In this globalized music scene bands have to reinvent themselves. It's not enough to be a gypsy brass band, you have to transcend niche markets, so it's great to hear Fanfare Ciocarlia rise to the challenge and give us ska and jazz along with a resounding blast of rampaging Romanian brass for their fourth CD release. They kick off with "007" in an arrangement that (I think) was a hit for the Specials. Then the romping tubas pump it up as they go into the first version of "Alili," my pick to click from this set. Track three asks the musical question: How fast can you play the trumpet? I guess it has to do with the amount of slivovitz you consume during the performance but of course as you get faster you get sloppier, and inevitably the audience lose count as one by one they pass out. I've heard other gypsy bands, including Taraf des Haiduks, perform Ellington (& Tizol)'s standard "Caravan" & there seems more than a passing connection to their indigenous rhythms, so there may be something to the liner notes' claim that gypsy musicians who came to the US in 1864 settled in black ghettos in the South where they added their music to the local mix that eventually became jazz. However you take it, this is a great version. Johny Iliev steps in to do his ballad "Ma maren ma," then we are off again on a mad dash -- this time clarinets pursued by the pumping tubas on "Hora arabeasca." Track 7, "Golden days," sounds familiar, and so does "Lume Lume," which comes from folklore, and makes you start wondering if you were a gypsy in another life. "Moldavian mood" has another wonderful trumpet lead and chorus over a rollercoaster of a backline on all the other horns. Now you can't con me here: "Hora evreiasca" is based (uncredited) on the Pink Panther theme of Henry Mancini. The album ends with a bass-heavy remix of "Alili" which has more echo and a girl humming along. It's gimmicky but lacks the sustained force of the "straight" version. But overall this CD is a gem and another rousing set from the lads from Ciocarlia.