Six Truths About Moy Avaz
Updated: May 26, 2021
It feels kind of unlikely that a band like ours would even come together, and I will tell you the story of how Moy Avaz came into being in more detail another time. But today, I thought I’d just provide you with a few facts about our band that you might find interesting.
First of all: Who are we? The short answer is „four musicians from four European countries who all happen to live and work in Munich, Germany.“ Vlad, our accordion player grew up in Moldova, our bass player Boris is from Croatia, drummer Dzenan spent his childhood and youth in Serbia, and the keyboard player (that is me) grew up in, well… Munich (oh, and once I saw a blimp).
We describe our music as New Eastern Jazz. We basically made up this genre because we have literally no idea what else to call it. „Balkan jazz“ seems to bring to mind crazy fast clarinet melodies. „World music“ is a somewhat esoteric term. I guess you could call it „fusion“ but then all music is a fusion of some sort. So, until YOU come up with a better term (seriously, let us know if you do!), I guess we will just stick with New Eastern Jazz.
Random fact: two out of four band members have performed to intoxicated crowds in a beer tent at the Munich Oktoberfest - lederhosen and oom-pah music and all! Not too proud of it, but it is kind of fun.
Our debut album „Are you free?“ contains nine original compositions. It also features a guest-appearance of rapper Malarchi on one track - and it works out amazingly well!
Another song from the album, by the way, won the jury prize at an online song contest over hundreds of other submissions. Interestingly enough, that same song seems to be the one track that appeals the least to listeners of the album. I'll leave it to you to make sense of what that says about the overall quality of our album or the overall quality of music juries... ;)
One question we often get asked: „Is there a meaning to your band name?“ Well, although the term „Moy Avaz“ does not exist in any language (that we know of), it does have a meaning. But i will leave this topic for another time. ;)