Roman Bunka (2 December 1951 – 12 June 2022) was a German guitarist,

oud , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= * String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , ...

player and composer, active in world music and

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

bands. He lived most of his life in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, Bavaria, where he was involved in various musical crossover projects.

Career

Bunka was born in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

on 2 December 1951. He started playing the guitar as a teenager. In the 1970s, he moved to Munich and joined the world music group

Embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

. They toured in Morocco, India and Afghanistan, and the music of these countries made a strong impact on Bunka and his fellow musicians. In 1979, Embryo traveled overland to India with three buses and their instruments. The tour was documented in the movie ''Vagabunden Karawane''. Besides the guitar, his second instrument was the Arabic

, which he studied mainly in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. Having spent long periods of time there, he often played in the band of Egyptian singer and movie actor

Mohamed Mounir Mohamed Mounir ( ar, محمد منير; born October 10, 1954) is an Egyptian singer and actor, with a musical career spanning more than four decades. He incorporates various genres into his music, including classical Egyptian music, Nubian musi ...

, for example at the New Year's Eve concert in 2000 at the

Pyramids of Giza The Giza pyramid complex ( ar, مجمع أهرامات الجيزة), also called the Giza necropolis, is the site on the Giza Plateau in Greater Cairo, Egypt that includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Men ...

. In 1994, Bunka presented his

ethno jazz Ethno jazz, also known as world jazz, is a subgenre of jazz and world music, developed internationally in the 1950s and '60s and broadly characterized by a combination of traditional jazz and non-Western musical elements. Though occasionally equ ...

project ''Color me Cairo'', featuring Malachi Favors of

Art Ensemble of Chicago The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz group that grew out of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians ( AACM) in the late 1960s. The ensemble integrates many jazz styles and plays many instruments, including "little ...

, and Egyptian musicians

Fathy Salama Fathy Salama (Arabic فتحي سلامة; born 27 March 1969, in Cairo) is a Grammy Award-winning Egyptian musician, who usually appears with his ensemble Sharkiat (شرقيات, "Easterners"). Salama grew up listening to the radio, which played ...

, Hosam Shakir and Khaled Goma at the

Berlin Jazz Festival JazzFest Berlin (also known as the Berlin Jazz Festival) is a jazz festival in Berlin, Germany. Originally called the "Berliner Jazztage" (''Berlin Jazz Days''), it was founded in 1964 in West Berlin by the Berliner Festspiele. Venues included B ...

, curated by

George Gruntz George Gruntz (24 June 1932 – 10 January 2013) was a Swiss jazz pianist, organist, harpsichordist, keyboardist, and composer known for the George Gruntz Concert Big Band and his work with Phil Woods, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Don Cherry, Chet Baker, ...

. The same line-up was recorded by

Enja Records Enja Records is a German jazz record company and label based in Munich which was founded by jazz enthusiasts Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber in 1971. The label's first release was by Mal Waldron, and early releases included European and Jap ...

, with ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' magazine writing: "Bunka gets fame in a growing musical diaspora as 'best oud-player north of Mekka'." Bunka was known for his artistic collaboration with German and international musicians, such as the German world music groups Embryo,

Dissidenten Dissidenten are a German rock band known for their collaborations with Middle Eastern, African and Indian musicians. In a 1988 article for ''The New York Times'', music critic Stephen Holden acknowledged the band as being among the leaders of wha ...

and Jisr, but also with jazz musicians

Mal Waldron Malcolm Earl "Mal" Waldron (August 16, 1925 – December 2, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He started playing professionally in New York in 1950, after graduating from college. In the following dozen years or so Wa ...

Charlie Mariano Carmine Ugo Mariano (November 12, 1923 – June 16, 2009) was an American jazz saxophonist who focused on the alto and soprano saxophone. He occasionally performed and recorded on flute and nadaswaram as well. Biography Mariano was born in ...

and

Malachi Favors Malachi Favors (August 22, 1927 – January 30, 2004) was an American jazz bassist who played with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Biography "Favors's tendency to dissemble about his age was a well-known source of mirth to fellow musicians of his g ...

, as well as with Indian and Egyptian performers Trilok Gurtu,

Ramesh Shotham Ramesh Shotham (born May 7, 1948 in Madras, Tamil Nadu, India) is a percussionist and drummer. Life Ramesh Shotham was born in Madras, South India. He graduated with a degree in zoology from Loyola College, University of Madras. He began his m ...

, Fathy Salama and others. German music critic Ralf Dombrowski wrote about Bunka's 2004 record ''Orientación'' with fellow musicians Luis Borda and Jost Heckler: "He is one of the first European musicians who dared to seriously explore the oud and liberated it from exoticism and

Orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...

." During his 50-year career, Bunka recorded and played concerts with numerous musical groups, and also composed soundtracks for movies. A few weeks before his death, he played with the Munich-based group Jisr (Arabic for 'bridge') at concerts in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh. Bunka died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

on 12 June 2022, in Munich at the age of 70, with both Egyptian and German newspapers publishing

obituaries An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

Awards

* 1993 BBC Prix Futura for his production of the radio play ''Tunguska Guska'' by Grace Yoon,

Sainkho Namtchylak Sainkho Namtchylak ( tyv, Сайын-Хөө Намчылак, russian: Сайнхо Намчылак, born 1957) is a singer originally from Tuva, an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation just north of Mongolia. She is known for her Tuvan ...

, Iris Disse * 1995 German Critics Poll Winner for ''Color me Cairo'' with

and Egyptian musicians * 2014

Schwabing Art Prize Since 1961, the Schwabing Art Prize has been awarded annually by the city of Munich to persons or institutions that have their seat in the Munich district Schwabing or whose achievements have been made "in the spirit of Schwabing tradition". It is ...

Discography

* 1973 ''Steig Aus'' (also released as: ''This Is Embryo'') * 1973 ''We Keep On'' with Embryo * 1975 ''Surfin'' with Embryo * 1976 ''Bad Heads and Bad Cats'' with Embryo and Charlie Mariano * 1977 ''Apo-Calypso'' with Embryo * 1979 ''Aera Live'' with Locko Richter, Klaus Kreuzeder, Lutz Oldemeier, Helmut Meier-Limberg, Freddy Setz * 1980 ''Reise'' (CD) with Embryo ( Schneeball) * 1980 ''Dein Kopf ist ein schlafendes Auto'' * 1990 ''Germanistan'' with Dissidenten * 1993 ''The Jungle Book'' with Dissidenten (Exil) * 1995 ''Color Me Cairo'' with Malachi Favors and Fathy Salama (Enja) * 1997 ''Enshaallah'' with Rahala (united One Rec.) * 2008 ''Freedom in Music'' with Embryo * 2010 ''Embryo 40'' (Trikont)

Filmography (as composer and recording artist)

* 1995 ''Halfmoon'', by Frieder Schlaich, based on short stories by

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

* 1998 ''

Am I Beautiful? ''Am I Beautiful?'' (german: Bin ich schön?) is a 1998 German comedy film directed by Doris Dörrie. Cast * Marie Zielcke as Angelina * Carla Weindler as Carla * Julian Messner as Philip * Suzanne von Borsody as Lucy * Franka Potente as Lin ...

'' (''Bin ich schön?'') by

Doris Dörrie Doris Dörrie (; born 26 May 1955) is a German film director, producer and author. Biography Born in Hanover, Dörrie completed her secondary education there in 1973. The same year, she began a two-year attendance in film studies in the drama de ...

References

External links

*
Roman Bunka at Enja Records
* *
Roman Bunka plays a taqsim (solo improvisation) on the oud
on YouTube
''Vagabunden Karawane: A musical trip through Iran, Afghanistan and India'', 1979 with Embryo
on YouTube

nbsp;— CD Review with

Uli Trepte Uli Trepte (born 27 September 1941, Konstanz, Germany — died 21 May 2009, Berlin) was a German musician best known for his collaborations with various influential Krautrock bands in the early 1970s. Early career Uli Trepte began his musica ...