One of the fastest, most energetic brass bands is currently on the loose in North America. Fanfare Ciocarlia is from a tiny village tucked deep in the remote misty mountains of north-eastern Romania. Over the past 15 years, the 12-piece Gypsy brass band has emerged as one of the most incendiary bands around.

Several years ago, Fanfare Ciocarlia caught the attention of Sasha Baron Cohen and he asked them to perform a version of Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” for his movie Borat. You may remember this song from the film. Watch Fanfare in action.

Watching that video made me ponder other brash brass bands and players. Another performer from eastern Europe known for his frantic blowing is Boban Markovic and his Orkestar. Here they are at a festival in Berlin in 2003.

The Boban Markovic Orkestar has added Markovic's vitruosic trumpet-playing son Marko, and now they call themselves Boban & Marko Markovic’s Orkestar?. Both they and Fanfare Ciocarlia have claimed to be the fastest brass around. There was only one way to settle that battle. The two bands decided to play together on a tour called Balkan Brass Battle. But neither band would take the stage to open for the other band. So they performed together, on opposite sides of the stage, duking it out with frantic horn blasts, both trying to out-brass each other. Here they are on the James Bond theme. Wow.

Goran Bregovic is another giant of Balkan music. This song is appropriately named “Kalashnikov.” Watch the band spray their brass into the rioting fans – complete with smoke machines.

That’s all pretty good, but how about some classic, frenetic jazz horn playing from Wayne Shorter and Weather Report? Shorter shares camera time with the rest of the legendary group on “Teen Town.” Here’s some more fast sax playing, this time from Tom Scott, with the GRP All-Star Big Band. Check out the dueling saxophones.

Have you seen the video of John Coltrane playing “Giant Steps” with the sheet music scrolling by at the speed he’s playing? Grab your horn and try to keep up, I dare you.

One of my favourite sax players in the world is Cameroonian legend Manu Dibango. Here’s a vintage video of him playing one of his biggest hits, “Soul Makossa.”

Sax legend Getatchew Mekurya is called the king of the sax. He adapted an Ethiopian war-like style of singing, called shellèla?, for the saxophone. He even wears a cape like a lion's mane.

One of my personal favourites for best live performer is Manu Chao. He surrounds himself with a band of multilingual shirtless punks, who call themselves Radio Bemba. Watch the trumpet player scratch like a DJ with his trumpet.

These are just a few clips of some wickedly fast brass. Who is one of your favourite horn players? Leave your comments and YouTube links below, in the comment section of the blog.

Fanfare Ciocarlia plays in Montreal on Sept. 20 and Toronto on Sept. 21.

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