Unbridled Vaudeville Joy
Balagan
Balagan (Ozella Music # OZ 017 CD, 2008)
Balagan's CD is one of the freshest and most creative albums I've heard from Germany in quite a while. The multicultural band, based in Berlin, is formed by 8 outstanding musicians coming from diverse countries: Germany, poland, Russia, the Ukraine, Italy and Israel. The band was originally part of a theater project called Balagan. Under the musical direction of Ukrainian maestro violinist and composer Mark Chaet, this troupe of musicians combine a vaudeville punk attitude with cutting edge classical, klezmer, and pop, on their self-titled album, Balagan (Ozella Music).
Balagan is the Russian word for Hullabaloo – "a fiery ruckus coupled with melancholy." The Balagan theater project originates from Trio Bravo, founded in 1994 by Mark Chaet in Berlin. When Trio Brav“ took over the musical direction for Balagan 2001, music and international vaudeville acts worked side by side, including comedy, pantomime, dance and acrobatics. The show was produced by Fliegende Bauten (Flying Buildings) and staged by director Sebastiano Toma.
The Balagan CD features singer Momo Kohlschmidt, spectacular fiddler Mark Chaet, a horn section with Anke Lucks on the trombone and Pavel Kurdakov and Dima Geller on trumpets, Adam Tomaszewski on drums, Sergeij Sweschinskij on bass/stickbass, and Giorgio Radoja on piano and keyboard.
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