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ON MUSIC WORLD: Gypsy-Music Tour to Stop In Manhattan
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Newsday, ON MUSIC WORLD: Gypsy-Music Tour to Stop In Manhattan >>
[appeared with photo of Fanfare Ciocarlia in car]
by Marty Lipp
CELEBRATED AND shunned, mythologized and enslaved, Gypsies have both entertained and frightened the many countries in which they have wandered since they left northwestern India in the 11th century.
With the Gypsy Caravan 2 tour stopping at Manhattan's City Center Oct. 12-13, local audiences will get a musical survey of the unique history of the Gypsy, or Roma, people.
The origins of the Roma stretch back to the 11th century, when a variety of ethnic groups were assembled by India to fight Muslim invaders. This amalgam eventually made its way west through the Middle East, picking up and leaving behind members as it traveled. By the 1500s, the former army had developed its own ethnic identity and reached Europe, where its members were thought to have come from Egypt, so were dubbed Gypsies.
The Roma split up, wandering throughout Europe, living on the fringes of various societies that disdained and persecuted them. Along with Jews, whose diaspora and perennial outsider status they parallel, Gypsies were killed and imprisoned in concentration camps by the Nazis.
With the fall of the repressive Soviet Union, Gypsy music began a minor resurgence in Eastern Europe. The success of the quasi-documentary "Latcho Drom" and the international fame of The Gipsy Kings bolstered interest in Gypsy music, although the 10 million Gypsies spread across Europe are still often scapegoated and harassed.
While there is no single "Gypsy music," the Roma would adapt the folk music of the countries where they settled and make it their own.
"There is no music I know that is more joyous than Gypsy dance music," said Robert Browning of the World Music Institute, which organized the Caravan tour. Browning said that although many Gypsy songs are sad tales about the hard life of the Roma, celebratory music is an important part of their tradition.
Browning noted that in some countries, Gypsy music is actually a purer form than the dominant culture's own traditional music, which may have evolved or faded over the years. Wherever they settled, Browning said, Roma musicians infused the indigenous music with energetic improvisational flair, which is not surprising, since many were akin to street buskers dependant on handouts.
This year's Gypsy Caravan will include four bands, beginning with Maharaja, which is from Rajastan, India, where the Roma originated, though the members of Maharaja are not Roma themselves.
Another of the Caravan groups plays the music most popularly associated with Gypsies: flamenco. The Antonio el Pipa Flamenco Ensemble comes from Spain's southern Andalusia, where flamenco was created several hundred years ago among the underclass of Roma, Jews and Moors. All their influences are heard in the emotional and passionate performances of flamenco, which became popular entertainment throughout Spain by the 1850s.
Representing the Eastern European wing of the Gypsy diaspora is the brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia from Romania. The group's latest album, "Iag Bari" on Piranha Records, showcases the wild, galloping sound that is just about perfect for keeping your typical 20-hour wedding hopping.
Gypsy brass bands grew out of the Turkish military bands that occupied the Balkans in the 19th century. While the tradition is dying out, bandleader Ioan Ivancea said, "We're one of the last, and we're the fastest of them all."
Ciocarlia replaces Romania's other famous Gypsy band, Taraf de Haidouks, which brought its Marx Brothers-like anarchy to the last Caravan. When the tour played City Center a few years back, the members of Haidouks bummed cigarettes (and whole packs) off audience members during the intermission, and a couple were spotted playing for passersby on Seventh Avenue after the show. At tour's end, Browning said, they even tried to sell their instruments to make some extra cash before going home.
The Haidouks' latest album, "Band of Gypsies" on Nonesuch, is a live one recorded in Bucharest and other cities, with various guest performers. It shows the band at its best - alternating between hyperfast, precise playing and straight-out silliness. These unlikely concert hall performers, with their braggadocio and odd looks, seem like musical counterparts to Cosmo Kramer.
While the albums are fine records of these Gypsy bands, their playful showmanship makes them way better to witness live. Catch them in person and you'll see why there's an old Bulgarian saying: "A wedding without a Gypsy band isn't worth anything." 09/30/01
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