Jaffna: A musical universe where oud, guitar, tabla, and dumbek can live together, argue, eat and stay good friends.

Jaffna plays original acoustic music rooted in the Indian and Middle Eastern backgrounds of its members, who have worked for decades to create a musical universe where oud, guitar, tabla, and dumbek can live together, argue, eat and stay good friends.

The band features Roger Mgrdichian (oud, saz, cumbus), Raji Malik (guitar, sarod), Branavan Ganesan (tabla, kanjira), and Joe Tayoun (dumbek, riq, cajon). The easy description of their music points to the geographical heritage of the musicians, but that’s just a starting point: with the strong Mid-East and Indian flavor come unmistakable flamenco, rock, Balkan and jazz influences, the result of jamming in and around the vibrant Philadelphia world music scene of the 90s. In the early 2000s, Branavan left the area, so chances to hear Jaffna in recent years have been few and far between. Fortunately, he’s recently moved back and they have developed a lot of new music for their first Crossroads — and West Philadelphia — show since 2005.