In a remote part of Romania, parties only get started when heavy brass is involved. The ensemble Fanfare Ciocarlia knows this, and its 11 musicians include trumpets, tubas, baritone and tenor horns, as well as drummers. This low-end weight is no barrier to its speed: Even before drinks flow, the band zooms through ecstatic dance tunes at hundreds of beats per minute.

Still, the band's name conjures a more bucolic image: "Ciocarlia" means skylark. Not that frenzied horn players and a lilting songbird are mutually exclusive. Fanfare Ciocarlia is based in the tiny northeast Romanian village of Zece Prajini. The town is so remote that the 2002 documentary "Iag Bari — Brass on Fire" states that its train stop is not marked. Ciocarlia trumpeter Costica Trifan said this idyll is optimal for their work.

"Zece Prajini is a peaceful village surrounded by gentle mountains," Trifan said in Romanian through a translator. "There's no distraction, no stress — only music. On each corner you will find your people trying a new tune, or old people who know the musical tradition of our region."

Those traditions go way back. Centuries ago, Romania was a part of the Ottoman Empire, and the tricky rhythms and melodies of Turkish music runs through Ciocarlia's repertoire. Trifan adds that Gypsy, also known as Roma, musicians have also preserved the songs from waves of nationalities that have passed through his country, such as Greeks, Ukrainians and Hungarians. Some of the connections may sound familiar here: Anybody who's attended a Jewish wedding would recognize a fast-paced Gypsy dance called the hora.

Ciocarlia's region stands out because of its emphasis on brass instruments. Taraf De Haidouks, the other Romanian Gypsy group that has performed often in Chicago, is from south of Bucharest and features violins and accordions.

"Somehow, brass have been the only instruments that local farmers and villagers could play," Trifan said. "There's no classical training, no elite behavior. No fine fingers are needed, just heavy and healthy lungs."

Even though Gypsy musicians helped shape Romanian culture, Nicolae Ceausescu's tyrannical regime tried to suppress them from the mid-1960s until the late '80s. Ciocarlia's defiance, as much as its velocity, would make them the model for punk rockers.

"The little dictator dreamed about only one folklore style," Trifan said. "That was huge hymns about his legendary country. Gypsies didn't exist for him: Only the grand nation of Romanians. Officially, we weren't allowed to perform Gypsy music, but in our village we did what we did."

After Ceaucescu's downfall in 1989, the ensemble had an easier time collaborating with its musical heroes and touring internationally. Two popular Romanian stars, singer Dan Armeanca and trumpeter Costel Vasilescu, appear on the 2001 Ciocarlia disc "Iag Bari" (Piranha).

"Dan invented the popular Romanian manele style of modern Gypsy pop music," Trifan said. "He's a master of tasteful arrangements. And Costel was the man who brought the trumpet from the villages to the big cities. Working with them is still unbelievable."

Trifan said Ciocarlia has played more than 1,400 concerts worldwide since the mid-1990s. It has collaborated with kodo drummers in Japan, included jazz on its 2005 disc "Gili Garabdi" (Asphalt Tango), and its version of Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild" was used in the film "Borat."

Rearranging different international sources is nothing new for the group. Trifan said that was required when they played extended wedding celebrations in their village.

"After midnight, people would get drunk and request hits from ABBA and, of course, the new song from Michael Jackson," Trifan said. "We were a kind of DJ team, playing all the requested stuff. And we would have been in trouble if we couldn't fulfill their wishes."

Those early gigs were also the origins of Ciocarlia's endurance.

"Playing weddings for two straight days is our training, and that makes us resistant to tiredness," Trifan said. "We play each day as strong as we can, and we don't wait for that day when age catches us."