La Ruya: An Evening Of Near East Flamenco

La Ruya  – Andalusia meets the Near East and Black Sea, sprinkled lightly with a hint of Piazzolla and Kafka – or something like that.  Newcomer Bay Area septet La Ruya strives to capture a sound so obvious that it has yet to be heard.  A meeting of flamenco modes and Arabic makam, darbuka and cajon, 12/8, 10/8 and 9/8… rhythms, chants and tonalities far flung in space and time that still somehow recognize each other.  Who can accurately trace the gypsy music of East and West back to their common source?  At worst this is a scholarly past time, at best it’s something approaching a new, as yet uncharted style.   La Ruya makes no pretense of tradition or authenticity – not minding the sense so long as the sounds take care of themselves.  And La Ruya’s sound depends as much on the dance as the strings, and in the dance it truly lives – hypnotic, almost ritual, it’s the final expression of the spirits summoned in the song.

David Páez – guitar
Gary Haggerty – oud
Briana Di Mara – violin
Melissa Cruz – baile and palmas
Fanny Ara – baile and palmas
Murat Bayhan – darbuka, deff
Samuel Joseph – cajon, darbuka, riqq, deff

http://melissacruz.weebly.com/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGfdnrQqSyU&hd=1
http://www.fannyara.com/

$10-$12 admission.  Doors at 7:30 pm.  Show at 8:00 pm.