About Janam “An innovative ensemble that explores a dizzying range of styles, from Appalachia and Asia Minor to Eastern Europe. The sextet plays swirling, hard-driving music that always seems to end up in unexpected places.” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“This fine group goes on a world tour of Eastern Europe ... with no cultural jet lag.” JOSEF WOODARD, SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT

Janam (“my soul”) creates a compelling, eclectic mix of Balkan, Romani, Turkish, Sephardic and American roots music, plus inspired originals. These sultry rhythms and soul-stirring melodies deliver a dance- and trance-inducing groove that carries the listener from the shores of the Black Sea to the foothills of the Appalachians. Founded by extraordinary vocalist and former music director of Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble, Juliana Graffagna, Janam features several of the Bay Area’s most innovative interpreters of Southern Balkan and Near Eastern traditional music. Janam’s collective experience includes literally decades of national and international touring, participation in local super groups Brass Menazeri, Stellamara, Edessa, and Gamelan X, and performances with Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares and Mr. Lif.

The players in Janam were drawn together in 2008 out of a common love and deep respect for the richness, variety, complexity, and enduring beauty of the music of the Balkans, Turkey, and America’s mountain regions. Each musician has spent years exploring the deep well of these traditional musical forms. To- gether, Janam strives to create music that is fresh, soulful and texturally rich. The songs tell stories of penetrating dark eyes, nightingales, prison walls, growing old, passion - the universal stuff of life – through captivating tonalities, sultry harmonies, and driving rhythms. In addition to Albanian, Macedonian, Hungar- ian, Greek, Turkish, Sephardic Jewish, Romani (“Gypsy”) and Appalachian roots music, Janam’s repertoire includes original compositions and arrangements inspired by the modalities and meters of these musical traditions.

Janam features: Juliana Graffagna: vocals, percussion Dan Auvil: percussion Tom Farris: , guitar, accordion, percussion Gari Hegedus: , , mandocello Peter Jaques: , ney, vocals

Band Bios

Janam’s founder Juliana Graffagna has been singing Eastern European traditional and choral music since 1988. As a vocalist and former music director of the internationally acclaimed women’s ensemble Kitka (http://www.kitka.org), Juliana has performed extensively throughout the U.S. and Eastern Europe. She has studied with master vocalists Tzvetanka Varimezova, Mariana Sadovska, Merita Halili, Donka Koleva, Carl Linich and Christos Govetas. Juliana’s supple and soul- ful voice has appeared on numerous recordings and film soundtracks. Janam features:

It was love at first sight 30 years ago when Dan Auvil saw the large, two-headed drum called the tupan. He is a masterful percussionist on a variety of Balkan and Middle Eastern hand drums. Dan was a founding member of Édessa and Ziyiá (www.ziyia.com) and has toured and taught nationally and internationally. He currently plays with Trio Zulum (http://www.balkantunes.org/triozulum) and The Mehanatones (http://www.myspace.com/mehanatones).

Tom Farris has been playing in Bay Area Balkan rhythm sections since 1994. He is a passionate and talented multi-instrumentalist, playing a variety of drums and stringed instruments. A longtime member of Anoush, Brass Menazeri, and Top Dog Run, Tom currently plays with The Helladelics (http://www.helladelics. com) and Izvorno Icepick. Tom also writes and records his own folk-rock songs.

An extraordinary and soulful musician, Gari Hegedus plays violin, viola and a variety of stringed instruments from Greece and Turkey including lauoto, oud, saz and hand drums. Gari plays in the duo Teslim with violinist Kaila Flexer (http://www.kailaflexer.com/teslim), and performs with world music group Stella- mara (http://www.stellamarra.com) and Persian vocalist Hamed Nikpay (http://www.hamednikpay.com). He has studied with oud master Naseer Shamma and has recorded and performed with Ross Daly. He has toured with the Mevlevi Dervish (Sufi) Order of America and continues to participate in Turkish ceremo- nial and devotional gatherings around the country.

Peter Jaques (http://www.huzzam.com) has been a fixture of the Bay Area Near Eastern music scene since 1995. His style combines traditional Turkish, Greek, & Balkan Rom styles with his own, deeply soulful approach. He performs principally on the Bb clarinet & , as well as Turkish G clarinet, alto saxophone, & Egyptian nay (reed ). Peter also directs the Brass Menazeri Balkan Brass Band (http://www.brassmenazeri.com), and plays with Dan Cantrell’s Megaband (http://www.bellowhead.com), Stellamara, a Middle-eastern/Balkan/world fusion ensemble (http://www.stellamara.com), and Gamelan X, a hybrid proces- sional gamelan orchestra based on traditional Balinese baleganjur (http://www.gamelanx.com)