ORIENTAL BAZAR

You know we love bellydancers, who wouldn't. So it is only right to let you know about the biggest oriental dance festival taking place in Slovenia. It's called Bazar and it starts tomorrow, on Saturday in Cankarjev dom Ljubljana. Around 500 dancers will perform. If that's not enough, you'll be able to enjoy Arabic and Turkish cousine, listen to some good music, bargain on the miny sook, get to know your future from a coffee sediment and more and more....



30. & 31.5. Ljubljana 12:00 - who knows

GJ REPORT: CLAP YOUR HANDS

Son de la frontera is a Spanish band from Sevilla, which – like so many others - plays flamenco music. The difference between them and many others is, they do it really good.
That's why they have even been nominated for grammy and won the BBC world music award.
They have proved they are worthy of it on Saturday in Križanke. Amazing what two acoustic guitars, voice, and some claping hands can do.... magic really.
A completely different magic happened in Gala hala (Metelkova city) later that night. Dutch band The Ex, with a guest performance of an Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria. Despite the age, Mr. Mekuria is 74 years old, he and the gang provided us with an explosion of energy. A little bit of jazz, a little bit of noise, rock, ethno and impro music and a lot of dancing went down in Gala hala. Especially when the Ethiopian dancer Melaku Belay joined the band on stage. He shook it alright! And we tried to follow with our mouths open.

Photo: Jaka Sotlar

GJ REPORT: TOCA UM SAMBA

Friday was a day for samba and bossa nova. Druga godba hosted a Rio de Janeiro based group Causarina. The guys swayed the audience into a summer mood. If you closed your eyes, you could imagine being on the Copacabana beach with a caipirhna in your hands. The group played some beautifull bossa evergreens as well as author songs.
The band who followed did not have an easy job. Slovene band who plays Brazilian music. After a Brazilian band who did exactly the same. But Bossa the novo know what they are doing and they did a good job in Križanke. With Slovene lyrics and the original touch of excellent musicians. We even heard a Balkan bossa - arragement of the song Selma, where the accordion of Drago Ivanuša came to foreground.
The last but not least to perform was the queen of West African music Oumou Sangare. She returned to Slovenia after manny years, and proved to still be in good shape. With an excellent band they presented the songs from the new album Seya, as well as the old hits. Even when Oumou sings about serious topics like arranged marriage, she does it with a smile and a positive aproach.


Photo Tjašulja & Dino

GJ REPORT: AICHA ECHOED IN KRIŽANKE AGAIN

Algerian superstar Khaled visited Ljubljana for the third time on Thursday. In first part of the concert he presented the songs from his new album Liberte. If you tolerate a little bit of pop, you will love it. Considering the fact pure rai can be a bit boring, a pinch of other influences is actually welcome. Although we were a bit surprised from time to time....for example, when the whole thing started to sound like a salsa party. Khaled, who this time played a bit of accordion and keyboards himself, also added a taste of jazz and reggae to the songs. Now and then the star just disappeared from the stage without anyone noticing (maybe because he is so tiny) and let the other 11 musicians do their job. And they proved to be the masters of their trade.
The visitors, who came only to hear the hits like Didi, Abdel Kader and N'ssi N'ssi, were maybe disappointed to some point, since the band only played wreath of all the most famous songs. Except Aicha of course, which was saved for the bis. It was good to see this little guy with addictive smile and a child's energy in his eyes again!

Photo Tjašulja

GJ REPORT: CAN YOU DANCE AND THINK?

The first night of the Druga godba festival brought one of the highlights. French singer Abd Al Malik swept everybody of it's feet. Well, just singer maybe isn't the right way to describe this artist, who along with the excellent band, took us on a trip of poetry, philosophy, chanson, hip hop and even rock'n'roll. It was the carrousel of emotions, examination of society, religion, love... It was one of those occasions, when a person is really sorry, that one doesn't understand French. But even without understanding, you could feel the positive energy and of course enjoy the music.
The opening night offered another chanson singer, Branko Završan. For the ones who didn't know this actor in this role, it was a very positive surprise!
There is not a Druga godba festival without at least one brass band. And it was no different this year. But it did sound different though. Maybe because Kar češ brass band is Slovene, maybe because they don't play gipsy music, maybe becouse some members of the band were a bit to shy. But the sound wasn't bad! And the guy on the tube was making some really wicked sounds with his instruments.
Last but not least, actually the first to perform on this years edition of the festival was Victor Deme. His story is very unusual. He published his first album last year, at the age of 46, although he has been performing for 30 years. He bought himself a quitar and a sewing-machine from the money he got for the album. He has been touring since and the organisers of Druga godba discovered him on the internet.
It felt good to escape from the heat, sit down and listen to him singing about Burkina Faso.

Photo Tjasulja

KOROMANDIJA MIX

We have already mentioned the Koromandija world music shop on this pages. That happened for more reasons. One of them is, Koromandija is the only specialized world music shop, second would be, it's ran by DJ Tito. If you're into world music, you have to give him a visit on the riverbanks of Ljubljana.
But this is not the reason for this post. The thing is Tito hooked up with DJ Pier (RDYO Crew) to compile an ass-kicking mondomusic mix, you just have to listen to. Soooo, enough said...Enjoy the music!

GJ RECOMMENDS: DRUGA GODBA KICKS OFF

Here it is, every Slovene world music fan delight, festival Druga godba (Other music). For the last 25 years this festival tends to bring us sounds from places we've haven't even heard of. And we are grateful for it.
The 25th edition of the festival kicks off today, with concerts of Victor Deme from Burkina Faso, Branko Završan and Kar češ brass band, and the star of the evening Abd Al Malik. Now this guy has been declared the French musician of the year and not for nothing. He mixes hip hop, chanson, slam and jazz into a lively, socialy aware line of songs, you have to listen to, even if you don't understand a word French.
So this is tonight, but what awaits for us untill the 7th of June, when the festival closes with a concert of A filleta - a capella singers from Corsica? You al know Algerian superstar Khaled. Also performing will be a mighty interesting Spanish flamenco fusion Son de la Frontiera, the samba rhytms will be presented by the band Casuaria. We could go on for to long, so just check out the festival programme on their website.
We will be good listeners, attend the concerts and report about it of course. But here is a sneak preview to what you can here on Druga godba this year.


18.5. - 7.6. Ljubljana (different locations)

PHOTO OF THE MONTH - ANTIFA

We survived the holidays on 1st May and we proudly announce that we had a antifascist manifestation that was organized on a public holiday in Slovenia, The Day of the Resistance 27th April! Manifestating can be quite tiring so afterwards everybody was invited to the antifascistic party that was held in Rog Factory. Dj Tito was one of the musicians performing and got caught by photo camera of our devoted party girl Mojca. Don’t forget you are welcome to send us any kind of picture and get a free entrance to our next event!