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Golem takes gypsy music a step further (excerpt)
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Chicago Tribune, Golem takes gypsy music a step further (excerpt) >>
--by Joshua Klein
Special to the Tribune
Published December 15, 2006
For centuries, word that the gypsies were coming meant hiding your belongings and locking the door. If the gypsies were already there, it meant lighting torches and driving them out. In fact, for many the word "gypsy" itself is considered a pejorative, if not meaningless. After all, the Roma people can be traced all the way to India, while many identified as "gypsy" hail from homelands across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
"I did some research with gypsy music in Serbia," says Annette Ezekiel, singer of the New York folk-punk band Golem. "First they thought I was a gypsy, because I looked like them. Then they realized I had a weird accent and asked, "what are you, anyway?" I said I'm Jewish, and they said, "we are the same!"
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Golem is just one of several bands cropping up as of late who embrace Eastern European folk music and rock with open arms, creating their own unique hybrids around the globe. In Canada there's the Black Ox Orkestar. Gypsy-rock superstars Gogol Bordello made their name on the Warped Tour circuit and headlines tonight at Metro. The indie-rock group Beirut draws most of its inspiration from Eastern Europe, and just last fall New York held its second annual Gypsy Festival, showcasing bands such as Slavic Soul Party and Serbia's KAL, both of whom also played Chicago's World Music Festival.
"Romani music has always had a really high quality--it's really good music," says KAL's Dragan Ristic, speaking from Belgrade. "But if I want to promote something good, I have to think how to be different. I realized [my heritage] is my difference. If I feel the music of my ancestors, I'm going to use it.
"Of course," he continues, "in the Romani world you must play traditional music if you want to be recognized. We are not playing traditional music. We are something else. I am trying to make something new, to show another way in which Roma music can be developed."
.......... 12/15/06 >> go there
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