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Khumariyaan
July 10thTelmary
July 12thAlly Venable
July 15thFlor de Toloache
July 16thFlor de Toloache
July 17thAndrea Magee's She Rises
July 18thOscar Butler
July 23rdCelloquacious and Eli del Puerto
July 24thInnastate
July 26thCelloquacious & Eli del Puerto
July 27thGreen Tara Puja
July 29thArkansauce
August 1stMark Hummel
August 2ndMark Hummel
August 3rdLuke Bulla
August 7th7Horse
August 9thLuke Bulla
August 9thRaul Midón
August 13thRaul Midón
August 14thLara Ruggles
August 20thLara Ruggles
August 21stThe WesternHers
August 23rdLevi Platero | Chris Dracup :Funk of the West
August 23rdThievery Corporation
September 3rdDevon Allman's Blues Summit
September 9thTab Benoit
September 9thTab Benoit
September 10thCoco Montoya
September 19thCoco Montoya
September 20thAlasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas
September 24thAlasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas
September 25thJ2B2
September 26thJohn Moreland
September 26thLasotras
September 27thSlim Cessna + Maria de Cessna
October 4thShonen Knife
October 11th"Stop Making Sense" Screening
October 12th"Stop Making Sense" Screening
October 13thHayden Pedigo
October 22ndKurbasy
November 8thKurbasy
November 9thThe Bébé La La 15-Year Anniversary Concert & Celebration
November 15thLuca Stricagnoli
November 21stRyanhood
November 29thRyanhood
November 30thSadness, Madness, & Mayhem III
January 24thYuri Yunakov
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Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 day of show (including all service charges). They are also available by phone through Hold My Ticket at 505-886-1251. Ages 21 and over.
Yuri Yunakov hails from Haskovo, a city in Bulgarian Thrace, a region on the borders of Turkey and Greece with large Roma (Gypsy) and Turkish populations. Yunakov's Turkish Roma family reflected the area's strong musical heritage; his great-grandfather, grandfather and three uncles were violinists, and his father was a popular clarinet player. Yunakov displayed musical talent from an early age, learning the kaval (a shepherd's flute), then the davul (a double-headed drum), on which he accompanied his father and older brothers at weddings. In his teens, he accompanied his father on the clarinet. Yunakov also trained as a boxer and won several national titles. In the mid-1970s, after serving in the army, he returned to music and took up the saxophone.
In 1983, Yunakov became a protégé of the famous bandleader Ivan Milev, who taught him the Bulgarian repertoire. The following year, Yunakov made his debut with Milev's group, Mladost, at Stambolovo, the national festival of "wedding music." After that, he spent almost ten years in Trakija, the band led by the popular Ivo Papasov, who comes from a long line of clarinet players and is also of Turkish Roma descent.
Wedding music is an ecstatic and eclectic mix whose components include jazz, rock, Turkish and Indian sounds and Balkan village folk music. The fast-paced popular music, also characterized by virtuosic technique and daring key changes, is played for dancing, not only at weddings but also at celebrations of other key events, such as circumcisions and baptisms. Though Bulgaria's Communist government sponsored the Stambolovo festival, it was ambivalent about Roma music, and both Yunakov and Papasov were imprisoned for playing it.
Despite the repression, Yunakov, as a member of Papasov's band, played for hundreds of celebrations in Bulgaria and toured extensively in Europe and North America. Yunakov has made his home in the U.S. since 1994 and has remained in demand at home and abroad. He has also played at hundreds of weddings and family gatherings in the Bulgarian, Turkish and Macedonian Roma communities in the tri-state area around New York City.