Maui News, No black eyes for this group >>
Taking their name from an old Russian gypsy tune made popular by guitarist Django Reinhardt, the French group Les Yeux Noirs is happily spreading the sounds of traditional gypsy and Jewish music around the world.
Led by two classically-trained, violin playing brothers, Eric and Olivier Slabiak, Les Yeux Noirs are reinventing and reinterpreting this traditional music in contemporary way. Often injecting a rock sensibility to their arrangements, they combine modern instruments like trap drums and electric guitars with more tradition al cello, cimbalom, accordion and violins.
"Our repertoire is gypsy, Jewish and traditional music from Eastern Europe and the Balkans," Eric Slabiak explains. "Our culture is Eastern European, Jewish, gypsy music, but we also grew up with Supertramp and David Bowie and rock music. We wanted to include both sounds. The audience can see this is just not old music, it's evolving and maturing. I think it's necessary for this music to cross the centuries."
Performing together for 3 years, Les Yeux Noirs ("The Black Eyes") are currently in the midst of their 11th U.S. tour. Having built a loyal American fan base, they typically earn rapturous reviews for their shows.
Reviewing their "Live" album, the folk magazine Dirty Linen noted that it "reveals the excitement that the group can generate in person. Les Yeux Noirs often start their songs slowly and then build them up to a frenetic level of virtuosity. A good portion of the group's material is traditional, but its version of Khatchaturian's famous 'Danse du Sabre' is almost as exciting as Dave Edmunds' performance with Love Sculpture in the late '60s."
The Washington Post praised "their mastery of genres as well as their enthusiasm. What makes it all work is superb technique, a sure grasp of each style and passion that obviously connects with the responsive audience." And another review proclaimed, "This Paris-based octet offers an irresistible invitation to participate in some of the most rhythmic and emotional sounds emanating from any part of the world."
The French musicians have come to really appreciate playing for enthusiastic American audiences. "In France, the audiences like to sit down and listen to the music," Slabiak notes. "In the U.S., at the first song, audiences are standing up and participating. It's hot from the beginning of the show and it's a pleasure for us. All the energy the audience gives to us we can give back."
The singer/violinist Slabiak brothers grew up in Paris in the 1970s, the sons of Jewish immigrants from Poland. Encouraged by their parents, both studied classical music at the Brussels Royal Conservatory.
"I never imagined I would be a violinist playing classical music, I played violin because of my parents and I was happy with that," Eric explains.
"One day I discovered my parents wanted me to be a great classical violinist, and my brother, too. We liked it but we were never passionate about it."
The brothers felt more insipired by their uncle, a gypsy and jazz violinist, who played with Joseph Reinhardt, the brother of legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt.
"When we were children, we used to listen to a lot of Yiddish songs. And my uncle was a very good violinist; he used to play gypsy and jazz music by Django Reinhardt. He was Joseph Reinhardt's violinist. Joseph would accompany his brother, Django, and he was a soloist too. This music is very familiar to our ears. My parents didn't want my brother and I to play gypsy music; they had the example of my uncle who played in small places.
"I remember I herad a klezmer tune on the radio and I had never listened to this music before. I realized it was the music I was living for. It was a revelation, and I decided it will be the music I will play."
Klezmer msuic originated in the villages and the ghettos of Eastern Europe, where Jewish troubadours, known as 'klezmorim,' performed at joyful events, particularly weddings, since the early Middle Ages. In contact with Slavonic, Greek, Turkish, Arabic and gypsy musicians, the 'klezmorim' were able, through numerous tempo changes, irregular rhythms, and improvisation, to express the whole gamut of human emothions.
"After we met all the musicians of the group, who are just as passionate about this music, we started playing in Russian restaurants," Slabiak continues. "It was a great experience to learn the repertoire, but we wanted to make this music more theatrical, more energizing on stage."
He says their classical training helps in that "some parts of the musc we play are very classical, like playing the cello and playing the two violins in harmony. I love the great quartets by Beethoven and Brahms and I wanted to put a little bit of thsi music into our original msuic. It helps and it doesn't serve becauase classical music is very clean and gypsy music must be a little dirty. If it's too clean, the soul does not come."
Citing modern musical influences like Portishead and Bjork, by their fourth album "Balamouk," they had begun experimenting with the inclusion of drum loops and electric guitars, employed bery effectively on the moving, Middle-Eastern-flavored title track. The title loosely translates as crazy, whcih may refer to the insanely manic pace they sometimes maintain.
"It's a Turkish word that means house of fools," Slabiak explains. "Because the atmosphere in the group was totally electric, we were very happy when we were recording, one of our musicians always said, 'It's balamouk, it's balamouk.' We loved the sound of this word and it's the feeling of the soul of thsi album."
The band released its latest CD, "Tchorba," in France three months ago and it will be out in the U.S. in April. Featuring mostly original compositions, the album was co-produced by Stuart Bruce, who has worked iwht Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
What does "tchorba" mean?
"It's a soup, a Turkish soup made wiht a lot of good things," he explains.
"In France, when you say 'tchorba,' it's a pejorative. There are a lot of ingredients so we hope it's a good soup. It's different, we play a little bit funky on one tune and we have a lot of samples. It's the album we prefer, we are very excited about it."
Often exposing this style of music ot audiences for the first time, Slabiak suggests the musicians of Les Yeux Noirs are not armed with any particular misison.
"I want this music to spread naturally just like jazz or pop or rap," he concludes. "It's not a mission but we are very happy when it works. It's a very old music and it's not so popular. IF modestly we can make thsi music a little bit more popular we feel proud."
-Jon Woodhouse 02/17/05
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