celebrations - an unparalleled night of clarinet virtuosos, loud brass sounds, dumbek rhythms and thumping club sounds until the wee hours of the morning. "The Coltrane of the Clarinet" as The Guardian succinctly put it, will join the mighty NY Gypsy All-Stars and Ismail Lumonovski for a must-see clash of the clarinets, while the frenzied crowds sing along to classics like "Yuksek Yuksek Tepeler" and dance away with "Kasap Havasi." Considering Sesler played two shows to packed audiences at Joe's Pub two years ago, you'd be advised to fetch those tickets fast. Sesler will also perform for Carnegie Hall's Neighborhood Concert series on 4/9.
Joining the Turkish side are two of the most exhilarating local bands on the scene. With their wildly versatile musicians, the 9-piece dance band Romashka will bring the old-world sounds of Eastern Europe and Russian tangos to the new world. Leave it to Frank London and his cohorts to blow the roof off of the club with their infectious energy and klezmer-brass sounds. In their NY debut, Finnish duo Wonderlust are taking the Gypsy sound into club world by mixing music from both the west and east side of the Volga River, while DJ Pepe rounds off the night with music from the Bosporus straight up to the Danube River ... and over to the Hudson! West Village venue Le Poisson Rouge will be turned into a circus like atmosphere with visuals & decor by Salama & Speedy, palm reading by Mephulia and gypsy dances by the beautiful Kristina Melike - a feast not just for your ears but also for your eyes.
Praise for past NY Gypsy Festivals:
"Run don't walk to these performances. And don't forget your tambourines and joie-de-vivre." - Village Voice
"The next generation of Gypsy musicians proves the hard-to-pin-down sound has found new life." - Salon.com
"[A] runaway success ... 10 days of unparalleled international revelry." - Flavorpill
Bio: Selim Sesler is a gypsy clarinet player from the Northwestern region of Turkey. Sesler and his band have become popular in Turkey for their original arrangements of classic Turkish folk songs. On his latest album 'Anatolian Wedding', Sesler worked with world music producers Ben Mandelson and Rob Keyloch to reapproach classic wedding songs collected from the four corners of Turkey. The outcome is a modern rendering of a centuries old repertoire that allows listeners to rediscover old favorites now flush with fresh dimensions.
In 1998 Sesler toured Canada with Brenna Macrimmon, a chance that afforded him the opportunity to showcase his Turkish Roman and Rumelian style of playing the clarinet to an international audience. Together with his clarinet, Sesler has also appeared in Fatih Ak�n's widely lauded films "Head On" and "Crossing the Bridge". Selim Sesler has played at important festivals in countries such as Germany, France, and Sweden. Over the past two years Sesler has performed at many special concerts and taught at music workshops across the U.S
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Under the leadership of the young Macedonian / Turkish clarinet virtuoso Ismail Lumanovski, the New York Gypsy All Stars Band has amazed audiences with their jazz-inflected Gypsy and Turkish songs. The All Stars showcases some of NY's finest musicians including Tamer Pinarbasi from Turkey on qanun, Panogiotis Andreu from Greece on bass, Seido Salifoski from Macedonia on percussion/darbouka and Engin Gunaydin from Turkey on drums. The band performed with such world music icons as Turkish clarinet master Husnu Senlendirici and Bulgarian virtuoso Ivo Popasov.
�A showboat of a performer, Lumanovski is an adventurous, modern-minded frontman who leads his band through a varied terrain of Balkan, Turkish and Romany selections, spiked with jazz and Western styles.� � Christina Black, Time Out New York
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Like a shot of honey-pepper vodka, Romashka sweetens your lips, hits you heavy in the gut, and induces vertiginous euphoria. Listening to this "lethal dose of gypsy firewater" (DJ Joro-Boro, Mehanata), the brassy Balkan beats make you pound your feet, sexy string and accordion syncopations make your hips shake and the heart-twisting Russian tangos and tales of lost love make your spirit sigh and cry. Lithuanian-born singer Inna Barmash fronts a band of multifaceted American musicians and one half-Romanian madcap accordionist, who bring years of Klezmer, jazz and rock experience to their Gypsy music journey.
Roma is the Gypsy term for the Gypsy people. The complex rhythms and odd harmonics in Gypsy music are enough to enthrall musicologists, but to understand it, all you need are ears, a heart, and..... a heart
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Trumpeter/composer FRANK LONDON is a member of the Klezmatics and the Hasidic New Wave, has performed with John Zorn, LL Cool J, Mel Torme, Lester Bowie�s Brass Fantasy, LaMonte Young, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Jane Siberry, Ben Folds 5, Mark Ribot, Maurice El Medioni and Gal Costa, and is featured on over 100 CDs. His own recordings include INVOCATIONS (cantorial music); Frank London�s Klezmer Brass Allstars� DI SHIKERE KAPELYE and BROTHERHOOD OF BRASS; NIGUNIM and THE ZMIROS PROJECT (Jewish mystical songs, with Klezmatics vocalist Lorin Sklamberg); THE DEBT (film and theater music); THE SHEKHINA BIG BAND; the soundtrack to THE SHVITZ; the soundtrack to Perl Gluck�s THE DIVAHN and four releases with the Hasidic New Wave.
His projects include the folk-opera A NIGHT IN THE OLD MARKETPLACE (based on Y.L. Peretz�s Bay nakht oyfn altn mark), DAVENEN for Pilobolus and the Klezmatics, Great Small Works� THE MEMOIRS OF GLUCKEL OF HAMELN and Min Tanaka�s ROMANCE. He composed music for John Sayles� THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET and MEN WITH GUNS, Yvonne Rainer�s MURDER AND MURDER, the Czech-American Marionette Theater�s GOLEM and Tamar Rogoff�s IVYE PROJECT.
He was music director for David Byrne and Robert Wilson�s THE KNEE PLAYS, collaborated with Palestinian violinist Simon Shaheen, taught Jewish music in Canada, Crimea and the Catskills, and produced CD�s for Gypsy Ledgend Esma Redzepova, and Algerian Pianist Maurice el Medioni.
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Wonderlust is a DJ team that consists of two female visual artists based in Helsinki, Finland. Their shared love for gypsy and folk music traditions and danceable pop were what brought them together. They have collected the majority of their sets while traveling in the eastern part of Europe including countries like Romania, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Turkey and different parts of Russia.
For their DJ sets, the duo appear in costumes, use visuals. They also do dance choreographs and sing. As DJs they have performed mainly in Europe, at clubs, art events and parties. The Le Poisson Rouge show will be their first big public show in the United States.
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Kristina Melike performs Romany (Gypsy) Dance from Turkey & the Southern Balkans as well as Oriental Bellydance. Her performance highlights include appearing as a Guest Artist with Husnu Senlendirici (from Turkey), Kal (Romany band from Serbia), Turbo Tabla's �Bellydance Overdrive,� and at the CUNY Graduate Center. As a guest dancer with the brass band Slavic Soul Party, she has performed in festivals and clubs on tour throughout the US and at home in NYC.
Kristina Melike has studied Turkish Romany dance extensively with Tayyar Akdeniz; she is now among the foremost performers of this style in the US. Other training also includes Oriental Bellydance most notably with Yousry Sharif and Elena Lentini, as well as Kawakeb, Nourhan Sharif, Ranya, and Rayhana; Balkan dance with Michael Ginsburg; Romany Cocek with Nursel; Salsa with Franck Muhel and Latin Dance at Sandra Cameron Dance Center; percussion classes with Tayyar Akdeniz, Amir Naoum and Rami El-Aasser; and many years of classical ballet studies at the Maryland Youth Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet School. She has traveled to Serbia to attend the Amala School for Romany dance & language.
Video:
Selim Sesler:
NY Gypsy All Stars
Romashka:
Frank London:
Kristina Milike
18+ or accompanied by legal guardian. This show is General Admission, first come, first serve. Seating is Limited. A purchased ticket does not guarantee you a seat. There is a two item minimum for all seated performances.
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