Brian Prunka - ProfilesArchive

About Me

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About me: I lived in New Orleans, Louisiana for 10 years, from 1993-2003, soaking up the musical culture and performing around the city with lots of terrific jazz musicians. In the summer of 2003, I moved to New York to expand my musical horizons, especially studying oud and Arabic music with Simon Shaheen and Bassam Saba and performing with lots of middle-eastern influenced musicians.
I formed my Near East River Ensemble to explore composing music that married jazz and Arabic music, working with traditional instrumentation. At present, I'm working on finding ways of bringing my experiences back to the jazz idiom.
You can listen to more of my music on my website or at CDbaby, and maybe purchase a cd if you're so inclined.
-- -- -- CDBABY LINK for BRIAN PRUNKA: In Praise of Shadows --
Listen and download at iTunes

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 6/10/2004
Band Website: brianprunka.com
Band Members: Personnel varies . . . but here are some recurring players:
Rami El-Aasser , perc.; Timothy Quigley , perc.; Danny Zanker, bass; Leanne Darling , viola; Megan Weeder , violin; Chris Hoffman , cello; Bridget Robbins, nay & flute; Tareq Abboushi , buzuq
Influences: Tons of influences, of course: Ahmed Abdul-Malik, John Abercrombie, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Cannonball Adderly, Alice in Chains, Louis Armstrong, Asmahan, Farid El-Atrache, Omer Avital, J.S. Bach, Munir Bachir, Chet Baker, Beastie Boys, the Beatles, Beethoven, Tim Berne, Black Sabbath, Seamus Blake, Art Blakey, Anouar Brahem, Brahms, Uri Caine, Chopin, Charlie Christian, Ornette Coleman, Coltrane, Sam Cooke, Alice Cooper, Miles, the Doors, Dave Douglas, Ellington, Tatyos Efendi, Bill Evans. Cesaria Evora, Fairuz, Mahmoud Fadl, Sabah Fakri, Erik Friedlander, Bill Frisell, Stan Getz, JoÃ£o Gilberto, Henryk GÃ³recki, Grant Green, Herbie Hancock, Eddie Harris, Donny Hathaway, Joe Henderson, Jimi Hendrix, Joji Hirota, Johnny Hodges, Billie Holiday, John Lee Hooker, Freddie Hubbard, Iron & Wine, Chris Isaak, Keith Jarrett, Jethro Tull, Jobim, Robert Johnson, Marcel Khalife, Rima Khcheich, Lee Konitz, Philip Koutev, Um Kulthum, Led Zeppelin, Booker Little, Charles Lloyd, Joe Lovano, Bob Marley, Warne Marsh, Steve Masakowski, John McLaughlin, John Medeski, Brad Mehldau, Misha Mengelberg, Myra Melford, Pat Metheny, Ron Miles, Charles Mingus, Ben Monder, Thelonious Monk, Wes Montgomery, Paul Motian, Mozart, Mr. Bungle, Gerry Mulligan, Orchestra Baobob, Ozzy Osbourne, Palestrina, Charlie Parker, Parlaiment, Oscar Peterson, Astor Piazzola, Loren Pickford, Portishead, Jihad Racy, Radiohead, Josh Redman, Django Reinhardt, R.E.M., Marc Ribot, Amalia Rodrigues, Sonny Rollins, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Wadi El-Safi, Dino Saluzzi, Oumou Sangare, Schubert, Louis Sclavis, John Scofield, Simon Shaheen, Brad Shepik, Shankar, Wayne Shorter, Paul Simon, Elliott Smith, Riad al-Sounbati, Cat Stevens, John Surman, Faruk Tekbilek, Ali Farka TourÃ©, Lennie Tristano, Mark Turner, Stanley Turrentine, U2, Van Halen, Sarah Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, Caetano Veloso, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Rufus Wainwright, Tom Waits, Kenny Wheeler, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, John Zorn
Type of Label: None

My Blog

New Tunes up!

Okay, so they're not really new, just new to MySpace . . . "Khaliji" is an improvised piece, with Mike Jenner and me playing over a drum loop."Taqsim" is another improvised piece. I played the percus...
Posted by Brian Prunka on Sat, 16 Sep 2006 02:30:00 PST