Culture and dance on display at coffeehouse

RJalsah VII Your Inner Vagabond Coffeehouse ‘ World Lounge 4130 Butler St., Lawrenceville 412-683-1623 $7 advance/$10 at the door

Grab your drum, do a few extra crunches and hop to Lawrenceville for “Jalsah VII,” hosted at the brand new Your Inner Vagabond Coffeehouse ‘ World Lounge March 1.

As part of its Grand Opening Weekend, Your Inner Vagabond, in collaboration with Pittsburgh’s premiere belly-dance band Ishtar, is arranging the participation-friendly musical jamboree in order to educate Pittsburghers of all ages, backgrounds and instrumentation and experience levels on Middle Eastern culture.

“It’s definitely the most unique event of its kind in Pittsburgh,” says Andrew Watson, co-owner of YIV with his wife, AJ Schaffer.

Jalsah comes from the Arabic word jalasa, which means “to sit.” It’s an “informal musical gathering,” or a laid-back, open jamming session, that typically hearkens back to the days of musical assemblies performing for medieval courts.

“Essentially what you’re doing is sitting in with the Turkish band,” Watson said. “We just party all night.”

Clarinetist Melissa Murphy of Ishtar and multi-instrumentalist Carmine Guida of New York City band Djinn will lead the workshop by performing popular Middle Eastern folk and belly-dance songs to which participants are urged to dance to and play along. All levels and instruments are welcome. Watson recalls once when an accordionist came to jam and fit right in. Music will converge around Turkish, Arabic, Greek and Roma styles.

Guida will instruct percussionists on the 10 most prevalent Middle Eastern rhythms and a free beginner belly-dance class will be held by Emay from Inoor Dance Company from 8 to 8:30 p.m.

“What we’d like to do is become a center for world music and performance, anything that’s not singer-songwriter rock,” Watson said.

Tickets are well worth it – they include all the drum-pounding, belly-jiggling, dessert-gorging fun you can handle.