October 11, 2005

UCSB Arts & Lectures presents the breathtaking Bulgarian Bebop of the Yuri Yunakov Ensemble with Ivo Papasov at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Yuri Yunakov Ensemble with Ivo Papasov
• Two legends of Bulgarian and Romani wedding music
• Their thrilling mix of jazz, rock and indigenous folk music was outlawed by the Soviets
• Monday, November 14 / 8 pm
• UCSB Campbell Hall
• General public: $35 / UCSB students: $17
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535

Two legends of Bulgarian and Romani wedding music, saxophonist Yuri Yunakov and clarinetist Ivo Papasov, bring their high-energy music—once banned by the Soviets—to Santa Barbara for a dazzling concert on Monday, November 14 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. Mixing the kick of rock with the fluidity of jazz, the six-person Yuri Yunakov Ensemble plays mind-boggling unison runs and zigzagging melodies. Yunakov and Papasov are musical royalty in Bulgaria, performing in front of crowds of over 10,000 fans. The Minneapolis City Pages calls their music “wild and woolly...daring, exotic, driving.” Amazon.com writes, “Its stripped-down sound is driving, its musicianship super, and the resulting music is as vibrant as anything in or from the Balkans....Melodic surprises abound, the soloing by all the musicians is deft, and the overall sound is a musical party just looking for dancers.”

The ensemble performs music from the Balkan countries of Bulgaria and Macedonia that is renowned for its haunting melodies, dense ornamentation, complex rhythms and stunning improvisations. The geographical position of the Balkans in southeastern Europe and hundreds of years of Ottoman Turkish rule have created a wealth of influences from both East and West.

The ensemble plays in a contemporary style called “wedding music,” named for its ubiquitous presence at life cycle celebrations such as weddings and baptisms where dancing and music are a requirement. This style, which gained popularity in the 1970s, emphasizes virtuosic technique, improvisation, rapid tempos, daring key changes and eclectic musical literacy. A multiplicity of styles, such as jazz and rock, and a multiplicity of sources, such as Turkish and Indian music, are combined with rural and urban Balkan folk music. In Bulgaria, “wedding music,” while officially suppressed by the socialist government, thrived in private settings as a means of countercultural expression.

The Ensemble’s program weaves a texture of both instrumental and vocal music from contrasting regions of the Balkans performed in the Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian and Romani (Gypsy) languages. Texts express the experiences of village and urban living and the joys and sorrows of life among Roma. The Rom repertoire highlights songs reflecting the marginalization of Roma from mainstream society. Roma, an ethnic group originally from India, have played a central role in the professional folk music of every country of the Balkans. Persecuted throughout history, Roma have recently become the target of numerous violent attacks in Eastern Europe.

Saxophonist Yuri Yunakov was born in Haskovo, Bulgaria, of Turkish Rom ancestry and currently lives in the New York City area. His career began with the band Mladost and he subsequently began a 10 year collaboration with Ivo Papasov and Trakiya. Yunakov is Bulgaria’s most famous saxophonist. Together with the Trakiya orchestra Yunakov has played at hundreds of weddings in his native Bulgaria, and has toured extensively in Europe and North America. In 1989 he was featured on NBC-TV with saxophonist David Sanborn. He appears on Gypsy Fire, a CD of Turkish music on Traditional Crossroads. He is the director of the Yuri Yunakov Ensemble, and is in great demand among the Macedonian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Turkish, Armenian and Rom communities in the New York area.

Master clarinetist Ivo Papasov—the King of Wedding Music—was born in 1952 in Kurdzhali, Thrace, Bulgaria. He is the most famous practitioner of Bulgaria’s most favored musical format. Papasov and his Orchestra tour the Balkans, playing several weddings a week (many couples will re-arrange the dates of their ceremonies to coincide with a blank entry in his schedule). He descends from a long line of zurna (double-reed instrument) and clarinetists. After forming his first ensemble in 1974, he gradually evolved from a traditional Thracian repertoire into a jazz-inspired improvisational set. This new work nevertheless maintains the complex time-signatures required of traditional Bulgarian dance music.

The Yuri Yunakov Ensemble with Ivo Papasov are presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Santa Barbara Independent and Ramada Limited. Tickets are $35 for the general public and $17 for UCSB students who must show valid ID at ticket purchase and the evening of the show.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.