With a dozen horn players and two percussionists, Inspector Gadje is a leading force on the Bay Area’s thriving Balkan music scene, specializing in the gorgeous, celebratory music of southeastern Europe’s Roma people. Adding a 1000-watt jolt of energy to the band is special guest Ismail Lumanovski, the Macedonian-born clarinet virtuoso who was the first Roma musician to graduate from Juilliard. He’s become a regular collaborator with Gadje over the past six years, drawing sold-out crowds for all-night sweat-soaked performances as part of the Kafana Balkan dance party series. For this special event, the overlapping realms of Balkan brass and klezmer bass converge with the addition of trumpet great Frank London, a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning Klezmatics. Featuring original music by London, Lumanovski, and Gadje, plus traditional Balkan songs that pierce the heart, stir the soul and move the body, this promises to be an epic party in the Gardens.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
And supported in part by: