Jeeni Blog

Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

The People's Lounge - The Turbans

/ By Freya Devlin
The People's Lounge - The Turbans
The Turbans

The Turbans is an international musical collective bringing together exciting music from traditional near-eastern and eastern-European styles and their own compositions. To create a modern and energetic performance with reverence for its ancient roots. Growing from the intertwining paths of many talented musicians travelling the world. This extraordinary project has grown in a few years from very humble beginnings, into a progressive name on the London music scene. You can catch The Turbans at the Global Bandstand Weekender presented by The People’s Lounge. At the Southsea Bandstand Portsmouth.

It's members have gathered from countries such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Israel, Italy, Greece and England to perform in concerts and festivals around the UK, Turkey, India and Europe. The Turbans is independent and run by the musicians themselves, bringing music to the public, young and old alike. Meanwhile mixing vibrant spontaneity and authenticity with multi-genre instrumental and vocal excellence. Drawing on the rich cultural heritage of the Levantine and Balkan regions and their roots in Turkey, Bulgaria, Iran, Greece, Spain, Tunisia, Morocco and London. To create a high energy blend of original music for the 21st century, inspired by ancient melodies.

Artists The Turbans are the type of creative talent that Jeeni supports on our platform. By creating showcases, supporting creative talent and promoting them to an audience on jeeni.com

In a politically divided time, it’s hard to imagine a band comprised of members from across Europe and the Levant as not being inherently progressive. However, transmitting a political message was not their initial impulse. It was simply music. As well as friendship, as it turns out. Oshan Mahony, the “seventh best guitar player in the band” says the core group is seven members — met violinist Darius Luke Thompson in Kathmandu. The two half-Iranian, half-British nomads immediately hit it off. They began busking throughout India, picking up musicians along their Journey.

The Turbans is rounded out by vocalist and guitarist Miroslav Morski, a former Bulgarian pop star who previously fronted the band. Django Ze, and has been described as a “musical tornado” with a broad range of musical styles; Greek folk music expert, vocalist Pavlos Mavromatakis; cajon player and flamenco guitarist Pablo Dominguez, whose father, Chano, is a well-known flamenco pianist; Israeli guitarist Moshe Zehavi, who parents are from Turkey and Tunisia; and oud player Maxim Shchedrovitzki, a native of Belarus. In addition to beyond the core group, the band is always playing with other musicians.

Seven years later The Turbans delivers to global audiences the same high-energy blend of Balkan, klezmer, Gypsy, and sundry other styles they’ve been bringing to venues around the world for years. In India, Hong Kong, the Middle East, and all throughout Europe and North America.

JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience.
  • Firstly we give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services.
  • Secondly we empower our audience and reward them every step of the way.
  • Thirdly we promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect.
  • Lastly and most importantly they keep 100% of everything they make.

Check out Flamingods showcase here on Jeeni: The Turbans | Showcase | JEENI. Along with other showcases to add to your playlist.

Also, you can find out more about their appearance at The Global BandStand Weekender. Presented by The People's Lounge, at the Southsea Bandstand Portsmouth. Sunday 1st August at 17:00

05
Jun

Independent Musicians and Performers Community Group

The Independent Musicians and Performers Community (IMAP) has been set up by the founders of Jeeni. Our Community is for everyone and anyone creative: musicians, voice-artists, performers, poets, singer-songwriters ... the list is endless. We connect, collaborate, share and support each other, while we have some fun and make a real difference. We are a completely independent group and have no interest in political debate in this community. We encourage our members to share their original music and performances. Jeeni launched IMAP 28 days ago today with the single purpose of helping and supporting fellow artists with relevant news, blogs, stories, videos and top tips on how to cope in these challenging times. We scan the media every day for what support is available for musicians and performers. We make it our mission to wade through lengthy documents and policies so you don't have to, and we grab the main highlights and takeaways to make it easy for you to absorb the plethora of information swimming around. The industry is being very responsive and coming up with lots of ideas, like allowing artists to keep earning by adding donate buttons on streaming platforms. Some organisations are making grants available, some are discounting their streaming platforms, whereas others are allowing artists and fans to sign up for free. We expect to see many online services partnering with one another to combine their overall membership offerings, such as Soundcloud and Twitch. And we are very interested to see what the major global companies do and how they respond to these new and unknown market conditions. How practical these ideas are in real terms, only time will tell, and we will keep an eye out for scams, as in this very sad and challenging time it's inevitable that many will try to profit from COVID - 19, by introducing unethical and downrights crooked practices. We are making it our mission to name and shame projects and organisations that are under scrutiny and suspect, and encourage our members to do the same. IMAP is an active community group with over 1.2K new members in 28 days 2.8K approved for sign up, and 2.2K posts, comments and reactions. We very much want our members to invite their friends, families and other artists, we are all in this together and your great ideas need to shared. It doesn't matter where you are around the globe, and we would love to hear more about what other community groups are doing to support their members. Take a look at the Independent Musicians and Performers Community and join us today. You will be welcomed with open arms. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2529935880656436/about/ Shena and Mel

22
Nov

Kastopia - Self-titled EP Review

Kastopia’s eponymous debut project is a rapid and uncontainable demonstration of their light-hearted and fun-first brand of fusion jazz.   Helpfully, the group have curated an excitable and varied ‘influences’ playlist on Spotify. Featuring Kamasi Washington, GoGo Penguin and TOOL, the only similarities here are a tendency for experimenting and expanding the constraints of rhythm and metre. Aptly, most of these tracks burst outwards with passion and the joy of musicianship and although the group quite accurately states in their short bio, ‘No one sounds like us’, they have certainly adopted that energetic mindset here in these three breathless tracks.  A possible strain of influences not featured on their playlist is the superhuman Japanese brand of jazz fusion such as ‘Casiopea’ and ‘Dimension’. The latter of which lent their talent to Nintendo for select Mario Kart 8 soundtracks, a game that comes to mind regularly throughout ‘Kastopia’.  Music like this where no sole part takes precedence can be a challenge to mix effectively due to a core reference point (typically vocals) being non-existent, but the production on these tracks is so solid. This is likely as a result of the musicians having an obviously adept understanding of their own instrumental tone and capabilities, but also from the pure time and care taken by the producers and mastering engineers to bring out the final dazzling qualities.  The synergy between the Kastopia members is so satisfying to hear. At times, Kastopia are so tight and intuitively intwined that they come across as a sort of hivemind that has a masterful control over all elements of its sound. However, it’s important to remember that Kastopia runs on distinct individuality and personality expressed on each instrument;  Scott Bentley’s adaptive and assertive distorted guitar, the atmospheric and mood-shifting keys from Nicholas Twine Padin, Felix Barret’s bass, commanding the rhythm section with slaps and rumbles and all three at the mercy of William Moore’s relentless and robust drumming. These make up the nuts and bolts of the new jazz fusion super power, Kastopia.  How can Jeeni support artists like Kastopia?   JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience.   • We give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services. And they keep 100% of everything they make.  • We empower our audience and reward them every step of the way.  • We promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect.  • Access to artist liaison and a supportive marketing team  Check out Kastopia's page on Jeeni: https://jeeni.com/?s=kastopia

03
Sep

Massive Jeeni success on Crowdcube!

Jeeni has smashed through our crowdfunder target, thanks to 160 investors who are celebrating their amazing investor rewards. Jeeni is a fast-growing entertainment company that showcases independent musicians and performers ethically and safely, and where artists keep 100% of everything they make, and we're delighted that so many investors share our vision. Our team is responsible for over 500million record sales over the last 40 years.We're backed by GRAMMY Award-winners who want to help the next generation.Global streamed music subscriptions surged by 25% to $450million in 2020.We offer our artists an ethical revenue share. Our competitors do not. With only 6 days left of our Crowdcube campaign, we invite you to own part of our business and pledge your investment today from as little as £10. Check out our pitch here: https://bit.ly/3BhEeia