Description
MARA! to tour 40th anniversary concert
TN165 Sept 24
Not too many Australian music ensembles can boast a 40-year national and international career, performing, recording and broadcasting uniquely Australian music, forging creative paths, and driving the development of an entirely new musical genre.
One name stands out and that is the dual ARIA winning world/jazz band Mara!, “The Dom Perignon of our world music bands” accord to the Sydney Morning herald.
Mara! grew out of the ‘80’s ‘alternative’ folk group, Tansey’s Fancy.
They began working under the name ‘Mara!’ in the UK in 1984, where they performed in folk clubs, arts centres and small festivals around the UK, Germany, Italy and France.
Folk Roots UK labelled them “Far ahead of the pack”.
Bassist Danny Thompson (Pentangle, Donovan, Kate Bush) toured extensively with Mara! in the 1980s and recorded the first 2 Mara! albums.
With his help, Mara!’s star ascended rapidly and by the late 80s the band had performed at most major folk and arts festivals in the UK and Europe.
Having now performed in 23 countries, released 11 albums here and overseas and toured widely for bodies as diverse as the Northern Ireland Arts Council, SOCOG, DFAT, Musica Viva, Radio Australia and WOMAD, Mara! are established as a leading international world music ensemble.
On Sunday, September 22, the Mara! Band will celebrate their 40th Anniversary with a boutique concert featuring the Mara! quintet, Martenitsa Choir and the new Mara! Big Band.
The program will showcase a retrospective snapshot of some of this extraordinary ensemble’s achievements over the past 4 decades.
This will include excerpts from their collaborations with Martenitsa (featuring Bulgarian soloist, Silvia Entcheva) which resulted in the creation of two major works ‘Sezoni’ (1997 Real World Records) and ‘Tra Parole e Silenzio’ (2012), both of which have toured internationally.
Never satisfied to rest on their laurels, Mara! have continued to drive the creation of new and challenging works including another body of original compositions composed specifically for Martenitsa and Mara! Band, soon to be released on the album ‘Za Vas Ot Nas’.
In 2022, Mara! expanded their line-up, adding brass, accordion, drums and vocal trio, to create the 13-piece Mara! Big Band, a hybrid Gypsy style world/jazz band.
They launched a new musical suite ‘Zashto?’ (‘Why?’ in Bulgarian) with a series of concerts in NSW and ACT.
Recorded in 2023, ‘Zashto?’ was released on CD on October 13.
A review published in Rhythms Magazine in March said:“…outstanding horn arrangements… some of the country’s most distinguished instrumentalists… (and) a quartet of equally sublime singers… Zashto simply demands repeat spins…”.
Excerpts of Zashto? will feature in Mara!’s 40th Anniversary concert and the Mara! Big Band will then take the full work on tour in regional NSW, with concerts in Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Bellingen, Goulburn, Bathurst and Gulgong, thanks to the support of Create NSW.
The 40th anniversary concert is being staged in the intimate setting of Riverside Theatre’s Lennox Theatre in Parramatta, NSW.
Tickets are strictly limited so advance booking is recommended.
Ed. Mara! Still three albums available for sale on the Trad&Now website, all of which are also on Trad&Now Live! and can be heard there from time to time.
