Rumelia, Santa Fe’s award-winning all-female Balkan Folk Quartet, is hitting the Adobe Bar at the Taos Inn on Saturday night. We caught up with Nicolle, Sitara, Deborah, and Alysha briefly this week to ask all the important questions.
Q: What’s your favorite mythological creature?
Nicolle: Unicorn, who wouldn’t want to fly?
Sitara: Unicorns fly? I’d say a Pegasus…they are pretty…
Deborah: Frank Zappa.
Alysha: Democracy.
Q: Let’s play the Dating Game. Can each band member state an interesting fact about another band member?
Nicolle: We all love Red wine….
Sitara: Nicolle is very good at Othello…
Deborah: Nicolle has magical hair, Sitara can fly, and Alysha is Amelia Earhart reincarnated.
Alysha: Nicolle is a Yoga and Meditation teacher; a number of Deborah’s former music students from Santa Fe University have disclosed secret crushes on her to me; and Sitara can make a crafty flower clip or a Fabergé egg out of nearly anything.
Q: Why Balkan music?
Nicolle: Because it’s quirky, unique, and playful, like us =)
Sitara: Harmonies.
Deborah: Because no one understands it and everyone loves it.
Alysha: Something about the time signatures, modalities, timbres, lyrical meaning, history, dancing, and community has enraptured me since I heard it.
Q: What’s your favorite venue to play in Santa Fe?
Nicolle: San Miguel Chapel, the spirits come out to listen, and the acoustics are amazing….
Sitara: The Wine Festival, although we haven’t gigged there yet.
Alysha: The streets.
Q: What’s your favorite time signature?
Nicolle: 9/8, It’s just so damn sexy
Sitara: 3 in the middle.
Deborah: 11/8, or 15/16, or 7+8/8, which are all basically 3 in the middle…watching people dance to math equations is amusing. It’s also like skipping or jumping for joy.
Alysha: 5/8.
Q: What is a doumbek? If it were an animal, what would it be?
Nicolle: A melodic style drum played with delicately detailed fingers… A peacock… but I don’t know why….
Sitara: A dombek would be Ponyo for sure.
Deborah: Doumbek has a really long nose, huge feet, and smells like eucalyptus.
Alysha: It’s an hourglass-shaped hand drum, so I’ll go with the hourglass dolphin.
RUMELIA
Saturday, May 10th, 7 – 10pm
at the Adobe Bar at the Taos Inn
Free, as inn shows always are!