Tag: balalaika

jazz

Peter Pussarnig – Jazz and World Music with Guitar,…

I have recently discovered some great music by Peter Pussarnig. The sound of the mandolin in the track Anahata from Peter Pussarnigs CD “Autumn Song” inspired me to listen to more music by this artist. In this great video some people were filmed as they heard the track for the very first time – a great idea! In another track – Sarangi Mandolin Didgeridoo – obviously recorded in India Peter Pussarning also plays the mandolin.

Peter Pussarning has studied at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Graz. He plays all kinds of instruments, including guitar, sitar, baglama, mandolin, shanti drum, balalaika, bass and electronics.

I have compiled a playlist with videos by Peter Pussarning and the PP3 Trio. The playlist starts with Anahata. The second video is another great composition with guitar and tabla titled wanderlust.

Playlist Peter Pussarnig Trio – PP3

Additional Information

Website Peter Pussarnig

Instruments: guitars, sitar, bağlama, mandolin, shanti drum, balalaika, bass & electronics

Peter Pussarnig has studied jazz guitar under the supervision of Guido Jeszenszky at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria. As a traveling musician he has learned how to play, among others, bağlama in Istanbul, Turkey and sitar with Shri Druva Nath Mishra in Varanasi, India. Being part of more than hundred projects, from playing to recording, shows his variety in styles and a great diversity of musical influences.
In 2015 “Autumn Song”, the debut album of his trio was released by Alessa Records.

Youtube channel Peter Pussarnig

Website University of Music and Performing Arts Graz

Related post in my German blog gezupftes.de:

Russia

IZUMRUD – Great Band with Domra, Balalaika and Accordion…

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The Group IZUMRUD from Ekaterinburg in Russia is one of the most progressive band playing Russian folk instruments like domra, balalaika or the accordion bayan today.

In 2012 the band played at the Picknick Jazz Festival in Tomsk. Several pieces played at this festival are available in a long youtube video that includes interviews (in Russian language) with the band members. The second part of this video shows the performance of the American singer Mary McBride who had been invited for several concerts in Russia in 2012.

The members of IZUMRUD  are:

  • Michail Sidorov – balalaika, artistic leader
  • Nadezhda Zhikhareva – domra
  • Svetlana Solovey – domra
  • Rinat Yakupov – accordion
  • Konstantin Prokoshin – counter-bass
  • Evgeni Khantchin – percussion
  • Edward Smolenskiy-sound engineer

группа ИЗУМРУД (IZUMRUD) г. Екатеринбург

izumRUd from Ekaterinburg – concert at the Picknick Jazz Festival in Tomsk.

The videos of the past years show the many faces of Izumrud. At the jazz festival they played a more powerful style, with heavy drums and an electric bass balalaika. The group has performed together with other rock- and jazz-bands. Together with the singer Veronika Bulycheva IZUMRUD has recorded the music for the documentary “Voyage de l’Oural à Paris”. For some performances actors or dancers have been integrated in the performance. But also the band members themselves are taking part in the dance performaces, especially for the encores.

In 2011 Izumrud played a concert in Spain. The complete concert has been filmed and is available at youtube (12 videos). I have included those videos into my playlist.

IZUMRUD in Spanien (2011)

The piece with the title “Western” reminds me of the famous song “House of the rising sun”.

A piece with a great dance performance:

Czardas byMonti

Another great performance – the Czardas by Monti played on the xylophone. At the end of the performance the percussionist plays the piece again with covered eyes and a covered xylophone. Read more “IZUMRUD – Great Band with Domra, Balalaika and Accordion from Ekaterinburg (Russia)” →

band

Katzenjammer – “A Kiss Before You Go”- The Best…

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It is just one week that the new CD by the Norwegian Women Quartet Katzenjammer has been published in Germany. Since I have discovered Katzenjammer two years ago this quartet – four women from Norway – has made a big development. They have toured through Germany and Europe and played at many festivals.

Their song I will dance (when I walk away) might be No. 1 in the charts of one of the most popular radio stations SWR3 this week.

So I have tried to find the best video clips and information about Katzenjammer at the moment.

Katzenjammermake great performances with their big collection of instruments, including the mandolin in many songs, a banjo, guitars, piano, glockenspiel and their very special instrument: the bass balalaika painted with a cats face. But you can also hear accordion, cans, a washboard, harmonica, drumset, trumpet and many other instruments.

Also their singing is great and powerfull. They can play in sing in many different styles and sometimes they are very funny too.

Enjoy my collection of new and great videos with Katzenjammer!

Katzenjammer @ Sat1 TV Cherry Pie

Katzenjammer Introduction

Katzenjammer “Land of Confusion”

Playlist Katzenjammer – Aktuelle Videos Sommer 2011

 

Additional Information

Homepage Katzenjammer with the official video clip of  “I Will Dance”: http://www.katzenjammer.no/

A great video from a concert in Hamburg produced by CORETV – 30 minutes with great images and great songs by Katzenjammer: http://www.core-tv.de/archive/katzenjammer

CORE✮TV April ’11 – Katzenjammer from CORE✮TV on Vimeo.

Interview: http://www.yaez.de/Musik/849-Katzenjammer-Girlgroup-auf-norwegisch.html

Katzenjammer unplugged at SWR3 (German radio station): http://www.swr3.de/musik/Ganz-und-gar-kein-Katzenjammer/-/id=47316/did=1193194/1tuuma4/index.html

My blog post from  August 2009 (most viewed post in my German blog gezupftes.de: http://www.gezupftes.de/?p=375

Russia

The Red Sarafan – Dimitry Kalinin – Balalaika Virtuoso…

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The Red Sarafan is a well known Russian song that I have found a long time ago in the mandolin method by Ernesto Köhler published in 1887 by the Zimmermann publishing company.

I have looked through this method recently and thought that I should watch some videos of this song. So I found this video with a great version played by the balalaika virtuoso Dimitry Kalinin and the Academic Orchestra of Russian Folk Instruments of the Russian State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company.

A. Varlamov. – The Red Sarafan

Dmitry Kalinin, balalaika. The Academic Orchestra of Russian Folk Instruments of the Russian State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company.

From Dimitry Kalinins homepage:

Dmitry Kalinin, was born in Moscow in 1978. He began to play the balalaika at the age of 7 and now he is one of the most recognized professional balalaika performers in Russia.

Dimitry Kalinin has played the music for many films, he composes and is a conductor for several orchestras. You can find many videos of his activities in his youtube channel. In those videos you can hear typical Russian music, but also arrangements of western music like music by George Gershwin or performaces with a Japanes player of the Shamisen.

One interesting video shows Dimitry Kalinin with his Balalaika quartet playing Smoke on the Water:

Smoke on the water – Deep Purple

Dmitry Kalinin`s Balalaika quartet.

Homepage Dimitry Kalinin: http://dmitrykalinin.com/

youtube channel Dimitry Kalinin: http://www.youtube.com/user/dmitrykalinin

Another interesting version of The Red Sarafan, played by the Meteor Quartet, with two domras, a bass balalaika and a bayan (accordeon):

Meteor – eine russische Legende 08

To end with here I have a very special version of  The Red Sarafan taken from an old 78 record – this version is played by three singing saws:

Der rote Sarafan – Russisches Volkslied

Telefunken – M 6021 (19823)
Der rote Sarafan (The red Sarafan)
Played on singing saw by Dr. Otto Frederich and his ensemble.

Composition by Nikolaj Grigorjewitsch Ziganof (1797-1831) and Alexander Warlamoff (1801-1848)

A Sarafan (Russian: сарафан, from Persian sеrāрā) is a traditional Russian long, shapeless jumper dress (pinafore) worn as Russian folk costume by women and girls.

It was the dress worn by peasant girls and women in the central and northern part of Russia until the 20th century. Russian women from the upper and middle classes stopped wearing traditional Russian costume, apart from the kokoshniks as part a court dress in the 18th century, during Peter the Great’s modernization of Russia (although the clothing style of Russian aristocrats differed greatly from those of commoners). It is now worn as folk costume for performing Russian folk songs and folk dancing.

I have just prepared a scan of the mandolin method by Ernesto Köhler and added it to my homepage as a free download from this page: