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Roger and Joe are participating in a special evening of Middle Eastern Music March 1, 2008, 8pm: Al-Bustan and Swarthmore College present a concert of Classical Arabic Music with A.J. Racy and MidEast Ensemble (featuring Roger, Joe, along with William Tayoun, Adeeb Refella, and Hafez el-Ali), at Lang Performing Arts Center at Swarthmore College in Media, PA. More details to follow...
Jaffna has spent the last 13 years working toward creating an ambitious form of acoustic music where the influences of India and the Middle East blend together as one. While this was a deliberate recipe during the early years, the group has emerged with its own distinct sound which combines these influences (with touches of jazz, flamenco, the Balkans) into something unique and identifiable in itself.
Shifting tonalities, time signatures and dynamics, the music of Jaffna can be both meditative and intense. Much of the way their music is arranged comes as a result of the excitement the group creates playing together. This interplay, resulting in inspired improvisations or precision ensemble playing, goes far beyond just jamming or "trying to play each others' music".
Jaffna, named after the home town in Sri Lanka of tabla player Branavan Ganesan, has had many incarnations over the years, but its roots lie in the Indian and Middle Eastern backgrounds of its members. Ganesan's background includes studies of Hindustani and Carnatic music traditions; Raji Malik (guitar and sarod) has studied Hindustani music and is an accomplished rock musician; Roger Mgrdichian (oud, saz) has played Armenian, Turkish and Arabic traditional music for years, often alongside Joseph Tayoun (dumbek, riq) whose family's Middle East Restaurant in Philadelphia was the initial meeting ground for these, as well as many other world and folk musicians in the early 1990's.
Jaffna has recorded two CDs: Acoustic Allies (1996) and Mandala (2004). Both are available by contacting us via email. Both are also offered through CD Baby (see the link on the left) which features a wonderful selection of traditional and world fusion music.
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