Samurai Over Serbia
Encyclopedia
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."
Fishtank Ensemble
Fishtank Ensemble is a Euro-American musical group that formed in Oakland, California in 2004. They perform a variety of traditional musical styles including klezmer, flamenco, Japanese folk and Roma music....
. 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."
Track listing
- "Saraiman" (traditional, arr. F. Martinez) – 4:09
- "Turkish March" (W.A. MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, arr. A. Seeman) – 2:59 - "Tchavo" (traditional, arr. F. Martinez) – 4:30
- "Face the Dragon" (music & arr. by F. Martinez) – 4:06
- "Gitanos Californeros" (D. Smolens, arr. Paco de Lucia) – 5:38
- "Spirit Prison" (music by D. Smolens, K. Kmetz, lyrics by U. Knudson) – 3:58
- "Fraima" (Cesare & GianCarlo dell'Anna, arr. F. Martinez) – 3:45
- "Youkali" (Kurt WeillKurt WeillKurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
) – 4:52 - "Ezraoul" (arr. F. Martinez) – 2:55
- "Mehum Mato" (traditional, arr. F. Martinez) – 7:16
- "Samurai Over Serbia" (traditional, arr. F. Martinez) – 7:33
- "Extremely Large Congenial Romanian" (music and arr. A Seeman) – 2:23
- "Yasaburpo Bush" (traditional, arr. M. Penny) – 4:43
Personnel
- Fabrice Martinez - violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, violombaStroh violinStroh violin, Strohviol, or Strohviol, is a trade name for a horn-violin, or violinophone—a violin that amplifies its sound through a metal resonator and metal horns rather than a wooden sound box as on a standard violin. The instrument is named after its designer, John Matthias Augustus Stroh, an... - Ursula Knudson - vocals, violin, musical sawMusical sawA musical saw, also called a singing saw, is the application of a hand saw as a musical instrument. The sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin...
, banjolele, percussion - Douglas Smolens (el Douje) - guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Aaron Seeman (Duckmandu) - accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
- Djordje Stijepovic - upright bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
on tracks 1, 2, 4, 9, 11 - Andy Zacharias - upright bass on tracks 3, 5-8, 10, 12
- Mike Penny - Tsugaru shamisenShamisenThe , also called is a three-stringed, Japanese musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usually "shamisen" but sometimes "jamisen" when used as a suffix . -Construction:The shamisen is a plucked stringed instrument...
, guitar - Kevin KmetzKevin KmetzKevin Kmetz is an American guitarist and shamisen player. He is best known as the front man of the shamisen-based rock band, God of Shamisen. He has also recently become a full member of Santa Cruz, California eclectic band Estradasphere along with fellow God of Shamisen member Lee Smith...
- additional shamisen tracks on track 4, guitar tracks on track 12