Jazz/World/Levantine/Balkan/Latin Music Night with Radio Banska – Sat 8th July

Doors 7.30pm. Start 8.15pm. Adv ticket £12. OTD ticket £15.

Join us for an amazing musical journey that will guarantee an enjoyable and highly accomplished performance from Radio Banska with high standards of the musicianship throughout.

Radio Banska was formed in 2009 by guitarist Dave Spencer and violinist and accordionist Nina Trott. Disillusioned with constantly playing standards or gypsy jazz sets the pair set out to do something different, exploring a variety of musical genres within an instrumental context, among them the sounds of the Middle East, the Balkans and Latin America. However rather than drawing on traditional folk music the band decided to focus on writing its own music in these various styles, the majority of the compositions coming from the pen of the prolific and highly inventive Spencer.

Finding a category for Radio Banska’s music has proved to be a difficult task. The band’s website describes them as “an instrumental jazz/world quartet fusing Levantine mystery, Balkan passion and Latin rhythms into powerful original compositions”, which sums things up pretty nicely. The band have also described their output as “music from around the world”, while “world jazz” represents a neat catch all term for their distinctive sound.

Check out these reviews:

• “. . . an extraordinarily powerful band, a kind of Levantine zeppelin! ” Listomania
• ” . . Radio Banska rips up the file marked ‘genre’ and throws the resultant musical confetti in the air for all to dance around in . . .” The Bell, Bath
• “Radio Banska are a delight of fusion jazz, essentially taking music of the Ottoman and Spanish empires and injecting it with a stiff shot of jazz rhythms to create a unique mix. A hidden gem at the festival they got a large, musically appreciative audience dancing and smiling : a rare thing in the often serious world of jazz. Catch them where you can!” Teignmouth Jazz Festival
• “Banska’s ground colouring is Levantine, with musico-geographic excursions elsewhere, the guitar often swinging ferociously with jazz and rock elements combined. Sometimes Balkan, often surreal, always hard-driving. Check them out, but carry a map of the Middle East!” Welsh Arts Review