Ottoman Slap

Location: Based in Cape Town

Enquiries

Biography

Cape Town-based Ottoman Slap will heal your wounds, allay your sorrows and soothe your soul as they weave their music, originating in the soul of itinerant folk musicians and travellers.

Their eclectic musical offering includes traditional pieces and adaptations of folk songs from places such as Romania, Andalusia and Algeria, as well as original compositions influenced by Balkan and Middle Eastern music, with mesmerising Tribal Fusion bellydance as the highlight.

They strike a resonance between local and global music by weaving together Middle Eastern and Cape rhythms along with vocals in Spanish, Roma and Afrikaans. Instruments include saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, saw, mandolin, guitar, accordion, double bass, darbuka, daf, riq, cajón, zils and castanets.

It is a fascinating fusion of world styles and, importantly, an integration of dance and music, drawing on themes of cultural movement, rootlessness and restlessness.

In the words of Ottoman Slap percussionist James van Minnen: “The band formed around our passion for what is considered exotic music. Although it may seem counter-intuitive to be playing Middle-Eastern, Balkan and Mediterranean-inspired music in South of Africa, for some reason, there is something in these cultures that we feel at home with and which feels like a very natural stylistic form of expression for us. These artistic styles and culture are deeply embedded in many things we in the Western world consider as ‘normal’, ‘domestic’ or ‘native’.

This unique blend of music and dance is a feast for the senses, simultaneously shedding new light on traditional culture and finding common roots.

MEMBERS' BIOGRAPHIES

Marissa Cuénoud: accordion, percussion, dance
Marissa forms the visual and choreographic backbone of Ottoman Slap. A dancer first and foremost, she plays accordion as well as percussion in Ottoman Slap. She is the director of Soma Fusion Bellydance Company, based in Cape Town. Her dance career has seen her travel extensively in Europe and parts of Africa to perform, including Nigeria (for the Egyptian pop icon Hakim), Switzerland (for Paléo Festival 2012), France, Italy and the UK. She has also been flown abroad to perform for private functions in Morocco and Seychelles. Her dream of performing dance with live music has come to fruition with Ottoman Slap.

Simoné Chiara: lead vocals, percussion

Simoné, the lead vocalist in Ottoman Slap, is heavily influenced by traditional singing styles, in particular flamenco cante, a form which she is currently studying through the Escuela de Carmen Amaya in Madrid. She is fluent in Spanish and has contributed lyrics and vocal arrangements to many of our original songs. She also plays the guitar, castanets and frame drum in Ottoman Slap.

James van Minnen: mandolin, percussion, hybrid drum kit

James is an accomplished percussionist and drummer. In Ottoman Slap, he plays drums, Middle Eastern percussion and the odd flourish of mandolin. Playing professionally since 2000, James has played in various other musical projects in Africa, Europe and Japan, including Mean Black Mamba, Andrew James & The Steady Tiger, Hot Water and Sirena Riley. Ottoman Slap is at the heart of James’ creative passion, and to date, is where he has enjoyed the most opportunities as composer and co-director.

Callan Wolff: double bass, musical saw

Callan is an experienced multi-instrumentalist with a distinct taste for the quirky and unusual, always open to anything new he can aurally chew. Callan is versatile in many styles and has performed with other groups such as (Cardigan Buzz, Fly Paper Jet, Scarlet Host and Pravda). In Ottoman Slap he features on Bertha, the double bass (and bells and whistles). He is doing his Masters at the School of Life, majoring in the underlying physics behind the fusion of sub-melodies and solid grooves.

Doug Armstrong: trumpet, guitar

Doug is a composer, producer, educator and multi-instrumentalist. During his years of activity on the Cape Town music scene and beyond he has performed and composed in a variety of music styles – jazz, hip hop, pop, rock, reggae, country AND western! He recently joined Ottoman Slap on the trumpet, thereby establishing the band’s distinctive sounding ‘horing seksie’. Doug is also producing the band’s forthcoming album.

Matthew Reid: clarinet, saxophone

Clarinetist and saxophonist Matthew Reid comes from Durban, where his first lessons were with Werner Dannewitz. He attained his Honours degree from UCT with Leslie Craven and completed a postgraduate course at the Royal College of Music in London. He has a diploma in Orchestral Studies (Dip NCOS) from Goldsmiths College in Greenwich. He won the SASOL and Oude Meester Prizes for instrumentalists in 1986 and studied with Alfred Prinz in Vienna, Guy Deplus in Paris and John McCaw in London. He premiered and recorded Peter Klatzow’s Clarinet Concerto with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra in 1992, and his Sonata with Pieter van Zyl.

Matthew performed extensively with pianist Pieter van Zyl winning the 2008 KannaAward at the KKNK for classical music. He performed with the Sontonga String Quartet at the Arts Festivals in Grahamstown, Cape Town, Franschhoek and the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival, giving the first performances of Oswaldo Golijov’s extraordinary "Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind" in this country. He was the music director of the annual Yiddish Song Festival in the Baxter Theatre for eleven years.

Instrumentation

OTTOMAN SLAP ARE

  • Matthew Reid: saxophone and clarinet
  • Doug Armstrong: trumpet and guitar
  • Simoné Chiara: lead vocals, guitar and percussion
  • Marissa Cuenoud: Tribal Fusion bellydance, accordion and percussion
  • Callan Wolff: double bass and saw
  • James van Minnen: mandolin, percussion and hybrid drum kit

Noteworthy Performances

  • Rocking the Daisies (2012-2014)
  • Nederburg wine estate 
  • Voorkamer festival, Darling (2013)
  • Superfoods Launch Party
  • Cape Town world music festival at Cape Town City Hall (2014)
  • Camphill solar fundraiser festival (2015)
  • Grahamstown fringe (2015)
  • Alexander Bar, Cape Town
  • Blah Blah Bar, Cape Town
  • Grahamstown arena (2016)

Quotes

  • “[Ottoman Slap] will heal your wounds, allay your sorrows and increase your joy as they administer weird and wonderful music, originating in the soul of folk musicians and travellers to and from many countries, be it Eastern Europe, Andalusian Spain, Algeria or, yes, the Cape… and made it their own… They haven’t climbed on any band wagon – they are the bandwagon.” - Review by Nigel Vermaas in Cue Magazine
  • "With a range of eclectic sounds, exotic instruments and foreign genres fused into one unique flavour, Ottoman Slap is a 6-man world-music collective unlike any other band in South Africa and their debut album Idiomatic is testament to that." -Texx and the city album review
  • "Ottoman Slap’s music is cultured as it is exotic, not for its origins, but rather because of its uniqueness. The album is a melodic celebration of this foreignness, a welcoming addition to the South African music scene.” - SA music scene review by Alexandra Lezic

Genre

  • World, Folk, Middle Eastern/Balkan fusion

SOUNDS LIKE

  • A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Beirut

Photo Gallery

Sound Clips

Videos

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Downloads

BUDGET INDICATOR

Budget Range for Ottoman Slap is

R16500 - R30000

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