BOBAN MARKOVIC ORKESTAR
THE PROMISE (Piranha CD PIR1901)

Boban prods his son, Marko, to the fore for this outing, but there is continuity and the album delivers for those needing a fix of extreme Balkan Brass. The big band turns on a dime (or maybe a zloty?) effortlessly, their melodies sustained on the air like hovering strings or respiring like a celestial organ. Europe and Asia collide at the Carpathians or thereabouts and myths as well as music are thrown skyward by this natural & cultural upheaval. These genuine Gypsy Kings slow down long enough to give us one song, a lament sung in Macedonian. The other tracks are all instrumental but there is a mournful voice in the trumpets which has a tone stretching back over the centuries to Rajasthan and the Punjab whence these migrants began their trek to our day. They also recall the primitive oboe in their phrasing and pitch and the whirlwind of brass that surrounds them recalls the might of the Ottoman army on the march before their bands were dissolved in 1839 and splintered into the little village units. But, their influences are legion. The track "Meksikanka (Mexican girl)" intrigued me as I tried to figure out what the source was. Herb Alpert? No, nothing that obvious... And the moody "Noc je (It's night)" quotes Miles Davis's "Concierto de Aranjuez" -- or is it "Elevator to the gallows"? I don't listen to much contemporary jazz since it became a lifestyle rather a musical form, but there's plenty of virtuoso playing, provoking ideas and tricky rhythmic games to get you caught up here