Happy New Year!

Kicking off the decade with a deep dive into Arabic and Balkan music, and I’m excited to announce a couple upcoming shows in each.

ASWAT, an Arab music ensemble with Zawaya based in Oakland, is celebrating 20 years (😮) of music-making with a festival of Palestinian culture and music, featuring the world-famous Arab woman hip-hop artist, Shadia Mansour. With Dabke classes, live music performances, workshops, and more, you won’t want to miss this. Tickets here: https://m.bpt.me/event/4423974

… and more info on Zawaya here: https://zawaya.org/site/recent-posts/

I was fortunate enough to join ASWAT on trumpet for their December 14th concert, and now am learning tabla and eventually oud from them. Hopefully more announcements from them in the future.

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Around the same time I joined Inspector Gadje, a Balkan-style brass band based in Oakland, and they’re FUN and funky. For real, you have to check them out. And you can, at one of their rare local Bay Area shows at Kafana Balkan on February 8th. More info here: http://www.inspectorgadje.com/calender