Roman Bunka

Roman Bunka (2 December 1951 – 12 June 2022) was a German guitarist, oud player and composer, active in world music and jazz fusion bands. He lived most of his life in Munich, Bavaria, where he was involved in various musical crossover projects. Career Bunka was born in Frankfurt on 2 December 1951. 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 oud, which he studied mainly in Egypt. Having spent long periods of time there, he often played in the band of Egyptian singer and movie actor Mohamed Mounir, In 1994, Bunka presented his ethno jazz project Color me Cairo, featuring Malachi Favors of Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Egyptian musicians Fathy Salama, Hosam Shakir and Khaled Goma at the Berlin Jazz Festival, curated by George Gruntz. The same line-up was recorded by Enja Records, with Rolling Stone 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, D