Balkans music

report Night of the Gypsies March 4th

Or how Belgian small-town inhabitants discover Fanfare Ciocarlia!

First we saw Mec Yek, a five-headed band with Katia and Mielka Pohlodkova, two very gifted singers. Their Halgads sung in Romani were quite moving. Looking forward to their concert in KultuurKafee where I can dance on their Cardasses. Unluckilly we were seated on the balcony in the back.
http://www.choux.net/contentENG/mecyek/index.html

Next one up would have been "Gitans de Perpignan" if their name wasn't changed into "Los Rubmeros Catalan" and they wouldn't have come from... Catalonia. There convincing performance had something in between the Gypsy Kings and Ojos de Brujo. So this is how catalan gyspsy wedding music looks like... amazing! However they don't seem to have a proper website...

Anyway, all our memories of the former bands disappeared when Fanfare Ciocarlia came up, just one day after having won the prestigous BBC3 World music Award category "Europe". One by one the artists appeared on stage, each one of them grown with/on/in his instrument, as if each one's character and physical appearance extisted according to his brass peace.
Fist it started slow, but then suddenly.. WHAM! salvos of thrumpets and basses followed by a contagious rhytms were fired onto the public where the senior citizens feld quite uneasy but made the youngsters go nuts on the balcony in the back. Blast after blast it kept comming, including 4 pieces of Bregovic (Bubamara, Duj Sandale, Kalasjnikov and Mesecina), which made the belgian (younger) crowd go absolutely banana! This guy sang most of the songs along, or at least the chorus.
After the last introductions of the band members Fanfare Ciocarlia got a standing ovation, so that they continued their bis numbers. So when some guys couldn't got held back from the stage the band said "well, what the hell" and walked joyfully playing into the crowd, just next to our seats and furher into the foyer. There the dancing and lumpovanje really started, those guys are untamable! Don't believe me? Just watch this video... pffieeew!
I hope these photos can discribe some of the event.

Night of the Gypsies: update

How insulting! Putting Fanfare Ciocarlia before Gitans the Perpignan on the schedule and finishing the concert at 22.30h... I might go as well to the other but less known Night of the Gypsies in Turnhout: is is cheaper and it features also our own belgian gypsy-influenced band "Mec Yek" which means "another one!". It's in De Warande in a city called Turnhout (near Antwerp) on 4th of March and starts at 7 pm. Fanfare Ciocarlia is scheduled at 10 pm so I hope they will go on all night!

On the Musical level, the atmosphere of the Slovakian Roma and the energy of the Rakusatar!-tours are freely translated. The traditional songs were interpreted and rearranged, which leads Mec Yek off the traditional beaten track. Mec Yek plays halgads (slow, sad melodies) and cardasses (fast, rhythmical dances and songs), alternated with instrumental pieces from Rumania, Bulgaria and Macedonia. The songs are sung in Romanes (a gipsy language). They're basically local gipsy evergreens, with lyrics speaking of everyday gipsy reality. "Pankatsa", for example, is about how Roma fear the racial attacks of the Slovakian Skinheads. Other songs are about the harsh conditions in which gipsies have to survive. But there are also more lighthearted subjects, like love, in songs like "Caje Caje" and "Andre M'ri Barol".

Mec Yek is also giving a free concert in the KultuurKaffee at the Vrije Univeristeit Brussel on 30.04.2006

more informations about Mec yek
more information about the concert and reservations : www.warande.be

News - Novosti

Meet the world of Kal
I had the pleasure to see Kal live one year ago on the Night of the Gypsies in Gent. I noticed their secure rhytmic sense and exotic melting pot of oriental melodies.
They are about to release their frst album on the famous Asphalt-Tango Records label.

Kal are the hottest Gypsy band from the suburbs of Belgrad, rock'n'roll in attitude, fuelled on urban beats and rooted in the Balkan blues. In their wit, imagination and ability to throw disparate sounds together they mark themselves as both part of Balkan Gypsy tradition and 21st Century lifestyle. Kal - the word is Romani for 'black' - were formed by the Ristic brothers, Dushan and Dragan, to confront the prejudices and clichés the Roma face. Ristic's vision of how Kal embrace 21st Century Roma music is a generous one: bhangra rhythms underpin one song, a violin dances around a two-step rhythm played on double bass, weeping Hawaiian steel guitar drifts over a lovely waltz tempo, an accordion feeds tango flavours, Montenegran rock satirist Rambo Amadeus delivers an acerbic, hiccupping rap whilst the striking voices of Zumrita Jakupovic, Adil Maksutovic and Dragana Berakovic lend earthy, sensual qualities to the songs. Recorded on a bare bones budget at Dragan's ramshackle home studio this brilliant, intuitive album shifts Gypsy soul into cyberspace.
ATR

listen to their track "Dvojka"
more info and tracks http://www.fanfare-ciocarlia.com

CD of the week (December)

Gyi! (Besh o droM)
Besh o droM's latest release serves up that mix of differing styles and genres so loved by the fans of East European music: hot Balkan rhythms and gypsy tunes spiced with a sense of humour and modernity. Besh o droM makes wild music plundered from the folk music of the Hungarian, Rumanian, Bulgarian, Southern Slav, Greek people - with a distinct Gypsy, Turkish and Middle Eastern flavour! On "Gyi!" Besh o droM are joined by two popular female singers: Ági Szaloki and Mónika Mitsoura.

The band's website is certainly worth a visit, where the track can be listened at (but not downloaded)
Listen here to one sample

After listening to tracks like Tortapapir and Fidoe you will realise that these guys are really good!

Sing along! Lyrics...

one of my all-time favouties: Mesecina (Moonlight) also used in the film Underground

Nema vise sunca
Nema vise meseca
Nema tebe, nema mene
Niceg vise, nema joj.
Pokriva nas ratna tama
Pokriva nas tama joj.
A ja se pitam moja draga
Sta ce biti sa nama?
Mesecina, mesecina,
joj, joj, joj, joj
Sunce sija ponoc bije,
joj, joj, joj, joj
Sa nebesa, zaproklija
Niko ne zna, niko ne zna
Niko ne zna, niko ne zna
Niko ne zna sta to sija

English:
Moonlight

There is no more sun,
There is no more moon,
You are no more, I am no more.
There is nothing more... oh.
Darkness of war has covered us,
Darkness has covered us... oh.
And I wonder, my dear:
What will happen with us?
Moonlight, moonlight...
oh-oh, oh-oh.
Sun is shining, sun is
shining... oh-oh, oh-oh.
From above, it breaks through...
No one knows, no one knows,
No one knows, no one knows,
No one knows what is shining

to hear the original version, click here

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Trailer: Who is Taraf de Haiduks

Taraf de Haiduks
Always eager to expand the scope of their music, the "best Gypsy band in the world" (as recently described by UK daily The Independent) have decided to confront their styles to those of other Balkan countries by inviting Gypsy virtuoso musicians from Macedonia (the Koçani Orkestar brass band), Bulgaria (clarinet player Filip Simeonov) and Turkey (percussionist Tarik Tuysuzoglu) to join them on stage. The result is a series of exciting mixtures in which magical moments abound. (Crammed)

Recently, the band that The Independent desribed as "The best Gypsy band in the world" has released a DVD; watch the trailer here

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News - Novosti

New Boban Markovic album released! Check it out here

Boban Markovic, the King of Gypsy brass bands, returns with a new album of original material accompanied by his son Marko, a 17-year old trumpet-blowing prodigy. Leading their orkestar from Vladicin Han in Serbia’s deep south, the Markovic’s music reflects the many sources that have shaped the Balkans and the Gypsies’ journey. Here the ancient meets the post-modern, blending everything to create an eerie, intuitive music.