FAREWELL SHALABIYE, YA DUNYA & LUMEN AVAILABLE AT CD BABY, BOL.COM, AMAZON.COM OR iTUNES
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For Holland contact your local recordshop, or buy LUMEN directly from the band by using our online store. NO blues is a productiehuis ON project, check out more ONusual stuff at
AD VAN MEURS (guitar)
Ad van Meurs started his musical career in the 70s as pianist with the folk rock-band Deirdre. In 1982 he formed the successful new wave band W.A.T. who were uniquely remarkable because of their special fusion between the synthesizer and (slide) guitar. By 1988, armed with his guitar and rythmbox he soldiered on under the guise of The Watchman.
HAYTHAM SAFIA (Ud, Arabic lute) Haytham Safia (1980) is from Kafr Yasif, a small town in Galilee. His passion for the U’d starts at an early stage. In 2001 he makes his debut as a performer in the Netherlands, where he acquires a firm position in the musical ensemble accompanying the Galili Dance Group: they tour through Europe. In 2002 he graduates with distinction at the Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem. Haytham Safia is in essence a classical Arabic musician, but his compositions and music are influenced by other musical styles such as Persian, Balkanian and jazz music.
ANNE-MAARTEN VAN HEUVELEN (double bass)
Anne-Maarten bought his first bass at the age of 15. His musical influence began with the blues but over the years he has been known to play jazz, punk, reggae and rock. After living and playing the gig circuit in New York he returned to the Netherlands as leadsinger and bass-player of the 50s style blues-band the Marbletones.
Booking NO blues in your venue? in Belgium:
Thomas Van der Spiegel Events
Mobile: +32 (0) 495 63 03 41
Fax: +32 (0) 52 35 59 97
E-mail: events@thomasvanderspiegel.com
www.thomasvanderspiegelevents.com
New NO blues cd is released in Holland in December 2008, Europe and US will follow in the spring of 2009! It is called LUMEN and Sophie Cavez (BE) on diatonic accordion & Raphaela Danksagmüller on Duduk are our special guests. You can support your NO blues musicians by buying the cd directly on this website. If you are living outside of Europe use the CDbaby button.
BUY LUMEN ON LINE USING PAYPAL SECURE PAYMENTS
For NO blues productiehuis ON invited Ad van Meurs, Haytham Safia and Anne-Maarten van Heuvelen; their assignment was to investigate the combination of American folk-blues and traditional Arabic music.
Both folk-blues and the Arabic taqsim (the improvised interplay without a fixed rhythm) are exceptionally suited for storytelling; the former in a somewhat rawer way, the latter mostly lyrical and melodic. In the same way as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie documented their era in the early 20th century, the instrumentalist is the torchbearer of a centuries-old tradition in the virtually unwritten Arabic music culture.
Traditional Arabic music differs from other music cultures in the way in which the music scale is subdivided. Thus the music can adopt forms that are nearly impossible in the western octave system.
At the first NO blues sessions in 2004 the musicians soon succeeded in establishing a singular integration of folk-blues and Arabic music. A real cross-breeding we call ARABICANA. A brand new sound that is created at the point where the river Eufraat and Tigris cross the Mississippi.
The sessions were concluded in 2004 and in 2005 the HT studio was visited in order to record the first album Farewell Shalabiye under the supervision of Ankie Keultjes.
After making waves with this album, a second album called Ya Dunya was released in February 2007. This album had 10 brand new tracks, including 3 songs together with Tracy Bonham on vocals and violin.
The cd also has a bonus cd with one song of each of the individual records of the musicians of NO blues. The cd is available at bol.com, iTunes, cdbaby and in all major recordstores in Europe.
Now the new cd Lumen is released. In the next couple of months NO blues will be touring Holland, France, Belgium, Mexico, the Tjech republic and Germany. We get a lot of demand to tour France again, but due to the fact we don't have management in France, no dates are available yet.
If you want us to keep you updated on new releases, gigs and gossip of NO blues, drop us a mail at noblues@oninternet.nl
NO blues & interviews @ Ottersum
NO blues @ Blues Alive festival Sumperk (Tjech television)
Live @ the 3daysON festival in Deventer 2008 with Tracy Bonham, Sophie Cavez en Tres Manos (interviews in Dutch, except for Tracy :-)
hey! just wanted to say hi and see what was cookin'? Nothin crazy new over here, just enjoying a peaceful morning. Have a great week :) much love ~adrian edward
