Bobby Singh

Bobby Singh’s talent was recognised at an early age by Pandit Nikhil Ghosh, and became a student of his senior disciple Aneesh Pradhan, who remains his guru. Bobby is now a “must see” performer on the world music circuit as well as the Indian Classical scene. He has performed with Ashok Roy, Slava Grigoriyan, Joseph Tawadross and many cross-cultural ensembles including Flamenco Dreaming and The Bird. He currently works with Circle of Rhythm and Dha, amongst others.

Bobby Dimitrievski

Australian-born Macedonian clarinettist/saxophonist Blagojce (Bobby) Dimitrevski has degrees from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music but has also learned the old-fashioned way from his father Ivan. He has performed extensively in the Macedonian scene in Australia, with Balkan folk/jazz ensemble Mara! and with Nadya and the 101 Candles Orchestra. He can blister the paint off the walls.

Steve Elphick

Double-bassist Steve Elphick has been for many years regarded as one of Australia’s   most creative improvising musicians. He has made many overseas tours with folk-jazz group Mara! and played with jazz greats including Lee Konitz and Steve Lacey. In Australia he has performed and recorded extensively with cutting-edge improvising bands including The World According to James, The Andrew Robson Trio, Ten Part Invention, Bernie McGann Trio and The Umbrellas.

Llew Kiek

Another Australian World Music pioneer, Llew Kiek (bouzouki, bağlama, guitar, tambura, keyboards) has recorded 10 albums and performed in 20 countries with ARIA-winning folk-jazz group Mara! In Australia he has worked with The Bisserov Sisters, Tenzing Tsewang, Silvia Entcheva, Martenitsa, Nakisa, the Renaissance Players, Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre and singers Jeannie Lewis and Margret RoadKnight. Australian World Music Instrumentalist of the year 1999.

Sandy Evans

Saxophonist, composer and three-time ARIA-winner Sandy Evans is one of Australia’s leading performers in improvised music. She has played and recorded extensively in Australia and overseas the own Sandy Evans Trio, Clarion Fracture Zone, The catholics, austraLYSIS, the Australian Art Orchestra, MARA!, Bernie McGann, Waratah and many visiting American artists. Named Australian Jazz Artist of the Year at the 2003 Bells Awards. She is also heavily involved with Southern Indian Classical music.

George Doukas

Singer, composer and master of the bouzouki, baglama, tzouras and guitar, George Doukas has performed with such Greek luminaries as Sakellariou, Doukissa and Floriniotis as well as a multitude of local Greek artists. He was musical co-director for internationally-screened Concert 2000. In recent years he has has been involved in several exciting collaborations with musicians from a variety cultures, as in his own band Balcano.

Toby Hall

Drummer Toby Hall has played and recorded with outstanding Australian improvisers including Mike Nock, Lloyd Swanton, Bernie McGann, Alister Spence and Sandy Evans as well as leading his own groups. He has also played with many visiting performers including jazz vocal legend Sheila Jordan. Montreal Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, New York’s famous Knitting Factory – Toby’s been there, done that.

Sawung Jabo

Reformed rock star, dancer, singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, choreographer, actor, producer and social activist Sawung Jabo is well-versed in traditional Indonesian music and dance as well as contemporary forms. He is highly respected for the energy, beauty and passion of his words and music. He has released twelve top-selling albums in Indonesia, and performed in Japan, Korea and the US.

Blair Greenberg

Multi-instrumentalist Blair Greenberg has played guitar, steel drums, djembe, didgeridoo, marimba, darabukka and all kinds of percussion (not to mention electric neck) in many countries with Trio Dingo, Epizo Bangoura’s African Express, Muhammad Bangoura, Pape Mbaye, Zulya Kamalova, Christine Anu, The Flying Fruitfly Circus, the Electra String Quartet, Jeannie Lewis and the very strange Paranormal Music Society.

Davood Tabrizi

Davood Tabrizi studied percussion and Persian string instruments at Tehran Conservatorium and the Uni of Tehran before coming to Australia in 1979. He has performed in many pioneering cross-cultural bands including Tansey’s Fancy and Nakisa, toured America with his own group Far Seas, and has written award-winning scores for theatre productions and films including The Navigator and Serenades.

Linda Marr

Singer Linda Marr is one of the world music and a cappella scene’s most respected and talented personalities. Acknowledged as a pioneer in bringing world music to a wider audience in Australia, Linda has appeared on more than 20 CDs and toured extensively in Australia and overseas. A founding member of Musica Linda, Blindman’s Holiday and Keklik Aile, Linda has also performed with Tokakros, Cumana and with Kim in Nakisa.

Tony Lewis

Singapore born percussionist Tony Lewis has collaborated with leading musicians from many cultures, including Aboriginal dancer/musician Matthew Doyle, koto-player Satsuki Odamura, harmonic singer David Hykes and sitarist Raj Kumar Sharma. He has also worked with Southern Crossings, Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre, Nakisa, Waratah and Dhamor Percussion. He has studied and performed in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

Peter Kennard

Peter Kennard has studied drumming in West Africa and performed overseas with Colin Offord’s Great Bowing Company, the Turkish State Theatre, Stalker Theatre Company, Sirocco andCathie O’Sullivan. In Australia he has played with sarod virtuoso Ashok Roy, Lulo Reinhardt, Moussa Diyakite, the Flying Fruitfly Circus, Chai Chang Ning, Flamenco Dreaming, Heval and Brassov.

Ron Reeves

Percussionist Ron Reeves lived and studied for many years in Indonesia, and specialises in traditional instruments from West Java and South India. In a long and varied career he has played with the Trilok Gurtu, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Nigeria’s Lebe Olarinjo Masqueraders, the Karnataka College of Percussion, Billy Cobham, Hossam Ramzy,  heavy plastic band AC/PVC and with Kim in GengGong and Trio Dingo. He leads Indonesian-based groups Warogus and Earth Music.

Boyd

Enigmatic Kiwi Boyd is the composer of the Martian National Anthem. He also plays  bass and baritone saxophones with intergalactic intensity. He has performed with Mic Conway’s National Junk Band, Jackie Orszcaszki’s Budget Orchestra, Brassov and The Monday Club. The only member of Kim Sanders & Friends weighing less than his instrument, he is a genuine saxophone heavyweight.

Mark Szeto

Hong Kong born Mark Szeto plays double bass and fretless electric bass in a variety of styles. He has performed with Monsieur Camembert, the Sydney Opera House Orchestra and Sydney Chamber Orchestra.  His own band, Low Flying Hippies, released their debut CD Adventure Before Dementia in 2009.

Sam Golding

Multi-instrumentalist Sam Golding (trumpet, tenor horn, trombone,  sousaphone,  flutes, ukelele) performs in many musical settings from Senegalese Mbalax through traditional music from the Balkans, jazz small groups, reggae and cabaret. He is currently working hard with the bands Darth Vegas, The Glorious Sousaphonics, The Fantastic Terrific Munkle, Teranga, Tango Saloon and The Mango Balloon.

Mustafa Karami

Kurdish Iranian Mustafa Karami studied dhaf (traditional frame drum) at Karkars Music College in Tehran and is now recognised as a master of the instrument. He was declared Best Dhaf Player in Iran at the Festival of Dhaf in 2005,6,7. He also sings and plays oud.  Mustafa has performed throughout Iran with ensembles such as Madakto, Javidan, Bamdad and Salmak.  In Australia he has performed with Kim in Davood Tabrizi’s Far Seas.

James Greening

One of Australia’s leading improvising musicians, James Greening has been widely praised for his work on trombone, pocket trumpet, sousaphone and bass with Ten Part Invention, Wanderlust, The catholics, The Umbrellas, The Australian Art Orchestra, Ruby Hunter and Archie Roach, the  Sruthi Laya Ensemble, Matthew Doyle and various strange ensembles led by the late, great Jackie Orszaczky. He leads his own band The World According to James.

“What I wouldn’t give to have friends like these!” – Jaslyn Hall, ABC Limelight Magazine

“In a perfect world, these artists would figure among out national treasures” – Michael Rofe, Weekend Australian

“The music is sometimes mystical…but can also be full of tension and real virtuousity” – Eelco Schilder, Folkworld (UK/Germany)

As well as concert and festival performances, Kim Sanders & Friends are availble for special events, corporate functions, weddings and private parties.

Magical collective improvisation framed by lush melodies and anchored by hypnotic rhythms, drawing from the traditions of Turkish Sufi and folk music, Balkan Gypsy brass bands, West African grooves, Indian Classical music, flamenco, blues and jazz.

Featuring (in order of height):

• Sandy Evans: soprano and tenor saxes
• Carlos Villanueva: charango
• Bobby Singh: tabla
• Kim Sanders: ney, Turkish gaida, aardvark, kaval, mey, tenor sax, saluang
• George Doukas: bouzouki, Greek baglama
• Llew Kiek: Turkish baglama
• Steve Elphick: double bass

The CD was produced by Tony Gorman, engineered by Ross A’Hern and mastered by Paul Bryant. The project was assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding advisory body.

What the critics say about Bent grooves

“That asinine term ‘world music’ actually acquires some meaning when applied to the art of Kim Sanders. The Sydney multi-instrumentalist has stewed in musical melting pots from Indonesia to Gambia and is especially steeped in the sounds of Turkey and Eastern Europe. Having absorbed these traditions, he plays within or without them as suits his creative impulses.

Sanders’s long-term collaboration with tabla player Bobby Singh stretches the sonic world of Asia Minor eastward, towards the subcontinent, just as Steve Elphick’s bass and Sandy Evans’s saxophone bring jazzier sensibilities to bear. But Sanders never forces square pegs into round holes and his musical imagination unfolds with a marvellous fluidity, like a river being fed by many tributaries, with the main flow mingling beautiful, often melancholy melodies with evocative rhythms and exotic textures.

His own braying tenor saxophone, assorted wistful flutes and sometimes imperious bagpipes radiate a joy in having such open dialogues with his gifted collaborators; dialogues that have been superbly recorded.” – John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald

“What I wouldn’t give to have friends like these!…Bent Grooves is an instrumental CD, beautifully measured and layered” – Jaslyn Hall, ABC Limelight Magazine

“No ‘world fuzak’ here!” – Doug Spencer, Producer, The Weekend Planet, ABC Radio National

Click here for samples!

Trance’n'Dancin

Kim Sanders’  CD Trance’n'Dancin is an exploration of trance music, from the etherial flights of the ney flute used in the rituals of Turkey’s Mevlevi Dervishes to the hypnotic dance-rhythms of the Balkans. It also features the world’s first composition for Bulgarian bagpipe and Hammond organ.

Featuring Kim Sanders: Turkish ney (Sufi flute), kaval (Bulgarian wooden flute), Bulgarian and Turkish gaidas (bagpipes), aardvark (Turkish/Bulgarian/Australian hybrid bass bagpipe), mey (Turkish double reed), saluang (Sumatran flute) & Peter Kennard: dhaf, bendir, darabukka, megabukka, riq, zills, gong-on-a-mattress, wood-blocks, dried budgies, surdo, ride cymbal, harmonium, keyboards, chan, another cymbal

What the critics say about Trance’n'Dancin

“Sublime, haunting…The album is a beautifully shaped journey from the spacious taksims to fast and upbeat dance tunes… Sanders has spent years studying the music of Turkey and the Balkans and his passion and skill for this music are clearly evident in this superb album.” – Oonagh Sherrard for www.indie-cds.com

“There is a profound dignity about the expression of sadness in Turkish music. With neither histrionics nor sentimentality, the sadness is distilled into beauty. Kim Sanders has immersed himself in this culture for years and achieves an extraordinarily haunting sound on ney (Dervish flute) for the rubato improvisations on this haunting album. He is accompanied by Peter Kennard, whose realisatons of the slowest tempos in tricky time signatures is a marvel of meditative concentration and execution.” – John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald

“What stirs you throughout this album is the realisation that the breath is what brings you closer to God, that is the ‘ruh’ or the soul. Kim’s brand of music is based on the movement of breath and an inner connection to the mind and spirit. The album is a must for world music conoisseurs and anyone who enjoys the world of Islam.” – Kuranda Seyit, Australia Fair, Dec 05

“A major part of this album is a modern interpretation of Traditional Mevlevi (Whirling Dervish) and Balkan dance music. Yet it loses none of the meditative and languid qualities of the original trance music…The real beauty of the album is the way that the bulk of the tracks achieve the near impossible feat of exuding a sound that is elegiac but at the same time spirited. The hauntingly beautiful “Gidemem Siraza Ben” is almost heartrending in this technically masterful and emotionally uplifting intertwining of the plaintive with the exuberant… Multi- instrumentalist Kim Sanders achieves total command over all his instruments and together with Peter Kennard has produced a masterful album which is an ideal vehicle for a breakthrough to a wider audience.” – Dush Perera, Jazz’n'Blues www.corporatenews.com.au

“This is an energetic and distinctive blend of virtuoso playing from multi-instrumentalist Kim Sanders, masterfully accompanied by Peter Kennard’s magic trunk of percussion… Trance’nDancin features several different fascinating musical styles – Sufi meditations, Turkish lullabies, trance music, folk tunes- as well as an enigmatic track, “Solitary Circumambulation”, which Sanders claims is the world’s first composition for gaida (Balkan bagpipes) and Hammond organ. Sanders is a relentless champion of world music and this CD celebrates the freshness and sheer excitement of the Balkan and Turkish traditions with added new twists and a funky rhythm section to create a joyful session of music for listening or dancing” – Jas Hall, ABC Limelight Magazine

You Can’t Get There From Here

Kim Sanders and Friends’ ARIA-nominated CD You Can’t Get There From Here showcases traditional pieces from the Balkans and Middle-East and original pieces including “Hepimiz Deliyiz” (“We’re All Crazy”), first performed at the Ataturk Cultural Centre with the Istanbul State Modern Folk Music Ensemble, 2001. Demented Gypsy-style collective improvisation, Indo-Turkish grooves and more…

Kim Sanders: ney, kaval, mey, duduk, saluang, Bulgarian and Turkish gaidas, aardvark, tenor sax, gong Bobby Singh: tablas Sabahattin Akdagcik: baglama, oud, yayli tambur Steve Elphick: double bass Peter Kennard: percussion and Epizo Bangoura: djembe, balafon.

What the critics say about You Can’t Get There From Here

This is a dream of an album, full of emotion and skill – Carina Prange, Jazz Dimensions (Germany)

I was immediately conquered by the beauty of the arrangements, the high degree of musicianship and the perfect selection of the tunes featured there – Massimo Ferro, Radio Voce Spazio (Italy)

A gem …Great sounds, textures, clever improvisation over tricky rhythms, an album for conoisseurs – Dieter Bajzek, Folk Alliance Australia

A beautifully-balanced mixture of traditional and contemporary sounds from Turkey, West Africa, India and the Balkans …A fantastic array of moods and charms – K S Seyit, Australian Muslim News

Plenty of beautiful, breathcatching moments – Craig N. Pearce, Drum Media

You are sure to want to linger in this musical mystery land – Bernard Zuel, Sydney Morning Herald

Deliciously eclectic! – Doug Spencer, Producer, The Planet, ABC Radio National

Buying Kim’s CDs

Bent Grooves, Trance’n'Dancin and You Can’t Get There From Here are available directly from Kim at kimzgaida@hotmail.com or from:

• Indie-CD’s www.indie-cds.com
• Trad & Now www.duckscrossing.org/tradshop
• Birdland (Sydney city) www.birdland.com.au
• Lamdha Books (Wentworth Falls, NSW) www.lamdhabooks.com.au
• Mara! Music www.maramusic.com

“Saba Nefes II” is included in the compilation “Groove Medicine – Groove Music” from Music Mosaic.  Individual tracks or full album downloadable online – http://www.music-mosaic.com/ecom/groove-music-medicine.php

You Can’t Get There From Here , Trance’n'Dancin and Bent Grooves are now available online from iHear Music. You can download single tracks or whole albums.  iHear Music supports Australian musicians – support them if you can!

From the Archives:

Unfortunately Brassov’s World-Gypsy-Jazz CD “Chronic Rhythmosis” and  Indonesian World Fusion band GengGong’s “Not Just Music” are sold out and no longer available, but “Chronic Rhythmosis” is now also available online through iHear Music.

There are still a few copies available of pioneering Australian World Music group Nakisa’s Camels in the City CD and Nakisa’s first album Insallah (LP/cassette  format only)

Kim has also recorded with:

Phanari tis Anatolis,  Oppie Andaresta, Oguz Yilmaz,  Setiawan Djody, Silvia Entcheva Trio, Flamenco Dreaming, Indiajiva, Tansey’s Fancy, Seaweed and Wire, Chichitote, Caiseal Mor, Rick-e-Dee, Bob Wheatley, Sabahattin Akdagcik’s SASOM, David Hobson, Blair Greenberg, Roger Mason, Rabadaki, Tony Lewis/Aboriginal and Islander Dance Theatre, Turkish Art Music Ensemble, Global Roots, ABC Childrens’ series “0-9″  and others…