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Sample Track 1:
"Geamparale De La Babadag" from Toni Iordache
Sample Track 2:
"Tinerete, Tinerete (Romica Puceanu)" from Toni Iordache
Layer 2
CD Review

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Shepherd Express, CD Review >>

Toni Iordache
Sounds from a Bygone Age Vol. 4
(Asphalt Tango)
Romania under the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was never known as a cultural hub, yet under his patronage certain folk artists were allowed to flourish. Amoung them: Toni Iordache, maestro of the tzambal, a string instrument played with mallets. The recording collected here, made from 1964 through 1980, find him in various settings: providing low-key accompaniment to the melancholy soul of female singers; speeding through breakneck instramentals at hardcore punk tempo; and executing deft, harmonically ingenious solos redolent of Eastern scales. Although he was sent abroad on state-sponsored tours, Lordache earned his living as a wedding musician, the center piece of bands that kept dance floors in rented halls packed all night long.
-David Luhrssen  11/14/07
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