Eastern Blok: News

Eastern Blok is up to some fun stuff and we want to tell you all about it! We’re going to Poland with our good friend Grazyna Auguscik next week.

After selling out of Folk Tales, we are pleased to announce that they are back in stock. Additionally, we have a fresh batch of fashion ware. You can pre-order by sending a note to easternblok@yahoo.com. You can acquire Eastern Blok goods online or at one of our upcoming shows.

Eastern Blok is playing in Chicago on Wednesday and Saturday, Rockford on Friday, and in Poland in early November. Here’s the info:

Wednesday, 28-October-09
Eastern Blok
Live @ the Whistler
2421 N. Milwaukee, Chicago
9:30-12:30
*with special guest Grazyna Auguscik

Friday, 30-October-09
Eastern Blok
Live @ Mary’s Performing Arts Center
602 N. Madison St., Rockford
9:30-12:30

Saturday, 31-October-09
Eastern Blok
Live @ Old Town School of Folk Music
Opening for the Warsaw Village Band
Short set at 7pm sharp!

Poland, with Grazyna Auguscik
4-Nov: Bytom- Bytomskie Centrum Kultury, godz 19.00
5-Nov: Krakow- Alchemia, godz 21:00
6-Nov: Warszawa/Lomianki- Jazz Café, godz 20.00
8-Nov: Torun- Centrum Kultury Dwor Artusa, godz 18.00
9-Nov: Lublin- Filharmonia im H. Wieniawskiego, godz 19.00
11-Nov: Slupsk- Teatr Rondo, godz 18.00
12-Nov: Gdansk- Stacja Prunia, godz 20.00

You can find more info at some of these sites:
www.easternblok.net
www.cdbaby.com

Thanks!
Matt, Goran, Doug, and Michael

Eastern Blok is a quartet of musicians who has created a very special ensemble. It uses Balkan folk music as inspiration for a sound that combines classical guitar with American jazz saxophone.

As the group has traveled and matured, it has found teaching to be an important aspect of its mission. Multimedia performances, lectures and master classes on the instrumentation, history and geopolitics of South and Eastern Europe as well as an emphasis on the group’s unique musical approach are presented.

Eastern Blok has taught at the following institutions:

• Princeton University
• Cornell University
• Carnegie Mellon University
• University of Michigan
• DePaul University
• Roosevelt university
• Northeastern Illinois University
• Lewis University
• University of Pittsburgh
• The Francis Parker School
• New Trier High School
• SUNY-Fredonia
• Ithaca High School
• Empire State College
• Schaumburg High School
• Grand Valley State University


Eastern Blok offers the following workshops:


The History and Development of Balkan Music

With this presentation, the group provides an overview of the Balkans for beginning to advanced students of all ages. A discussion (often with musical examples) revolves around the following questions: how did this amazing music develop? Where was Yugoslavia? Who are the great artists from countries such as Serbia, Romania, Macedonia and Bulgaria? What are the defining characteristics of Balkan Music? How does music from this region reflect the regional music of nearby Turkey, Austria, Russia, as well as the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish religions? What has been the (continuing) contribution of the Roma people?

The Business of a Band

This class focuses on the inherent difficulties of the music business. How do you determine your “brand?” How does one “make rain?” How do we market ourselves? What about the role of the Internet? Can touring be financially feasible?


Incorporating world music into a jazz ensemble

Jazz musicians have always incorporated worldly elements, from Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” to contemporary music. Why and how do composers use these inspirations? What are some of the most popular influences? How might one incorporate traditional folk songs into one’s own improvisational vocabulary?


Master classes for jazz and classical ensembles

Eastern Blok listens to student ensembles and offers their perspective on students’ performances.

Individual master classes

Goran Ivanovic, Guitar

• Guitar techniques (scales, slurs, arpeggios)
• Solving technical problems with musical choices
• Sound and color development - utilizing a flexible right hand with scales and arpeggios
• Chamber music - working on simple grooves
• Learning how to be a better listener
• Music from folk cultures - what to listen to in order to sound more authentic. Rodrigo, Falla, Albeniz, Lauro, Brouwer, Piazzolla, etc.
• Performance, competition preparation – strategies for successful public performance
• Making it in the real world. How to survive as a guitarist today. Finding and creating work.


Doug Rosenberg, Saxophones and Woodwinds
Doug demonstrates some of his improvisational methods:

• Creating modal sounds using odd groupings
• Getting comfortable with odd time signatures, including various clave patterns
• Tone development
• Daily practice routines
• Transcription and its fundamental importance to music making
• Developing musical intuition
• Creating a personal and unique voice
• Composition
• Learning repertoire and styles
• Reed maintenance
• Doubling


Matt Ulery, Bass
Acoustic and electric bass workshop for creative musicians and composers.

This workshop focuses on the role of the bassist in a jazz or creative music ensemble with an emphasis on shaping the music from a compositional point of view. The program emphasizes a "no fear" philosophy toward improvisation and the creative process.

Topics include:
• Exercises for developing technique
• Devices for honing skills in free or structured improvisation
• Modern jazz and global theory
• Important historical information on the bass and its universal role in folk music from around the world


Michael Caskey, Drums and Percussion
Creative Improvisation for Drums and Percussion!

This workshop focuses on developing strategies for creative exploration and improvisation. Using a variety of techniques, the student will gain devices for letting their creativity flow.

Methods covered:
• Developing a "vocabulary"
• Utilizing limitations as a paradoxical solution for "improviser's block"
• "Call & response" methodology
• Unexpected devices as a catalyst for creativity

This workshop is not limited only to drummers/percussionists. Any student of music or the arts will find welcome additions to their creative toolbox!

Endorsements by Selmer, Rico, Evans and D’Addario may be able to assist with educational activities.

03 FEB 2008 Sun
Goran Ivanovic + Fareed Haque
Live at the Apple Store


It’s true that Goran Ivanovic was born of a Serbian father and a Bosnian Croat mother...and that Fareed Haque was born of a Pakistani father and a Chilean mother...but that’s just the beginning of their musical lineage. Ivanovic studied at Salzburg’s Mozarteum with Eliot Fisk and Joaquin Clerch. Haque has performed with Sting, the classical violinist Kennedy, Cassandra Wilson, Kurt Elling, Edgar Meyer, and Paquito D’Rivera. Strains of classical, pop, jazz, Latin, blues, and world music simmer in the haunting laments and propulsive dances of their “Macedonian blues for two guitars.”


APPLE STORE, 3PM
103 Prince Street, Soho
FREE, (212) 226-3126
apple.com

Eastern Blok's campus performance/lectures on the History of Balkan Music provide students with real insight into the connections between folk traditions and the creative process. This is an intellectually and artistically stimulating program that is at the same time immensely entertaining. Most of all, though, the event succeeds because the band possesses a truly distinctive musical vision and supports that vision with superb musicianship.

The 2007 Wall to Wall Guitar Festival organized by the Krannert Center featured over 40 guitarists and scores of their musical collaborators, all under one roof in a three day guitar bizarre. There was an invigorating mix of unbelievable legends and eclectic innovators, uncommon collaborations, and an undeniable energy pulsing from wall to wall. Among the performers were Goran Ivanovic and Fareed Haque, John McLaughlin, Los Lobos, Rahim AlHaj etc.

http://www.wall2wallguitar.net/gallery/2007/pages/15.htm

We are featured in the October issue of CS Magazine. Pick up a copy if you are in the Chicago area and let us know what you think!

We appeared on Chicago Public Radio's "848" program and performed Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box."

You can listen here:
http://audio.wbez.org/848/2007/03/848_20070308d.mp3

We've been added to a playlist on this week's episode of InstruMental Madness, which is currently the #1 show online at Google with over 2 million hits!

http://www.preyinglizardmusic.com/im.htm

Check out another review of our new album here:

http://www.propculture.com/view.php?id=24&page=tunes

A review by Justin Dainer-Best and Jacob Carroll after our concert at Haverford College:

"...Their music is mostly of the Eastern European klezmer sort, with a generous topping of Middle Eastern influences, haunting, jazz-like, and consistently enjoyable. The band’s bassist, who played both the acoustic and the electric bass, trading bow for pick with ease, swayed excitedly to the music. The drummer, hands flying and eyes slightly mad, kept the beat flowing behind them.
Eastern Blok alternated between playing composed music and improvisation, a line that was very hard to draw because their improvisation was so well-done..."

http://www.biconews.com/article/view/5948

Click here to read on about our rave review in Alarm Magazine:

http://www.alarmpress.com/830/music-news/eastern-blok-wanted-for-folk-tales-angelina-jolie-flick/

Check out a great new review about Eastern Blok here: http://residentmediapundit.com/?p=93.

Our tour is going very well so far...check out today's feature on Radio Muse, we're the first album listed!

http://www.musesmuse.com/radiomuse-16.html

Check us out at http://www.guitarjamdaily.com/ today!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the Fundraiser last weekend. We cannot thank our supporters enough, and it was a huge success!

See you on the tour...we next leave Wednesday.

Join Eastern Blok this Saturday, March 3rd, as they perform at a fundraising concert for their upcoming album!

"The MAJIC (Musical Arts for Justice in the Community) Concert Series in Grand Rapids will be blessed by the beloved Eastern Blok from Chicago. The facial expressions of drummer Michael Caskey alone are worth the $10 suggested donation. Supreme musicianship is exhibited in each of Eastern Blok's members..."
Please read more at:

http://revuemagazine.net/03%20-%20features.html

Death Valley Radio program 497 opened with:

Eastern Blok - "Tango Pajdusko" -
Folk Tales (Self-Released)

"Tango Pajdusko" and a link to our website appear on the DVR playlist. Check it out!

http://deathvalleyradio.org/tracklists/track_list_497.html.