Exciting and entertaining, Chai For All plays jazz-tinged klezmer, Old World Yiddish folk and New World Yiddish theatre songs, on a magnificent musical journey from the haunted Central and Eastern European shtetls, through the dimly-lit basement bars of tango-crazed Buenos Aires, to the vibrant neighbourhoods of swinging New York. Impassioned female vocals lead the party, against a joyous backing of trumpet, guitar and percussion.
FREE (suggested donation £3 - £5)
Simon Leach (percussion) is a multi-instrumentalist playing oud, saz and guitar, and percussion, pipes and whistles from various musical traditions. As well as playing with the Chai For all Ensemble, he plays with the Hazir Middle Eastern Ensemble, Club Cairo Dance Theatre and Mr Dowland's Midnight. Simon regularly plays music for improvised dance and works as a music therapist for MusicSpace, a Bristol (UK) based music therapy charity.
Marianna Moralis (vocals) is a multilingual singer, storyteller, actor and producer, who trained at the Maastricht Academy of Performing Arts (Netherlands), the Actors Space Barcelona (Spain), the Jewish Music Institute, SOAS, University of London (UK) (Yiddish Song) and privately with Gani Tamir (Jazz Song), one of Israel's leading female singers. Now based in Bristol (UK), Marianna is the vocalist with Paris-Berlin cabaret song troupe Tram Thirty-Three and klezmer/ Arabic music ensemble Chai For All. She is co-director of Grodek - a theatre and performance storytelling company with a distinctive style uniting text-based and visual theatre - the most recent tour of which took The Black Belles: Three Wicked Little Witch Stories to festivals and outdoor arts events in the Netherlands.
David Mowat (trumpet) is a composer, band leader, jazz and world music trumpeter, and community development worker. He has played in political street bands such as the Fallout Marching Band and Sheffield Street Band, and with Jazz Warrior Gail Thompson, Keith Tippett's Seedbed Jazz Workshop Orchestra, FNAAZ, Talisman, Mowat Farnon Quintet and the Bollywood Brass Band. He was in the forefront of the klezmer revival with The Klezmernauts and co-founded and hosted the East Bristol Jazz Club. He wrote and produced the 'King Cotton' community musical (featuring blues harpist Johnny Mars and trombonist Dennis Rollins). As well his work with Chai For All he leads BEJE (the Bristol European Jazz Ensemble) and plays with Blazing Flame Quintet/ 6, Chloe Rose Laing, Baraka, Flexitime, Moussa Kouyate, and Presidents of Parp amongst others. He is programmer/ concerts organiser for Saint Stephen's, a medieval church at the heart of Bristol's Old City (UK).
Knud Stűwe (guitar) is a much in demand composer, teacher, guitarist and oud player who lives in Bristol (UK). He draws inspiration from a wide range of influences such as jazz, Middle Eastern music, tango and the classical repertoire. Knud is the music director of the Bristol Mandolin & Guitar Ensemble and cofounded Eastern Strings and Nabra, playing Middle Eastern influenced originals and Sudanese music respectively. He also regularly appears with Brejeiro (Brazilian Choro), Baraka (Afro-roots), The Hip Cats (jazz/ swing) and Instant Wit, the comedy improvisation company.