Orkestar Bez Ime (OBI), which means ‘orchestra without a name’ in Bulgarian is releasing their fourth CD, ‘Mahala Drive’ this week. The music is exciting, slinky and exotic featuring Gypsy, Romanian, Bulgarian and Macedonian melodies and songs.
OBI uses the accordion not only as a melody and harmony instrument but as a solid part of the rhythm section. “Mahala Drive” features the accordion on two tracks with improvised solos on the hajaz scale called ‘taxim’. The melody of each taxim floats above the sometimes wild rhythm to create a feeling of calm over turbulence.
The musicians in the group are: Colleen Bertsch, violin; Katrina Mundinger, clarinet; Dee Langley, accordion; Scott Keever, guitar/mandolin; Matt Miller, bass and Natalie Nowytski on vocals, dumbek and tapan
Orkestar Bez Ime was formed in 2002 to bring Balkan dance music to the Upper Midwest. Since then OBI has performed at many local Twin Cities venues and has toured in North Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Alabama, and Pennsylvania to critical acclaim.
Meet the musicians:
Colleen Bertsch is OBI’s violinist extraordinaire of haunting eastern European melodies and swirling ornaments. Her mentors include Hungarian violinists Hrúz Dénes of the band Dűvő, Ökrös Csaba of Ökrös, and Vizeli Balázs formerly of Téka. Colleen has traveled many times to Hungary to study fiddling, but in the summer of 2008 she traveled throughout Romania for three months in search of musicians who are still playing their village-specific folk music.
Scott Keever, one of the newest members of OBI, is a multi-instrumentalist/composer who has been working within the Twin Cities area for over a decade. He has been a music director for Brave New Workshop and, for eight years, was composer/arranger and sound designer for local comedy sketch troupe Idiot Box.
For four years, Scott performed with Celtic/folk band Lojo Russo & Funks Grove, with whom he co-produced three albums. He has also been involved with numerous live performances and studio sessions, with genres ranging from Top 40 to Jazz to Musical Theatre to Experimental Electronica.
He has composed and produced the theme song for the KFAI news (Twin Cities – 90.3FM) as well as the soundtracks for a number of independent film makers. Scott is also currently a student at the U of MN – School of Music, working on his B.A. in Music, with guitar as his primary instrument.
Dee Langley specializes in solo and ensemble work on the accordion. She has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in addition to being part of Orkestar Bez Ime (OBI), Wild Hollow Ms. Langley is the President of the Accordionists and Teachers Guild, International, founder of the NE Accordion Festival and teaches music privately in the Metro area of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.
Matt Miller likes to think of himself as a wandering bassist, always searching for the right type of music, right sound, and on a bad day the right chords. He has played in a multitude of groups such as a chinese orchestra, the Ocean orchestra with Merce Cunningham and Andrew Culver, the occasional symphony orchestra and OBI. He has also played for the spark festival doing electro acoustic music, and worked with composers such as Andrew Imbrie.
Katrina Mundinger considers herself a “Clarinet Evangelist” who will go to great lengths to increase knowledge of and participation in great clarinet playing. She began classical training in 1979 and obtained a Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance from Oberlin Conservatory (1990) and a Master of Music in Clarinet performance from Northwestern University (1991).
After a three year hiatus from the instrument she discovered Eastern European folk music and hasn’t stopped playing since. Her primary classical teachers were Lawrence McDonald, Robert Marcellus, and Clark Brody and she has traveled far and wide to study with the likes Ivo Papasov, Ivan Milev, Gëzim Halili, and Jim Stoyanoff to develop her folk music skills. In addition to performing with OBI, Katrina plays with Wild Hollow and teaches clarinet locally.
Natalie Nowytski (“The Chameleon”) was supposed to be an opera singer but her fascination first with her native Ukrainian folk music, then Bulgarian, then countless others convinced her at an early age that villagers really do have more fun. She has since learned to hold a note for 38 seconds and has added more than 50 languages and nearly 20 distinct vocal styles to her repertoire, thanks in part to study with vocal giants Svetla Karadjova Ivanova, Liljana Galevska, Donka Koleva, Carol Silverman, and others.
In addition to whipping up vocal acrobatics, Natalie also holds down the percussion fort for OBI and lends a hand on various flutes. She has performed nationally and internationally with the likes of Peter Ostroushko, Ruth MacKenzie, Mila Vocal Ensemble (which she also directed for several years), and Garrison Keillor.
For further information: squeezermn@yahoo.com
