Band history
Fishtank Ensemble first formed and performed together at The Fishtank in Oakland, California in January 2004. They are one of many bands to be commonly associated with the California-based eclectic indie band Estradasphere. The band's premiere performances were recorded live. These recordings would become the band's debut full-length CD, Super Raoul , which was released November 2005.
In November 2007, Fishtank Ensemble self-released a second full-length album of material called Samurai Over Serbia . On Samurai Over Serbia, traditional eastern European, gypsy jazz, klezmer and original tunes are arranged to fit the ensemble’s unconventional, but imaginative sound.
In recent years, the group has been performing consistently throughout the United States and Europe. [1]
In 2010, the band released their 3rd full-length CD, Woman in Sin . Like the ones before this, it featured a unique and unusual blend of traditional and original music and was both self-produced and self-released.
In 2021, on the band's Facebook page, it was announced that the group had disbanded.
Band bio
LA Weekly calls them "cross pollinated gypsy music ... one of the most thrilling young acts on the planet." Formed in 2005 and playing everywhere from the hippest LA clubs to festivals, cultural centers, museums, parades, and even on the street, the band includes two explosive violins, the world's best slap bass player, musical saw, flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar, trombone, opera, jazz and gypsy vocals, accordion and one little banjolele. Tackling everything from French hot jazz to wild Serbian and Transylvanian gypsy anthems, Flamenco, and oddball originals, the band is a not to be missed event for world music lovers.
The dynamic, virtuosic, fiery and peripatetic quartet that comprises Fishtank Ensemble take their roots both from their own varied musical and national backgrounds, as well as from their adventures and travels. The singer Ursula sang opera on the streets and town squares of Italy, until she found a love of gypsy music ... their French violinist voyaged around all of Europe in a handmade mule-drawn caravan for ten years, collecting music and experiences. Their Serbian bass player has spent time playing with gypsies as well as some of the rock and roll's legends, and aptly defends his reputation as the best slap bass player in the world ... and the guitarist is a master of flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar who honed his craft in the gypsy caves of Granada, Spain.
The double bass, also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched chordophone in the modern symphony orchestra. Similar in structure to the cello, it has four or five strings.
Les Yeux Noirs is the name of a French band combining elements of jazz manouche and other Romani music, Yiddish, and Klezmer music. The group was founded by two brothers, Eric and Olivier Slabiak, who both play violin. Other members of the band at its inception were: Franck Anastasio, Georghe Ene (Accordion), Pascal Rondeau (guitar), and François Perchat (cello). Later, Aidje Tafial (drums) and Marian Miu (cymbalom) were added, and Georghe Ene was replaced on the accordion by Constantin Bitica.
Estradasphere was an American experimental band that originated in Santa Cruz, California, during the late 1990s. The band, which in its last incarnation was based in Seattle, consisted of six multi-instrumentalists from a variety of musical backgrounds trained in disciplines ranging from classical music and jazz to heavy metal.
Monsieur Camembert is a five-piece Gypsy fusion band formed in Sydney, Australia in 1997. They have won three ARIA Music Awards for Best World Music Album in 2002 for Live on Stage, in 2003 for Absynthe and in 2005 for Monsieur Camembert. The linguistic repertoire of Monsieur Camembert's music includes English, Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish.
Super Raoul is the debut LP from Fishtank Ensemble. The album was recorded live at Fishtank in Oakland, California in early 2004 and completed over the course of two weekends. At this time, the band had only been playing together for three weeks.
Gypsy jazz is a musical idiom inspired by the Romani jazz guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt (1910–1953), in conjunction with the French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli (1908–1997), as expressed by their group the Quintette du Hot Club de France. The style has its origins in France and the Manouche clan of Romanis, and has remained popular amongst this clan. Gypsy jazz is often called by the French name "jazz manouche", or alternatively, "manouche jazz" in English-language sources.
Luis Villegas is an American guitarist who released an album called Cafe Olé in 1996, which was nominated for the Best New Album award at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards in 1999. Villegas's style combines new-age music, flamenco, and jazz. He is known for using a technique of playing fast, intricate lines by using the fingernail of his right index finger in place of a guitar pick. He also had a small role as a member of a band in the film Collateral starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. He is currently a member of the group Heavy Mellow, along with founder Benjamin Woods and percussionist Mike Bennett.
Jazz guitarists are guitarists who play jazz using an approach to chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has fulfilled the roles of accompanist and soloist in small and large ensembles and also as an unaccompanied solo instrument.
Gipsy.cz is a Czech Romani hip hop group. They performed at the Glastonbury Festival in 2007 and represented their country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, with the song "Aven Romale". The band plays a combination of hip hop and traditional Romani music, sung primarily in the Romani language, with some lyrics in Czech and English. As of 2013, they have released four studio albums.
Samurai Over Serbia is the second full-length album by Fishtank Ensemble. It was independently released by the band in 2007. Traditional eastern European, gypsy jazz, klezmer and original tunes are arranged to fit the ensemble's unconventional, but imaginative sound. The groups sound is "consistently captivating, as if Gypsy swing continued to swirl around the world, picking up new inflections at every turn."
TG Collective are an eclectic British-based ensemble, evolving from the successful acoustic guitar trio, Trio Gitano, in 2006. The TG Collective are based in Birmingham, England. Their sound draws on many influences, in particular Flamenco, Gypsy Jazz, Jazz and contemporary Classical music, with interchanging shapes and sizes of ensemble within a performance. The group is centered on two guitarists, set alongside a core of double bass, flute and violin and percussion, whilst also featuring flamenco dance in some performances.
La Mano Ajena is a Chilean band founded in 2002 that mixes rhythms from Eastern Europe, Latin America, France and Russia, blending all these sounds in a pastiche that also unites the tendencies of each member of the band: rock, punk, Latin American folklore and theater music. This musical project is unique in Chile, and its hybrid sound has been called "klezmer a la chilena" by press.
The No Smoking Orchestra, frequently credited as Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra, was a Serbian garage rock band formed in Belgrade in 1993.
Isidora Žebeljan was a Serbian composer and conductor. She was a professor of composition at the Belgrade Music Academy and a Fellow of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Aaron Seeman is an American composer, pianist, and accordion player, who has distinguished himself by adapting punk rock, popular music, show tunes, and cartoon theme songs for the accordion, as Duckmandu.
Kołysanki is the fifth studio album by Polish band Lux Occulta. The album was released on March 13, 2014. It is the first album released by the band in 13 years, as well as the first since the ending of the band's hiatus, making it the longest gap between the band's albums.
Michael Publig is an Austrian composer, pianist, instructor, and music manager. He studied piano with Roland Batik at the City of Vienna Conservatory and Social and Economic Sciences at the Vienna University of Economics.
Djordje Stijepovic is a Serbian-American double bass player, singer and composer. He is best known as bassist for the psychobilly band Tiger Army and for Nickelodeon star Drake Bell. He is also a former member of Lemmy Kilmister's (Motörhead) side project The Head Cat.
Cosmo Cosmolino are a gypsy, folk and tango band, which formed in 1995 by Hope Csutoros on lead violin, Helen Mountfort on cello and Judy Gunson on lead vocals and piano accordion. They were joined by Andrea Keeble on violin and Dan Witton on double bass and vocals in 1998. Their debut album, Streetsweeper, was independently released in April 2000 and was followed by Nektár in December 2004, which was nominated for Best World Music Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2005. Csutoros was replaced by Sue Simpson on violin in 2006. Their third album, Bel Air, appeared in August 2011.
Juliane Klein is a German composer and publishing director.
