March 28, 2024
Archive

Global influences put punctuation on Slavic Soul Party!

Slavic Soul Party! lives up to its name, exclamation point included. An exciting, adventurous blend of Balkan brass, New Orleans jazz, funk, soul, traditional Gypsy music, Mexican party music and myriad other styles, the Brooklyn-based nine-piece brass band are set to play at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 12, at the Bangor Opera House. Tickets are $15 at the Penobscot Theatre box office, and at the door.

Slavic Soul Party! formed years ago as a five-piece band, as Matt Moran, percussion and vibraphone player and leader of the group, sought to break out of the New York jazz scene he’d been immersed in since moving to the city in 1995. He wanted something a little more soulful in his life.

“I was looking to bring some heart and feet into my life and community, as opposed to some of the more intellectual music that many of my peers and I were playing,” said Moran. “I wanted to do my take on the Balkan music I’d been playing with these immigrant musicians. My job with them was to help them express their own traditions, but I kept bringing in different elements. I figured I better start my own band.”

Thus was born Slavic Soul Party!, a musical testament to the richness of immigrant life in New York City. The band has released three albums, 2002’s “In Makedonija,” 2005’s “Bigger” and the most recent release, 2007’s “Technochek Collision,” gradually expanding to the current lineup of musicians. Naturally, more and more stylistic elements keep creeping in, thanks to the diverse backgrounds of all the players in the band.

“Everyone in the band runs the whole gamut of backgrounds,” said Moran. “From Peter Stan, who’s our accordion player, who is of Serbian and Romanian descent and is the go-to man for Gypsy accordion in New York; to Oscar Noriega, who played Mexican party music growing up in Arizona and later became a great jazz player.”

Moran refers to the music they play as “neighborhood” music, as the band plays every Tuesday at Barbes, a bar in Park Slope (the Brooklyn neighborhood where the group is based) where you might hear a kora player from West Africa one night, and a French violinist the next.

“Where I live in Brooklyn, if I’m out walking the streets I’m gonna hear Mexican bands. Bangladeshi pop. Albanian and Gypsy music. All sorts of things,” said Moran. “We can’t avoid the influences of immigration and globalization and proximity. The influences come from where we live.”


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like