Nashaz at Alwan For The Arts

Brooklyn-based musician Brian Prunka was already an accomplished jazz guitarist in New Orleans when a series of events led him to become a beginner again, learning the oud (Arabic fretless lute) and Arabic music from the ground up. Fifteen years later, he is the leader of Nashaz, a group that finds unexpected kinship between jazz and traditional Arabic music, garnering praise and support from Arabic music luminaries like Simon and Najib Shaheen, Youssef Kassab, and Ray Rashid in response to their recently released self-titled album (www.nashazmusic.com). The journey took him from New Orleans to Brooklyn, and eventually to Haifa and Ramallah, in the process finding his own voice with an authenticity that has won him respect within the Arabic music community, whether performing with Simon Shaheen's Qantara, Zikrayat, or the New York Arabic Orchestra. This concert brings Nashaz to the lower Manhattan Arabic cultural center known for its presentation of renowned musicians from the Arab world, and promises to be an intimate event celebrating the recent CD release among their friends and peers in the NY community of Arabic musicians and music lovers....

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Brooklyn-based musician Brian Prunka was already an accomplished jazz guitarist in New Orleans when a series of events led him to become a beginner again, learning the oud (Arabic fretless lute) and Arabic music from the ground up. Fifteen years later, he is the leader of Nashaz, a group that finds unexpected kinship between jazz and traditional Arabic music, garnering praise and support from Arabic music luminaries like Simon and Najib Shaheen, Youssef Kassab, and Ray Rashid in response to their recently released self-titled album (www.nashazmusic.com). The journey took him from New Orleans to Brooklyn, and eventually to Haifa and Ramallah, in the process finding his own voice with an authenticity that has won him respect within the Arabic music community, whether performing with Simon Shaheen's Qantara, Zikrayat, or the New York Arabic Orchestra. This concert brings Nashaz to the lower Manhattan Arabic cultural center known for its presentation of renowned musicians from the Arab world, and promises to be an intimate event celebrating the recent CD release among their friends and peers in the NY community of Arabic musicians and music lovers.

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