New Year’s Eve at Ashkenaz is traditionally an all-night affair of Balkan music and dance hosted by Édessa, in honor of the late Ashkenaz founder David Nadel and the music he first featured at his world dance club. This year’s event includes the rocking Balkan folk music of Édessa, Brass Menažeri’s wild brass band approach, and Joe Finn & True Life Trio’s Scandinavian and Cajun music.
For years one of the Bay Area’s premier Balkan dance bands, Édessa’s musicians have devoted decades to the study and performance of the rich cultural expressions of the southern Balkans. They play with a deep understanding of the connection between dance and music. Using both traditional and modern instruments, they perform in a variety of styles, featuring long sets that interweave melodies, improvisation, and beats with dancers in mind. The music comes from Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Armenia, Turkey, and the Balkan Roma (Gypsy) people. The group and its members have long participated in and taught at Balkan camps across the country, and Édessa was the first band to take Balkan music to Japan. Édessa is George Chittenden on clarinet, saxophone, gaida (bagpipe), zurna (shawm) and guitar; Lise Liepman on santouri (hammered dulcimer) and accordion; violinist Ari Langer; bassist Paul Brown; and percussionist-singer Rumen Sali Shopov.
Scandinavian and Cajun fiddler Joe Finn is joined by True Life Trio: fellow fiddler-singer Leslie Bonnett, who is currently in Kitka and Balkan dance band Turlu, and singers Briget Boyle (Kitka, Brass Menažeri) and Juliana Graffagna (Janam, Kitka). A member of Balkan Cabaret, Finn was a longtime friend of Ashkenaz founder David Nadel and is beloved in the Balkan community. After decades as a local fixture, Finn now lives in Port Townsend, Washington, but returns for the New Year’s Eve party.
Closing out the night – and the year – is Brass Menažeri, the Bay Area’s Balkan Romani (“Gypsy”) powerhouse brass band. Led by trumpeter-clarinetist Peter Jaques, the ensemble cascades through the music of Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, and the Rajasthani Roma with infectiously wild dance rhythms, soulful vocals, and hot improvisations. Formed in 2000, and recipient of SF Weekly’s 2008 Music Award for best international band, Brass Menažeri is a shining example of traditional Balkan repertoire combined with new sensibilities, innovative arrangements, and original compositions. Jaques plays alongside trumpeters Darren Johnston and Eric Oberthaler, trombonist Larry Leight, saxophonist Sheldon Brown, baritone horn player Alex Zendzian, Sousaphone player Evan Stuart, tapan player and singer Michele Simon, singer and baritone horn player Rachel MacFarlane, and singer and snare drummer Briget Boyle.
