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The Black Olive Babes will play at St. Joseph's Cultural Center Saturday.
Black Olive Babes is a new Bay Area Band offering an exciting, eclectic mix of Balkan, Romani, Turkish, Sephardic and American roots and original music.
These sultry rhythms and soul-stirring melodies create a dance and trance-inducing groove that carries you from the shores of the Black Sea to the foothills of the Appalachians. Founded by 20-year Kitka vocalist Juliana Graffagna, Black Olive Babes features some of the Bay Area's most innovative interpreters of Southern Balkan and Middle Eastern traditional music.
Black Olive Babes are Dan Auvil on percussion; Tom Farris on guitar, laouto and accordion; Juliana Graffagna on vocals, guitar and percussion; Gari Hegedus on violin and oud; Peter Jaques on clarinet and vocals; and Bill Lanphier on bass.
It was love at first sight when Dan Auvil saw the large, two-headed drum called the tupan 30 years ago ... and he's been playing Balkan percussion ever since. He was a founding member of Édessa and Ziyiá and has toured and taught internationally. He currently plays with Trio Zulum and The Mehanatones.
Tom Farris has been playing in Bay Area Balkan rhythm sections since 1994. He is a multi-instrumentalist and plays a variety of drums and stringed instruments. He was a long time member of Anoush, Brass Menaeri, and Top Dog Run. Currently he plays with The Helladelics and Izvorno Icepick. In addition to Balkan music, Tom also writes and records his own folk-rock songs.
Juliana Graffagna has been singing traditional Balkan music since 1988. As a vocalist and former music director of the internationally acclaimed women's ensemble Kitka, Juliana has performed extensively throughout the U.S. and Eastern Europe and made numerous recordings. She studied Eastern European vocal technique with master singers Tzvetanka Varimezova, Mariana Sadovska, Merita Halili, Donka Koleva, Carl Linich and Christos Govetas. Juliana's day jobs include teaching elementary school music, directing Polyphonia Youth Choir and leading adult singing workshops.
Gari Hegedus plays violin, viola and a variety of stringed instruments from Greece and Turkey including laouto, oud, saz and hand drums. Gari plays in the duo Teslim with violinist Kaila Flexer, and performs with world music group Stellamara and Persian vocalist Hamed Nikpay. He has studied with oud master Naseer Shamma and has recorded and performed with Ross Daly. He has toured with the Mevlevi Dervish (Sufi) Order of America and continues to participate in Turkish ceremonial and devotional gatherings around the country.
Peter Jaques has been a fixture of the Bay Area Near Eastern music scene since 1995. His style combines traditional Turkish, Greek, and Balkan Rom styles with his own, deeply soulful approach. He performs principally on the Bb clarinet and trumpet, as well as Turkish G clarinet, alto saxophone, and Egyptian nay (reed flute). Peter also directs the Brass Menaeri Balkan Brass Band, and plays with Dan Cantrell's Megaband, Stellamara, a Middle-eastern/Balkan/world fusion ensemble, and Gamelan X, a hybrid processional gamelan orchestra based on traditional Balinese baleganjur.
Bill Lanphier is a bass player and writer with an incredibly diverse musical background. In addition to playing with Balkan master musicians Yasko Argirov, Nikolay Kolev, Ivan Milev, Nedyalko Nedyalkov, Georgi Petrov and Christos Govetas, Bill toured with Madonna on the “Virgin Tour” and has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Rickie Lee Jones, The Rippingtons, Art Garfunkle and Linda Ronstadt. Bill recent band adventures include Bay Area favorites Trio Mopmu and Izvorno Icepick.
These sultry rhythms and soul-stirring melodies create a dance and trance-inducing groove that carries you from the shores of the Black Sea to the foothills of the Appalachians. Founded by 20-year Kitka vocalist Juliana Graffagna, Black Olive Babes features some of the Bay Area's most innovative interpreters of Southern Balkan and Middle Eastern traditional music.
Black Olive Babes are Dan Auvil on percussion; Tom Farris on guitar, laouto and accordion; Juliana Graffagna on vocals, guitar and percussion; Gari Hegedus on violin and oud; Peter Jaques on clarinet and vocals; and Bill Lanphier on bass.
It was love at first sight when Dan Auvil saw the large, two-headed drum called the tupan 30 years ago ... and he's been playing Balkan percussion ever since. He was a founding member of Édessa and Ziyiá and has toured and taught internationally. He currently plays with Trio Zulum and The Mehanatones.
Tom Farris has been playing in Bay Area Balkan rhythm sections since 1994. He is a multi-instrumentalist and plays a variety of drums and stringed instruments. He was a long time member of Anoush, Brass Menaeri, and Top Dog Run. Currently he plays with The Helladelics and Izvorno Icepick. In addition to Balkan music, Tom also writes and records his own folk-rock songs.
Juliana Graffagna has been singing traditional Balkan music since 1988. As a vocalist and former music director of the internationally acclaimed women's ensemble Kitka, Juliana has performed extensively throughout the U.S. and Eastern Europe and made numerous recordings. She studied Eastern European vocal technique with master singers Tzvetanka Varimezova, Mariana Sadovska, Merita Halili, Donka Koleva, Carl Linich and Christos Govetas. Juliana's day jobs include teaching elementary school music, directing Polyphonia Youth Choir and leading adult singing workshops.
Gari Hegedus plays violin, viola and a variety of stringed instruments from Greece and Turkey including laouto, oud, saz and hand drums. Gari plays in the duo Teslim with violinist Kaila Flexer, and performs with world music group Stellamara and Persian vocalist Hamed Nikpay. He has studied with oud master Naseer Shamma and has recorded and performed with Ross Daly. He has toured with the Mevlevi Dervish (Sufi) Order of America and continues to participate in Turkish ceremonial and devotional gatherings around the country.
Peter Jaques has been a fixture of the Bay Area Near Eastern music scene since 1995. His style combines traditional Turkish, Greek, and Balkan Rom styles with his own, deeply soulful approach. He performs principally on the Bb clarinet and trumpet, as well as Turkish G clarinet, alto saxophone, and Egyptian nay (reed flute). Peter also directs the Brass Menaeri Balkan Brass Band, and plays with Dan Cantrell's Megaband, Stellamara, a Middle-eastern/Balkan/world fusion ensemble, and Gamelan X, a hybrid processional gamelan orchestra based on traditional Balinese baleganjur.
Bill Lanphier is a bass player and writer with an incredibly diverse musical background. In addition to playing with Balkan master musicians Yasko Argirov, Nikolay Kolev, Ivan Milev, Nedyalko Nedyalkov, Georgi Petrov and Christos Govetas, Bill toured with Madonna on the “Virgin Tour” and has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Rickie Lee Jones, The Rippingtons, Art Garfunkle and Linda Ronstadt. Bill recent band adventures include Bay Area favorites Trio Mopmu and Izvorno Icepick.
Know and Go
What: Black Olive Babes in concert
When: 8 p.m. Saturday Where: St. Joseph's Cultural Center, 410 South Church Street, Grass Valley Tickets: $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Advance tickets available at the BriarPatch co-op in Grass Valley, Gold Rush Records in Nevada City and at the St. Joseph's Cultural Center office Info: Call (530) 272-4725 or www.saintjosephsculturalcenter.org |
