Festa: The Meier/Budjana Group

Festa: The Meier/Budjana Group

Acoustic fretless and fretted nylon string and steel guitars with Indonesian guitarist Dewa Budjana and bass legend Jimmy Haslip

Jimmy Haslip bass, Dewa Budjana guitar, Nicolas Meier guitar, Asaf Sirkis drums, Muhammad Saat Syah bamboo flutes

This is stop 9 on the band's European tour, the last in England, at Fleece Jazz, after which they go on to Holland, Belgium, Germany & Switzerland.

Swiss born, England based, Nicholas Meier has appeared here many times over the last ten years, in groups, solo and duo format.
Jimmy Haslip has been on the modern jazz scene for four decades, and was a founder member of the ground breaking Yellowjackets.
Dewa and Jimmy are new to the Fleece, but have both previously recorded with each other, and Nicholas. Twenty years leading Indonesian rock band Gigi has made Dewa Bujanda a guitar legend. However this musician, of Balinese decent, has also had a career as a composer, a solo artist, and appearing with Garry Husband, Jimmy Haslip and other jazz musicians.
Mochamad Saat Syah, originally from Borneo, is also big on the Indonesian music scene. This master of the suling (flute), contrasts percussive and legato playing in his jazz improvisation.
Asif Sirkis , who has often worked with Jimmy, is already well known and liked by Fleece regulars.

"True sonic explorers", "distinctive ethnic bland of Middle-Eastern and South-East Asian flavours, theirs is a music which is both soulful and cerebral." The Jazz Man