The Balkans come to Dickson

I was at Dickson to attend a gig at the Loft and it was there I caught Alister Gray-Price busking with accordion in Balkan style. I enjoy this style: lively but also anguished. It’s an attractive combination. Perhaps not surprisingly, this mix seems to be very popular amongst singers. In the jazz scene you need just mention Mara! which is led by Llew and Mara Kiek and features such luminaries as Sandy Evans, Andrew Robson and Steve Elphick. The Balkans are a troubled region, on the border of East and West and of Christianity and Islam. Maybe that’s why the music is as seductive as it is. And it is.