People wanting to help victims of the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria can do so this Saturday night while enjoying some great music by Bruce Cobanli and fellow musicians.
Before Night Falls (B4NF), the musical collective led by Salt Spring singer-songwriter and guitarist Cobanli, whose late father Bas was Turkish, is hosting a Benefit for Turkish and Syrian Earthquake Relief at the Legion.
Cobanli and his band will play a collection of his songs he recently recorded at The Barn Studio on Hornby Island with the renowned Canadian jazz guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Marc Atkinson, who not only produced, engineered and mixed the sessions but also contributed various instruments and vocals.
Cobanli says a spring album release is imminent and this concert will give folks a chance to hear new arrangements and expanded versions of Cobanli’s songs.
To complement Cobanli’s acoustic and resophonic guitars and vocals, the band for this new iteration of B4NF includes: his old friend and former Gulf Islands Secondary School bandmaster Wilf Davies on Hammond organ and piano; Bruce Grey (Fabulous Flakes) on electric bass and vocals; Oliver Hodswood on drums; Wayne Marston (The Regulars) on the Telecaster; Craig McKerron (Barley Brothers) on mandolin; and Dave Rowse on all manner of saxophones.
After an opening set of R&B, swing, country blues and roots-flavoured Cobanli originals, the band will perform the suite of songs from his upcoming release, Before Night Falls. The third set will add further elements of ska, tango and waltz rhythms to Cobanli’s songs of love, loss, social justice, Turkish coffee and omelettes — “from the sublime to the cor’blimey,” he says.
He hopes the federal government, and perhaps even local businesses and service organizations, will match donations to create a more positive effect.
Last spring, Cobanli’s B4NF gigs raised several hundred dollars for Ukraine war relief efforts.
This Saturday’s show begins at 7:30 p.m. There is no cover charge, but donations will be accepted for Turkish and Syrian earthquake relief efforts.