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Orkestar's bold brass blends with gypsy spirit
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Boston Herald, Orkestar's bold brass blends with gypsy spirit >>
Orkestar's bold brass blends with gypsy spirit
By Bob Young
Friday, September 24, 2004
A couple of years ago, one of the most entertainingly raucous international shows in many a moon took place with most of Boston's rabid world music community hearing nary a peep about it. But the local Yugoslavian music crowd sure knew about it.
The band that caused the stir, the Boban Markovic Orkestar, drew hundreds of adoring fans and turned Arlington's Regent Theatre into a Belgrade house party.
Look for the same thing to happen when the 12-member group returns to the area tomorrow night to perform at the Somerville Theatre.
What's the Boban MarkovicOrkestar? Only the most famous Gypsy band in the Balkans. Which still might not impress Westernaudiences - until they hear and see it.
Imagine the rowdiest, fastest rendition of ``Hava Nagila'' you've ever heard, zip it up with wild brass playing that would make a NewOrleans marching band stop and stare, and throw in percussion so thunderous it shakes a hall, and then you've got an idea of why the Orkestar gets a crowd into a frenzy.
Leading it all is Serbian trumpeter Markovic, who is said to have inspired Miles Davis to say, ``I didn't know you could play the trumpet that way.''
``That way'' isn't like anything you've heard Davis or Al Hirt play. It's a gritty take-no-prisoners style that blasts its way through and over a thick bottom of tubas, trumpets and drums, managing to sound both celebratory and melancholic in the space of a few bars.
At the Festival of Brass Music in central Serbia, which draws several hundred thousand fans to itsannual competition, Markovic has been voted best trumpeter five times. Like Michael Jordan and the slam dunk contest, he stopped competing after a while.
``The music is a tradition in the region where I live,'' Markovic explained in Serbian through a translator, band manager Bojan Djorjevic. ``My grandfather and father were players so it was normal for me. Until I was 10 all I really wanted to do was play ball, but now I'm not going anywhere without the trumpet.''
Gypsy brass band music took off in the early 1800s after the trumpet - here closer in style to a flugelhorn - was imported to Serbia by German musicians. It eventually evolved into an intense, rollicking music that became a staple at everything from funerals to weddings.
``It's the only folk music in Serbia that has been regarded by urban people as really good,'' said Djorjevic. ``Normally they don't like the folk music.''
Markovic hasn't been content with playing only in the traditional style, however. In recent years, especially since the Orkestar has begun touring Europe and North America, strands of other styles,including jazz and klezmer, haveentered the band's music. Earlier this week the band even performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
``Over the last four years I've wanted to search for new directions,'' said the bandleader, whose 16-year-old son, Marko, is now playing trumpet with the group. ``I've been open to all influences and collaborations.
``Back home it's accepted very well, especially with the youngaudiences. I talked with some people who wanted the trumpet and brass band to be playing material only like it was played 50 or 100 years ago.
``But when they heard me playing with all the influences and heard how I turned them into the typical Gypsy style, they were satisfied. When you play with emotion, everyone understands it.'' 09/24/04 >> go there
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