DJINBALA

Newspaper « Basellandschaftliche Zeitung » A new world is born Gypsy Music « Djinbala enthuse the audience in Basel with a mixture of gypsy folk, ethno and jazz » Marc Schaffner/ translation V. Naess
Basel. There are those magical moments, where the whole world seems to sink in a reeling. The music of Djinbala lives on the inebriated energy of such moments : An arpeggio on the accoustic guitar sounds in the background, a melody on the violin swings to unreal hights. The music goes faster and faster, strands of hair fly through the air, a hair of the violin bow breaks – then the groove from the bass and the drums starts and in the middle of this reeling a new world is born. And the world of Djinbala is huge : The swiss band hit the road from Kiev to Paris, from Bosnia to the Orient, from the U.S.A. to Switzerland during the concert in the venue « Parterre » in Basel. Just as well they swing to and fro between the genres, from gypsyfolk to jazz, from laid - back singer/songwriter to ethno- ballade. Anyhow it was peculiar, that everything sounded unmistakably like Djinbala. The confident appearance was due to the two principal performers Andrea Milova from Berne and David Cielbala from Delémont. Milova bounced from song to song with the hairstyle of a Medusa and the smile of Mona Lisa, her entire appearance a combination of jazz glamour and gypsy romance. Besides a head voice that gave off a natural exhilaration, desbite the minor, exactly like the violin. For the most part the guitarist and singer David Cielbala took a back seat. His voice also moved in the higher frequencies and joined the lead vocal of Andrea Milova enjoyably. Right from the start the band got down to brass tacks at a good pace and set priorities on polkas, tarantellas and dance pieces. In between the mafioso – melody from « the godfather », a lovely singing duet, a spot of lounge- jazz with guestmusician Stephan Urwyler on the electric guitar, then again ethno- folk. Giovanni Reber the expressive violinist from « Les Papillons » appeard later in the evening and enriched the mixture of genres with a good portion of virtuosity. The musicians deal fairly and respectfully with the musical material from different cultures. In spite of all the melancholy which belongs to gypsyjazz and –folk, the joy of life and music comes to the fore. The songs treat of love, dreams and sorrow, war and peace, music and sold souls.

Kenyata from The Majestic Twelve (U.S.A) about Djinbala