ARABANDA BIO

Arabanda is a new Brussels based music project founded by singer Laïla Amezian and accordion player Piet Maris. Their paths had crossed before with Ishq, the classical arabic music project by Weshm, but more importantly with the band Jaune Toujours. Based on these experiences a more elaborate collaboration seemed the logical thing to do and Arabanda was born.

Arabanda proposes songs from the Arabo-Andalusian repertoire. Laïla and Piet approach this age-old repertoire in a fresh and singular way, moulding it in their own arrangements and their personal interpretations. Laïlas singing is sometimes unconventional for this genre and the characteristic style in which Piet plays his accordion, supported by the rythm section of drums and double bass and the brass and reeds section, make Arabanda a very innovative project.

Laïla Amezian: vocals - likes to explore different music styles from jazz over worldmusic to electronic. She collaborates on the world-dance project Studio Pagol and sings with the vocal quatuor Ys. She s participated in the creation of La Fiancée de L Eau by Tahar Ben Jelloun (Cie Les Nouveaux Disparus), and of Inn Tidar (Les Ballets du Grand Maghreb, co-production KunstenFestivaldesArts). Laïla also sang in Ishq by Weshm and also with Oblomow.

Piet Maris: accordion - is the driving force and frontman of Jaune Toujours and Mec Yek. Jaune Toujours is a cross-over of rock, chanson, jazz and world music. Their intelligent and poetic lyrics in french and flemish translate a sincere social commitment. Mec Yek plays songs in Romanes (a gypsy language) from the Slovakian-gypsy repertoire, again in a fresh and original approach.

A concert by Arabanda is built up gradually. It starts intimately with just the singing and the accordion. As the concert progresses, the musical universe expands. Instruments are added one after the other and the music evolves in a more festiv atmosphere.

Théophane Raballand: drums and percussion - plays percussion at the Brussels contemporary dance school PARTS and is a band member of Jaune Toujours. Théo also proves to be a talented photographer, and as such he created the cover and the photographs for the albums of JauneToujours.

Mathieu Verkaeren: upright bass - plays a lot in the Brussels jazz scene, but also in neighbouring genres, as in the Django Reinhardt inspired Christophe Astolfi Quartet. And Mathieu is also a member of Jaune Toujours and Mec Yek.

Mattias Laga: sax soprano, clarinet and bass clarinet - is active in the music scene of Ghent, in jazz, folk and world music with projects like Azufaifo and Oblomov. Mattias is also a member of Jaune Toujours and Mec Yek.

Arabanda also features one of these trumpet players.

Bart Maris: trompet, bugle and tuba - is a well-known trumpet player in the avant-garde and jazz-scene. Next to Jaune Toujours, he plays in Flat Earth Society, Moker and occasionally with dEUS and Zita Swoon. In march of 2000, Bart won the Zamu-award for best musician and has been nominated twice again since then.

Yves Fernandez-Solino: trumpet and bugel ­ blows his horn like there ll be no tomorrow. Yves also plays with Ultrasonic, Hooverphonic and El Tattoo del Tigre.

Sam Versweyveld: trumpet, bugel, cornette and little trombone - is well-known in belgian jazz and dance. He is part of the live band of Buscemi and participates in several jazz projects, like the Chris Joris project and the Chris Mentens quintet. And in the early days of Jaune Toujours Sam used to play the electric bass in the band.