'Gorse' tour from favourite Highland visiting band covers the north
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The Budapest Cafe Orchestra – regular visitors to the north where they carry out extensive tours most summers – will be back in May for many dates taking them across the Highlands.
Famed for their Gaelic Chronicles, a series of special instrumental versions of traditional Gaelic folk tunes, BCO say they will be returning to “their spiritual homeland of Scotlandia” for a record 12th year to play 30 shows in the Grand Scottish Tour de Gorse!
The dates in our area are: May 26, Rogart Mart; 27, Drumnadrochit’s Glenurquhart Hall; 28, Torridon Estate; 31, Plockton Village Hall; June 1, Findhorn Universal Hall; 5, Rosehall Village Hall; 6, Lochinver Village Hall; 7, Achiltibuie, Coigach Hall; 8, Ullapool, Ceilidh Place.
And they return to the Highlands in September when they play: Glenmoriston Community Hall on September 15 and Strathpeffer Pavilion on September 16.
The infectious four-piece bring traditional folk and gypsy-flavoured music from the Balkans and Russia.
Led by jazz violin supremo Christian Garrick, the band conjures up images of Budapest café life and gypsy campfires.
The Budapest Cafe Orchestra combines violin, guitar, accordion, double bass, saz and balalaika. Accordionist Eddie Hession has accompanied Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. Christian himself has played with the likes of Dame Cleo Laine and Sir John Dankworth, Wynton Marsalis, Nigel Kennedy, and Caro Emerald.
And The Sultan is played expertly by Adrian Zolotuhin, a master of the strummed strings of domra, balalaika, guitar and saz. Veteran bass-man Kelly Cantlon found fame in the late 1960s as a Vagabond with northern soul sensations Jimmy James and the Vagabonds.
