Arab Psychedelic Rock from the Bay Area
Camellia Boutros is a Lebanese Palestinian composer and multi-instrumentalist based in San Francisco. After years of experience performing with a diverse array of Arab, Balkan, and Mexican music groups on trumpet, oud, and bass, she developed a fretless 12-string electric guitar as a vehicle for composing her own brand of Arab experimental rock. Naming her instrument the “electric oud-guitar,” Camellia writes music rooted in both Arabic Maqam and the Bay Area sound, which reflects her own experience growing up between California and the Levant. A blend of rock, psychedelia, folk, jazz, hip hop, and experimentalism, her music and lyrics defy genre definition.
Camellia is also an active member of Mission Delirium, Inspector Gadje, Corazón de Cedro, and Chhoti Maa. She has collaborated and recorded with Diana Gameros, Sweet Lew, Mild Universe, Clarissa Bitar, Banda Sin Nombre, Esotérica Tropical, Taleen, Makenobones, and more. She has performed at many of the Bay Area’s most beloved venues, such as SF Jazz, Stern Grove, The Independent, Yerba Buena Gardens, Rickshaw Stop, The New Parish, The Regency Ballroom, The Ivy Room, Brick and Mortar, The Chapel, Neck of the Woods, The Lab, Boom Boom Room, and Brava Theater.
Current band members:
* Michael Morales: Drumset
* Michael Booker: Tenor Saxophone
* Sean Spangenberg: Electric Bass
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