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End-of-the-year celebrations
New Years Eve - Pécs - Széchenyi tér
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
20:00 Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra (SRB)
Thursday, 31 December 2009
21.30 Ska-Pécs
22.30 New York Ska Jazz Ensemble (USA)
The concerts are free!
Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra
Emir Kusturica world-famous Serbian director; legendary creator of the movies - among many others - Black Cat White Cat, Underground, Arizona Dream, Time of the Gypsies visits Pécs for the first time.
The beginning of the story of the band matches with the one of Zabranjeno Pušenje (« No Smoking in Serbian »), which was a Yugoslavian garage rock band from Sarajevo, closely associated with the new primitivism cultural movement.
They were one of the most popular musical acts of the 1980s in Yugoslavia, selling hundreds of thousands of records.
At the time of « Do you remember Dolly Bell? », one of Emir Kusturica’s first successful film in 1981, the director met the members of the rock band. They became friends, and he started to play with them occasionally, to record an album, or for concerts, to change his mind during two shootings.
The unstable political situation during the break-up of Yugoslavia took a toll on the band.
In the middle of the 90s, the band began to play again, and then has been renamed « Emir Kusturica & No Smoking Orchestra », released four more albums and continued touring all around the world. In 1998 the No Smoking Orchestra composed the music for Emir Kusturica's film "Black Cat, White Cat", and the success of the film leaded the band to a real worldwide success.
Thus Kusturica had to take more time between his shootings to tour all around the world with his band. If some were unconvinced by the real quality of the band and thought its success was due to Emir’s popularity, those have all been persuaded after seeing them performing live. The extraordinary energy they free up on stage, their genius mix of ethno and punk rock, as well as the marvellous play of the musicians make the audience live an unforgettable experience. The band became particularly famous in France and South America among others, where they regularly fill the biggest concert halls and stadiums.
Since then, the No Smoking Orchestra has also written the music for each film of the director. In return, he made a documentary on them: Super 8 Stories.
www.thenosmokingorchestra.com/
http://www.myspace.com/emirkusturicathenosmokingorchestra
New York Ska Jazz Ensemble
The New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble (NYSJE) is an internationally renowned recording and touring group. Since the bands inception in 1994, they have released five CDs and they have performed regularly throughout Europe, Canada, USA, and South America.
NYSJE’s recordings and performances have garnered them critical acclaim for their high energy, creative originals, kinetic ska interpretations of jazz standards, as well as their potent mix of dance hall, reggae, rocksteady and jazz. Performance highlights include: The North Sea Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, The Quebec Festival de Musique, Musiques en Ete (Geneva), Sziget Festival (Budapest), The Bob Marley Reggae Festival with Israel Vibration and Sister Carol, and The Discover and Bell Atlantic Jazz festivals in the U.S. In addition, NYSJE has the singular distinction of being the first American Ska band to play in Eastern Europé after the wall came down.
NYSJE’s music can be heard regularly on television-- on the Nickelodeon network, MTV’s Road Rules, as well as two nationally airing Campbell’s Soup Commercials. In Italy, their video, Properly, airs on MTV.
This past summer (08) the band stormed through Europe once again playing 42 shows in Hungary, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Lithuania, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Finland and more! The band returns this December for shows all over Europe. NYSJE has just released their latest cd STEP FORWARD to rave reviews worldwide and will be releasing LIVE IN PARIS in December. The band puts on an incredible live show.
Web :
www.myspace.com/nysje
Video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEXmPAnkKXw&feature=related