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Album Review
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RootsWorld Bulletin, Album Review >>
Dona Dumitru Siminica
Sounds from a Bygone Age, Vol. 3
Asphalt Tango (www.asphalt-tango.de)
Dona Dumitru Siminica is an unlikely heartthrob.
A tidy, unremarkable looking man with a neat
mustache and an eerily androgynous voice, he has
the aura of a proto-Klaus Nomi, but without the
outré fashion sense. But he set the Bucharest
ladies' hearts all atwitter with his remarkable
singing. This collection of songs recorded in the
early '60's shows him in firm command of the
Romanian equivalent of the blues. Highly
ornamented, warmly emotive, and profoundly
sorrowful, Siminica's smoky alto-range voice goes
beyond haunting and into some otherworldly space.
On "Afare e Intuneric," for example, his singing
is positively operatic. One can hear shades of
rebetika and a hint of Turkish influence here as
well, owing to the crossroads culture of
Bucharest during Siminica's heyday. These are
songs of heartbreak, not the happy dance music of
your local taraf, though there are a couple of
instrumentals to break up the mournfulness.
Siminica was a skilled violinist as well, and he
displays his high, sweet fiddle tone on these
tracks. Marin Marangros' plucky cimbalom and
Costica Serban's fluttering accordion run
throughout the disc, laying a lacy backdrop for
Siminica's singular voice. A quiet man whose life
was shrouded in mystery, Siminica died of a heart
attack in the early '80's. He was only in his
fifties at the time. A unique talent would have
been lost to the world if not for this treasure
of a re-issue. -- by Peggy Latkovich
Listen to "Cine are fata mare"
http://www.rootsworld.com/audio/bygone3.html
Available from cdRoots
http://www.cdroots.com/hm-atr-1106.html
01/03/07 >> go there
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