Opa! We will be back Saturday March 8th at the Rickshaw Stop for our 18th Anniversay! We’ll be featuring bombastic Balkan Brass with Ismail Lumanovski & Inspector Gadje Balkan Brass Band featuring "Briana Di Mara,Diana Gameros, Kata Miletich, Naima Shalhoub" Belly Dance by the fabulous Jill Parker, DJ Željko .
The dance floor will be hopping!
See footage here https://youtu.be/_Mx2u-RdW5Q?list=RD_Mx2u-RdW5Q where a line formed around the block, incited an all-night sweat soaked dance party, and ecstatic memories still resonating with those lucky enough to have been there.

Virtuoso clarinetist ISMAIL LUMANOVSKI, a star of the Balkan music scene in the U.S. and abroad, and one of the most popular Romani musicians, performs internationally and leads the New York Gypsy Allstars. Ismail is perhaps the first Roma clarinet player to graduate from the Juilliard School of Music in New York. His sui generis mastery of Western classical and Eastern folk music have elevated both musics to new heights, and indeed to new octaves in the clarinet.

INSPECTOR GADJE Balkan Brass Band brings a big sound to the beautiful and bumpin' brass band music of the Balkans. With 14 musicians sharing the stage, Inspector Gadje is an acoustic dance machine that makes the party move! A "... RIP ROARING MAD BALKAN BRASS BEDLAM" (KPFA'S Stephen Kent, “Music of the World”) and an "instant party atmosphere” (The SF Chronicle).
STEPHEN JAY is a three-time Peabody Award winning composer, bassist and multi-instrumentalist, featured on five GRAMMY winning songs. www.stephenjay.com. He's also been touring the world as a key member of Weird Al Yankovich's band since its inception.

JILL PARKER is an international, award winning belly dancer. She is an instructor, choreographer, and founder of the modern tribal fusion belly dance movement. She's an exceptional belly dance teacher with a gift for demystifying this sensuous form, making its techniques accessible to new dancers, while offering tremendous insight for refinement to advanced dancers. With over two decades of experience, she has trained many of the top dancers in the genre. Jill is an original member of Fat Chance Belly Dance, founder of Ultra Gypsy. She teaches weekly classes at ODC Commons (SF)

About the presenters: Kafana Balkan was the first ongoing Balkan dance party in San Francisco and is the only one of its kind in the Bay Area. Željko hails from Serbia by way of Frankfurt, and, lucky for us, he now calls San Francisco home. DJ Željko has discriminating taste, a seemingly endless collection of great Balkan albums, and love and joy for his music, a crowd-pleasing, danceable Balkan brass sound. Željko promotes Balkan music and culture by producing Kafana Balkan roughly 3 times a year. Since February 2015, he's joined by Marco Peris Coppola, Creative Co Strategist and Co Booker, who is helping Kafana Balkan grow.

There will be Rakija -delectable Serbian plum brandy. Warning: :drink at your own risk:
More on Ismail Lumanovski - https://www.ismaillumanovski.com
More on Inspector Gadje - https://www.inspectorgadje.com
More on Kafana Balkan -www.facebook.com/kafana.balkan
More on Jill Parker - www.jillparkerbellydance.com See less
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