KAFANA BALKAN FESTIVAL
Friday & June 17t, 2016, 9PM
June 17th Friday at The Starline Social Club, Oakland
Slavic Soul Party, Incognito Express, Elizabeth Strong, DJ Željko
Tickets $15 pre-sale / $20 at the door
Slavic Soul Party
The players have the muscle and know-how to make Balkan sounds crackle with NYC energy. we strongly recommend you witness it live and direct."
TimeOut NY
"SSP! make wonderful and exciting music, exuding a thrilling and unpasteurized blend of traditional forms cheerfully reconsidered and reconstituted by a restlessly rolling creative collective." - AllMusic Guide
Throbbing funk grooves, fiery Balkan brass, Roma (gypsy) accordion wizardry, and virtuoso jazz chops make Slavic Soul Party! NYC's official #1 brass band for BalkanSoul RomaFunk. SSP!'s music has won the ear of fans and musicians on both sides of the Atlantic, and their tunes have been learned by Serbian brass stars Boban Markovic Orkestar and New Orleans funk sensations Galactic, among others.
Incognito Express: Incognito Express takes you on a musical joy ride through Eastern Europe, showcasing Romani, , Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek and Macedonian traditions as well as Balkan-inspired originals.This Nimble ensemble includes Gregory Masaki Jenkins, Miles Jay, Marco Peris Coppola, Alex Hand Miller, joined by special guest Matt Szemela, who has been praised by the New York Times for his "outrageous Fiddling".
Elizabeth Strong is a Bay Area dancer, choreographer, and teacher whose work focuses on the integrity and spirit of traditional dance forms inside of a contemporary framework.
DJ Željko Get ready for good ol' acoustic, raukus brass. Picture this... you smiling, enjoying the odd metered bliss that is Balkan music, your feet stomping the floor even if you don't know where the down beat is! Who cares, let the music take you away! No four on the floor or Turbo Folk at Kafana Balkan - no electronic thump watered down for appeal to undiscerning ears. Only the real deal Balkan feel. His fantastic sensibility and vision for curating events reflect his great love of the musical traditions of Serbia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia......well, and The Balkans in general (and sometimes a touch of swirling Arabic sounds).
About Kafana Balkan:
Kafana Balkan was the first ongoing Balkan dance party in San Francisco and is the only one of its kind in the Bay Area.
Organized by the charismatic Kafana Balkan Mastermind DJ Željko Petković, who hails from Serbia by way of Frankfurt, and now San Francisco, Kafana Balkan rocks the Bay roughly four times a year. DJ Željko has discriminating taste, a seemingly endless collection of great Balkan albums, and love and joy for his music, a crowd-pleasing, danceable Balkan brass sound. Since February 2015, he's joined by Marco Peris Coppola, Creative Co Strategist and Co Booker , who now together with DJ Željko Petkovic builds a major force in the ongoing evolution of the Bay Area Balkan Scene.
There will be Rakija -delectible Serbian plum brandy. Warning: :drink at your own risk!
Gino from Spirollsf will be serving Delicious Burek (Balkan Filo Dough Pastries ) ...mmmmmmm Opa!
More on Slavic Soul Party - http://www.slavicsoulparty.com/main.html
More on Kafana Balkan -www.facebook.com/kafana.balkan
More on Elizabeth Strong - http://strongdancer.com/
More on DJ Željko -https://www.facebook.com/zeljko.petkovic.9
Face Book Event page- https://www.facebook.com/events/576892609146245/