"MIGRATIONS" - A unique double bill featuring the music and dance of migratory cultures that intersected from Eastern Europe to the Iberian Peninsula, including Sephardic Jewish, Spanish-Roma flamenco, Balkan-Roma, Romanian, Turkish, and more
Date/Time: Feb 24 2018, 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Vancouver, Russian HallCost: $25.00
Find tickets: here
FEATURING: From Toronto, singer-dancer Tamar Ilana leads the group Ventanas. From Vancouver, virtuoso Romanian-Roma violinist Lache Cercel leads his Roma-swing ensemble, with special guest singer from Morocco, and guest accordionist.
ABOUT VENTANAS - www.ventanasmusic.com www.tamarilana.com
Tamar Ilana and her trans-Mediterranean ensemble Ventanas fuse passion and intimate dialogue, embracing the varied instrumental and melodic traditions of North Africa, the Balkans, Turkey and Spain to create fresh interpretations and original songs. flamenco guitar, baglama, violin, darbuka, and percussive flamenco footwork intertwine with surprising harmony, joy and yearning. Tamar Ilana defies easy categorization. The Toronto-born singers voice is as fierce and powerful as it is delicate and ornamental, and she is as comfortable enchanting heart-wrenching flamenco arrangements in Spanish as she is breathing mournful Sephardic love songs, or singing playful Balkan party tunes. With her Canadian Folk Music Award-nominated ensemble Ventanas, Ilana skips effortlessly from one genre to the next, and in her original compositions blends these diverse influences with a mastery that makes their synthesis sound like the most natural thing in the world.
ABOUT LACHE CERCEL ROMA-SWING ENSEMBLE -www.lachecercel.com
Before leaving his homeland, Lache Cercel was one of Romanias premier musicians. From a musical family, he trained at the Academy of Arts in Bucharest, became a soloist with the Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and, in 1986, was awarded the Artist of the People Citation by the Romanian government. He calls his fusion Roma Jazz or Roma Swing. In the tradition of Django Reinhardt and Stephen Grappelli, Cercel lays classical and improvisational jazz alongside traditional renderings, which makes for a phenomenal sound.
Cercel is a bandleader who lets every musician shine. He plays with the outrageous virtuosity found in contemporary European Roma recordings, and adds his own vision, relaxing the form somewhat. The musicians play with freedom and the listener feels the strong roots and hears the history of tragedy, struggle and ultimate survival that is part of Roma music.
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