Al-Andalus Ensemble' of Tarik & Julia Banzi is an award-winning husband and wife musical duo that performs contemporary Andalusian music. The duo comprises Tarik Banzi, from Morocco, on Oud Ney and Darbuka and Julia Banzi (USA) on flamenco guitar. They have toured both as a solo and with their larger Al-Andalus Ensemble around Europe, Africa, North America, Middle East and Asia. Tarik is from one of the founding families of Tetuan, Morocco and traces his history back to Al-Andalus.

The Al-Andalus Ensemble's work can be heard on their six recordings: "21 Strings" (2009), “Alchemy” (2006), "Vision" (2000), "Genetic Memories" (1998), Illumination (1992) and "Liman: For Whom?" (1990).

The Banzi's innovative work with Andalusian music has created a new genre of music termed "Contemporary Andalusian" music. Ted Gioia [1] author of the authoritative History of Jazz (Oxford University Press, 1998) [2] likened the Banzi's ouvre to that of Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla.

The title song from their Alchemy CD (2006) was won first place award for Best World Music Song of 2009. The title track from their album "Alchemy" was selected from over 560,000 songs entered from 163 countries around the world and awarded the "Peoples Grammy Award" for “Best World Music Song of 2009” JPFolks. [3]

Al-Andalus Ensemble plays traditional Andalusian music while their contemporary works draw much of its inspiration from the musical traditions rooted in North African, Flamenco, Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) and classical Andalusian styles as well as jazz and Western classical music.

[edit] Instruments

Many of the instruments they use in their performance are traditional North African and Middle Eastern instruments: the oud, kamanja, darbuka, tar and rebab, as well as the flamenco cajón, guitar, and palmas and Western instruments such as the flute, saxophone, drum set and piano. Their work is sometimes accompanied by dance performances, including dancers Maria Jose Franco and Laura Dubroka. They have also combined their talents with other world-music musicians such as: Ranjani Krishnan (multi-lingual vocals), Billy Oskay (classical and Celtic violin), Charlie Bisharat (classical and Jazz violin), and Rasgui Boujemaa on ney, vocals, kamanja, percussion and Joe Heinemann (piano).

[edit] Education

Tarik Banzi holds a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid while Julia Banzi a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. They are both scholars, artists, composers and multi-instrumentalists. Julia Banzi is one of a very few female flamenco guitarists worldwide and Tarik was instrumental in establishing the new flamenco movement of Spain in the 1980's. He has recorded and performed with Paco de Lucia, Manolo Sanlucar, Jorge Pardo and others.