Will Magid, known professionally as Balkan Bump is an American

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

player,

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

, and

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

based in Oakland, CA. Signed to electronic producer Gramatik's label Lowtemp, Balkan Bump's music interweaves electronic production and live instrumentation.

Early life

Magid grew up in Palo Alto, where his father tech

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

Larry Magid Larry Magid (born 1947) is an American journalist, technology columnist and commentator. He is the author of several books. Early life Lawrence J. Magid was born in 1947 in Brooklyn, NY. He grew up in Los Angeles, California. He received his BA f ...

would often bring home new electronics and games, inspiring an early interest in technology. He began playing trumpet at age 10 and went on to play with the

SFJazz The SFJAZZ Center is an all-ages music venue in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco, California, that opened in January 2013. It is considered the "first free-standing building in America built for jazz performance and education." It is ...

High School All-Stars Big Band, with which he opened for

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

and performed at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

. Magid attended college at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

where he obtained a degree in ethnomusicology.

Career

Early career

After stints leading a 15-piece afrobeat band in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

and touring as a keyboardist with

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band Mount Auburn, Magid moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, allured by the city’s burgeoning

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded danc ...

scene. There he formed Will Magid Trio, who blended live instruments with electronic elements and performed regularly at

Cafe Du Nord Cafe Du Nord is a 320-person capacity music venue in the basement level of the historic Swedish American Hall in San Francisco’s Upper Market neighborhood. History Both Cafe Du Nord and The Swedish American Hall have hosted internationally kno ...

among other Bay Area venues. He also formed the eleven-piece group Alligator Spacewalk which included members of the San Francisco-based Jazz Mafia collective, with whom he released two albums in 2016 and 2017. During this time, Magid toured and collaborated with and

Afrolicious Afrolicious is a dance-fusion collective based in San Francisco, California. Founded by brothers Joe "Pleasuremaker" McGuire and Oz "Señor Oz" McGuire, the group's weekly residency at the Elbo Room in the Mission District has established Afrolic ...

Bonobo The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus '' Pan,'' the other being the comm ...

Pretty Lights Derek Vincent Smith (born November 25, 1981), known by his stage name Pretty Lights, is an American electronic music producer. Pretty Lights was originally a music project consisting of Smith and Michal Menert, who left after the release of their ...

, Beats Antique, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Kenny Burrell, and

Solomon Burke Solomon Vincent McDonald Burke (born James Solomon McDonald, March 21, 1936 or 1940 – October 10, 2010) was an American singer who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues as one of the founding fathers of soul music in the 1960s. He has been ...

2017-present: ''Balkan Bump'' EP

Magid launched his project Balkan Bump in 2017, whose name pays tribute to the brass bands integral to the local traditional music of the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

. Magid attracted the attention of Gramatik, who signed him to his Lowtemp label and collaborated with him alongside Talib Kweli for Balkan Bump's first single release "Aymo" in October 2017. The song was included on Gramatik's ''Re:Coil, Pt. I'' EP and featured in Porsche's 2020

Super Bowl ad Super Bowl commercials, colloquially known as Super Bowl ads, are high-profile television advertisement, television commercials featured in the U.S. television broadcast of the Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League (N ...

. After releasing his second single "Irfan" in December, Magid released his self-titled EP under the Balkan Bump moniker in March 2018. In April, Magid released a

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

EP for the single "Aymo" via Lowtemp as well as the single "Give Me Something to Funk" in August.

Musical style

Balkan Bump's music has been classified as "future balkan" and "electronic funk" for its use of live instruments,

world In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

influences, and electronic production. Magid likens the project's unique style to his ancestors' immigration across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, ultimately assimilating in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. His affinity for

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

n influences originated at UCLA, where he was introduced to

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

n musician

Babá Ken Okulolo Babá Ken Okulolo (born September 12, 1950) is a Nigerian bassist and bandleader who was first seen in the U.S. in 1985 with King Sunny Ade's world-touring band. He has played with renowned Afrobeat creator Fela Anikulapo Kuti, highlife master Vi ...

through his son who was also studying ethnomusicology there.

Performances

Magid played his first performance as Balkan Bump at Gramatik's 2017 New Year's Eve show at Terminal 5 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Since then he's toured with Gramatik on several occasions including: Spring 2018 on his Re:Coil Part I tour alongside Haywyre, fall 2018 alongside Beats Antique and Clozee, and fall 2019. Balkan Bump has performed at a number of

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...

s including Bonnaroo,

Electric Forest Electric Forest is a multi-genre music festival produced by Madison House Presents and Insomniac Events with a focus on electronic music and jam band genres. Original named Rothbury Festival in 2008, it is held in Rothbury, Michigan at the ...

, and Joshua Tree Fall Music Festival as well as a guest appearance at Coachella in 2019. In April 2020 he performed online at Virtually Lucid, an online version of Lucidity festival.

References

External links

Official Website

Porsche “The Heist” Official Big Game Commercial 2020 - Extended Cut
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balkan Bump Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area American trumpeters American electronic musicians UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music alumni