Purchase Mizna's CD at Caravan Souk

Mizna, which means a cloud in the desert, perform a stylized blend of the music of North Africa, Spain, India, the Middle and Near East, with a contemporary American sensibility. Both lively and thoughtful, this group evokes the lonely campfire of the hejira as well as the silken wealth of the caravanserai.

With a large assortment of horns and strings providing the melodic components, backed by an equally impressive array of drums and percussion instruments, the songs range from pensive and moody to bouyant uptempo tunes. Mizna plays all original compositions on a variety of traditional instruments, such as the Egyptian mijwiz, Turkish zurna and saz, African djembe and the Indian naal.
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The musicians of Gypsy Caravan and Mizna
Musical instigators Bruce Beaton and Jeff Rees have led the musical gypsy trail for Gypsy Caravan since 1991. The musicians of Gypsy Caravan and Mizna have a diverse background. Anywhere from four to nine musicians play with the band, adding more strings and percussion to fill out their intoxicating sound! The band plays with and without dancers, although their main focus is playing for Gypsy Caravan Dance Company dancers.
They have an extensive repertoire of original songs and enjoy playing at variety of performance requests, from large theatrical productions and art festivals, to smaller nightclubs and intimate celebrations.
See below for musician bios!
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Since 1991, Gypsy Caravan and Mizna have explored many types of performance venues and experiences to showcase their thrilling and innovative shows that combine the original music and tribal bellydances of the dance company and band. Besides monthly shows at home in Portland, Oregon, they have performed and taught throughout the United States and around the globe, including shows in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Europe.
Highlights from their illustrious career include playing assorted events, both big and small:
WOMAD—Seattle, WA 2001
Vibe Tribe—England and Scotland, 2007
Tribal Quest NorthWest—Portland, OR 2001-2007
Tribal Fest—CA, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007
Rakassah—CA, 1999, 2000, 2001
Spirit of the Tribes—FL, 1999, 2000
Renaissance Faire—AZ, 2002, 2002
Oregon Country Fair—OR, 1994-2006
Bumbershoot Art Festival—Seattle, WA, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2004
Folklife Music Festival—Seattle. WA, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007
And hundreds of shows, including festivals, clubs, gatherings, celebrations, theatrical productions!


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Jeff Rees
Jeff’s first exposure to learning a musical instrument was playing the accordion and clarinet as a young boy. Not long after that Jeff picked up the bass guitar and had his first taste at playing in garage rock bands. He moved to San Francisco, spring of ’77, discovering the blooming era of the west coast punk rock scene. Jeff rose to punk fame with the band, No Alternative, playing hundreds of shows and touring the west coast. He recorded several singles, LPs, and CDs with that band.
In 1981, he met Paulette, a keyboardist/singer/photographer, and they joined musical forces, starting their own band, Fade To Black, a predecessor to the “Goth” movement.
Several records and lifestyles later, they moved to Portland, Oregon. Jeff’s music took a big turn when he joined Paulette’s newly formed tribal bellydance troupe, the Gypsy Caravan. Dropping the bass, he went full circle back to playing the clarinet. From travels and research he started playing the zurna from Turkey, the ney and the mijwiz from Egypt, and created the distinct sound of the Gypsy Caravan band. He now plays a vast assortment of horns and percussion, also including the Egyptian rababa, the Indian shruti box, the Armenian dudek, and the Australian didgeridoo.
Playing with Gypsy Caravan, Jeff also started a new band, Mizna, who released their first CD of tribal bellydance music in 2006. Touring the world with Paulette and Gypsy has been an enormously rewarding experience, as he has had the opportunity to play with musicians and for dancers in many other states and countries. With Gypsy and Mizna, Jeff has recorded nine CDs and various films and DVDs. He has made guest appearances on several CDs outside of Gypsy, including playing with Domba, Solace, and Americanistan. Playing music is Jeff’s meditation, his passion, and his art; he plays from his heart and soul.

Bruce Beaton
Bruce was raised in the United States, traveling constantly with his air force family during the 50's and 60's. Originally playing the saxophone, he switched instruments and bought a set of conga drums. After many years of Afro-Cuban lessons, he traveled to Egypt and the Mediterranean where he was introduced to the exotic sounds of the Middle East.
He met Paulette in 1991 and became the first drummer in Gypsy Caravan. His sixteen years of creating, producing, and performing with the troupe have been his dream come true. The richness and depth of the musical work and dance, the friendships that developed, the level of professional performances, and the appreciative audiences he has played for, have lightened his life beyond that dream.
His daughter, Justine, and his fiancé, Christina, continue to add to his blessings. The last 34 years he's been a medical/surgical photographer and currently owns his own commercial/corporate photography business.

Doug Shafer
Doug Shafer is a Portland, Oregon musician and artist. He plays strings and hand drums in Mizna for Gypsy Caravan, as well as several of Portland's top world music bands. He has played guitar for many years, and has added other stringed instruments, including oud, cumbus, and saz. Doug plays a wide variety of hand drums, both from the Middle East, but also some South Asian drums. In Mizna his primary drum is the doumbek or darbuka.
Besides performing, Doug also teaches well-received drumming classes and workshops for Caravan Studio in Portland and on the road. He has studied with a variety of well-known and respected musicians including Karim Nagi, Souhail Kaspar, Tobias Roberson and Naser Musa.
As a visual artist, Doug makes paintings and one-of-a-kind illuminated manuscripts. His work has been exhibited in various galleries and museums around the country and has been purchased by a number of prominent collectors and institutions, including the National Gallery in Washington DC and Harvard University in Cambridge, Ma. His work is represented by dealers both on the west and east coast of the United States.
He lives in Portland with his wife Jen, who manages Caravan Studio and dances with Gypsy Caravan Dance Company, and their cat, Bijou.

J.D.Devros
J.D.Devros is a composer/songwriter, musician, poet, and author of numerous short stories and screenplays. He plays strings—including the oud, cumbus, and saz—in the Middle Eastern/North African/Indian influenced music for the Gypsy Caravan Dance Company with the band Mizna.
He has played guitar and related stringed instruments for many years and in many genres, including acoustic folk, hard core punk, ska, blues, alt-rock, and avant-garde/experimental. His band Big Medicine Head played the CMJ Festival in New York City, and was voted the “Best Band in Santa Cruz” two years in a row. He recently returned to Santa Cruz to perform at the Y2K07 International Looping Festival.

Bhrigha
Gypsy Caravan has been a huge influence for years for Bhrigha, and she was delighted to be invited to join the band Mizna in June 2007. Bhrigha enjoys the camaraderie of her brothers as she plays frame drum, tar, djembe, riq/tambourine, and incidental percussion. She loves the tribal feel of making music and watching the dance of her sisters evolve in the moment.
Bhrigha became one of the 4 founding members and the first female percussionist of the Umoja Percussion Ensemble in Orlando, Florida. She has given serious study with modern-day masters of the drum in West and Central African traditions on ngoma, djembe, djun djunba, sangban, and kinkini, as well as Middle Eastern technique & rhythms on Egyptian/Moroccan tabla, riq, frame drums and finger cymbals. She is the Artistic Director of the multi-award-winning Shredd! Theatre Troupe as well. Her accomplishments include: years of drum circle facilitation, a Drums-Not-Drugs program for at risk women and youth, professional dance and music performances, recording credits on Shredd’s! This is Your Brain On Drums and Tribical CD’s, as well as on Gypsy Caravan’s Remarkably Re-Mixed Caravan Rhythms CD, and award-winning theatrical performances at the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival 2005 and 2006.

Chris Jacobson
Chris Jacobson is a regular player in Portland, Oregon with various middle-eastern bands, notably Mizna, the musicians for Portland’s Gypsy Caravan Dance Company. Chris has been studying for several years with master Arabic percussionist Souhail Kaspar. He has also worked with several extraordinary teachers at the Middle-Eastern Music and Dance Camp in Mendocino, California, including Rachid Halihal and Murat Tekbilek.
In addition to his middle-eastern musical efforts, Chris has studied for 10 years with and performed with master West African percussionist Nii Ardey Allotey. His studies in African drumming include travels to Ghana in West Africa. Chris’ other teachers in the African style include master African percussionists Mamady Keita, Obo Addy and Chata Addy.

Sean Molloy
Sean Molloy, a Portland native with a doctorate in Neuroscience, was first drawn to the music of Gypsy Caravan & Mizna through a love of Tribal Style bellydance. Since discovering Gypsy Caravan in 1999, he has been a fan, photographer, and most recently, a musician with the troupe. Although originally attracted by the power of the dance, he was equally seduced by the unique blend of musical styles and rhythms that made up the sound of Gypsy Caravan and Mizna and put his experience as kit drummer to use in learning the art of hand drumming while performing with local artists such as Bruce Beaton, Doug Shafer, and David Reihs.

Bruce Robertson
Bruce’s relationship with Gypsy Caravan continues to grow over the years, from his first experience recording and mixing their CD, Live at Berbati’s, in 1994 in his studio Blue Dog Recording, to his most recent collaboration on the Caravan Rhythms Remarkably Remixed CD, which is an incredible melding of traditional and cutting edge percussion. Bruce plays drums with Mizna and Gypsy and they are some of the most exhilarating gigs he has played.
With Bruce’s background playing drums, guitar, and piano, and his fascination with the recording process, he attended Pratt Institute in New York City in 1982. He graduated with a Bachelors of Industrial Design in 1986, and worked as a Product Designer until 1989. In 1989, Bruce went back to school at the Institute for Audio Research, receiving a certificate in Recording Arts. He then worked as a Recording Engineer at SLP in Manhattan for 3 years, doing commercial ad work, soundtrack, and music projects.
Bruce’s recording studio in Portland, Blue Dog, is enjoying its 13th year in business. Bruce continues to play drums and percussion on recordings and live with several bands. He has released 2 CD's with his other bands Black Barrel and Fuzzball.

Paulette Rees-Denis
Founder of Gypsy Caravan in 1991, Paulette has danced and played music around the globe, touring and teaching the innovative dance style called Tribal Bellydance. As the artistic director and manager of the dancers and the musicians, she also enjoys filling both roles of dancer and musician in the troupes’ performances.
Paulette’s main instruments in the Gypsy Caravan/Mizna band include the riq, tar, and dumbek with assorted percussion, although her background in music includes playing keyboards, guitar, and singing in rock bands. She has produced and played on Gypsy Caravan’s several award winning CDs and DVDs under the Gypsy Caravan label, as well as her new publishing company, Cultivator Media Group, which will publish her newly released book, Tribal Vision.

Oktoberfest 2007 at the Edgefield. Photo by Michele Gila.