Marama Café Band
Gypsy Jazz • French Musette • Hungarian Gypsy • Swing
Gypsy Jazz • French Musette • Hungarian Gypsy • Swing
A long time collaboration of three esteemed London musicians with many musical roots, Marama Café Band have been honing a heady mélange of gypsy jazz, Hungarian czardasz, East European folk styles, dirty tango, French musette and swing together for over 20 years, performing at many venues and festivals in the UK and Europe.
Managing to combine folky roughness, passion, slow Balkan decoration, evocative French style accordion, klezmer-like acceleration, dreamy ballads and the American songbook into their performances. The band originally formed in 1999 to play the music of Romanian singer Maria Tanase.
"Music that lures you irresistibly – violin, guitar and accordion phrases dissolve exquisitely into each other, the band's distinctive sound brings jazz, French, Argentinian and folk styles together with brilliant musicianship and panache"
— London Jazz News"Definitely took me over to somewhere in Buenos Aires"
— DJ Ritu
Accordion / Bandleader
Pete leads the band combining stage chemistry, slick arrangements and skilled improvisation in different genres. He has played widely with jazz and world artists including Gilad Atzmon, Balkanatics, Hamza Namira, Madonna, and in theatre and feature films.
Violin
An experienced performer in a range of music styles from Gypsy Jazz, Klezmer, Turkish and North African to Irish, Scottish and English folk music. He has toured and recorded extensively internationally and is arranger-in-residence for In Harmony Lambeth.
Guitar
A Dylan-inspired Londoner quick on folk mandolin and tenor banjo, before discovering the legacy of Django Reinhardt. He performs with many Gypsy Swing ensembles in the UK and Europe. Fiery and melodic emotionalism is his style.