Budapest orchestra shows fiery brilliance in lightish program

The Adrienne Arsht Center was effectively converted into a cafe on the bank of the Danube Wednesday night with Tokay flowing freely, paprikash and palacsinta served, and Hungarian musicians providing an al fresco serenade.

The Budapest Festival Orchestra made its Miami debut at the Knight Concert Hall with an intriguing if strange program that displayed the ensemble’s corporate excellence and tonal gleam, but rather belatedly and to too little an extent. The event was presented by the Concert Association of Florida.

Founded in 1983, the Hungarian orchestra remains one of Europe’s finest, with whipcrack brilliance, rich string tone and refined woodwinds. And while enjoyable enough on its own terms, there was a musical lightness of being in the first half, which concentrated on gypsy-inspired fiddle music and showpieces.

Music director Ivan Fischer was an engaging host with his low-key verbal notes, charting the pungent influence of gypsy music on composers such as Brahms and Liszt, and introducing cimbalom player Oszkar Okros and father-and-son violinists, Jozsef Lendvay, Sr. and Jr.

The evening began with Fischer and Okros alone on stage. Following a brief Cliff Notes guide on the cimbalom’s history, Okras performed a solo improvisation that segued from evocative melancholy to virtuosic brilliance, a beaming Fischer looking on.

With the full orchestra on board, Josef Lendvay, Sr., schooled in the Hungarian folk tradition, came out for a concertante retooling of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 3, interpolating a rustic gypsy solo cadenza. Brahms’ Hungarian Dances Nos. 15 and 1 were performed, the latter in what Fischer claimed was a spontaneous Magyar jam session with Lendvay and Okras adding solo lines on top of the orchestra, stylishly and with idiomatic zigeneur spirit.

Jozsef Lendvay the younger entered, looking like a Central European rock musician. Unlike his father, Lendvay Jr., is classically trained and displayed staggering virtuosity in a take-no-prisoners account of Sarasate’s uber-gypsy fiddle showpiece, Zigeunerweisen.

Lendvay, pere et fils, joined forces for a duo-violin revamp on yet another Brahms Hungarian Dance, No. 11; Fischer indicated this would be the first time father and son performed together, which seems unlikely since they’ve already done this program elsewhere on tour. Both violinists conveyed the music’s more dolce expression but it made an odd choice to end the first half.

More substantial Brahms closed the evening with the German composer’s Symphony No. 1. The sterling qualities of the Hungarian ensemble were finally in the spotlight rather than as backup band: a rich but refined sonority, polished corporate musicianship, and hair-trigger volatility.

Fischer’s take on the mighty C-minor symphony lacked nothing in intensity with an exhilarating coda and the drama of the long opening movement, proceeding in a seamless arc. Yet most striking were the refinement and elegance of the performance, qualities rarely on display in this repertoire.

Fischer’s direction was never idiosyncratic but full of inspired touches as with the pre-Allegro foreboding of the outer movements, his majestic drawing out of the climactic horn theme, and graceful attacca turn into the finale’s openig bars. Perhaps most notable was the serenity of the slow movement, with silken strings and bucolic woodwinds that were chracterful yet perfectly integrated into the musical texture. It’s too bad that there were not more opportunities Wednesday for this wonderful orchestra to shine.

Ivan Fisher's orchestra fuses unlikely union of music styles

by Bradley Bambarger/The Star-Ledger
Thursday January 22, 2009, 3:10 PM
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Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. When and where: 8 p.m. Friday, State Theatre, New Brunswick; 8 p.m. Saturday, Carnegie Hall, New York. How much: $30-$75 in New Brunswick. Call (732) 246-7469 or visit statetheatrenj.org. $27-$81 in New York. Call (212) 247-7800 or visit carnegiehall.org.
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In the 19th century, the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian empire was the nearest faraway place for those looking east from Vienna -- not exactly foreign, but exotic. In particular, composers loved the freedom and fire of the Gypsy music they heard there.

Brahms, a German-born Vienna resident, picked up cheap sheet music of traditional Gypsy tunes and wove inventive arrangements around them for a popular set of "Hungarian Dances." Liszt, born in Hungary but the epitome of the Western European cosmopolitan, used Gypsy melodies and rhythms as jumping off points for his own nostalgic "Hungarian Rhapsodies."

There is no better ensemble to embody this East-meets-West, structure-plus-spice ideal than the Budapest Festival Orchestra. The group was founded 25 years ago -- by conductor Ivan Fischer, among others -- on a manifesto of individual energy, creative risk and fun. Even putting the "festival" in its name was about suggesting celebration over stuffiness.

Fischer and company open Carnegie Hall's two-week, multi-artist "Celebrating Hungary" festival Saturday after they give concertgoers a preview Friday in New Brunswick. The program is special in that it replicates the Budapest orchestra's mold-breaking recordings of Brahms' and Liszt's Hungarian-themed works, featuring Gypsy musicians for the ultimate in native zest -- the Lendvay father-and-son fiddle duo and cimbalom player Oszkar Ökrös.

"I think Brahms would've loved the way we perform this music with these players," says Fischer from Budapest. "He wanted to incorporate the Gypsies' folk art into his classical world -- their imagination and improvisation, their richly ornamented style of playing. These artists challenge us to bring more to the music than just what is on the page."

The younger Lendvay, the classically trained Jozsef Jr., will also solo in Pablo De Sarasate's Old World showpiece "Zigeunerweisen" ("Gypsy Airs"). To cap the night, Fischer will lead the orchestra in Brahms' drama-filled Symphony No. 1 -- not a work with Gypsy themes, of course, but one that may profit from the night's improvisatory atmosphere.

"It will be fascinating to see how people hear the Brahms' First after all the Gypsy music," Fischer says. "We will all be affected. I think the orchestra will perform with a subtle but noticeable spice -- playing the rhythms with more rubato, reacting to each other more in the moment."

Hungary produced some of the 20th century's greatest conductors: Georg Solti, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Fritz Reiner, Antal Dorati, Ferenc Fricsay. Fischer, who turned 58 this week, is in that line of artistry, but his mellow charm and individualist sensibility are worlds away from the my-way-or-the-highway method of Szell and Reiner. Characteristically, though, Fischer is generous and mindful of history, as he points out that "it was a different world for them -- raising an orchestra in Cleveland to world-class status as Szell did took unyielding standards."

But Fischer does wonder what Szell or Reiner would think of his Gypsy-bolstered way with the Brahms and Liszt pieces: "Their generation was concerned with fidelity to the letter of their scores. They were modern in their day, reacting against a Romantic tradition that perhaps allowed itself too many liberties. As with everything, music goes in cycles. We have plenty of orchestral skill and discipline now. Like many conductors of my generation, I am more interested in the source and style of the music, the spirit of the score."

Dinner and a Show with the Gipsy Kings

By Cassandra Wiseman

On a bitterly cold December evening, just a few weeks ago, if you were wearing a certain kind of laminate around your neck, you could have slipped through a dark stage door at the nefarious corner of Taylor and Market in San Francisco, and found yourself backstage at the Warfield Theatre, where three of the Reyes Brothers - Andre, Nicolas and Canut, and two of their cousins, Tonino and Paco Baliardo - would have greeted you with warm hugs and invited you to sit down and sup with them at their large round dinner table. This was a very special dinner of sorts because they were being joined on this tour on stage for the first time by members of a third generation of this family of musicians–Michael Baliardo, Tonino's son, and George Reyes, Nicolas' son.

They were a handsome and elegant group of men: fathers, sons, uncles and cousins chatting animatedly, primarily in French, with, quite possibly, a little Calo being tossed about here and there in conversation. Calo, or Spanish Romani, is a dialect that originated in Spain and is spoken by the Gitanos, blending native Romani vocabulary with Spanish grammar. The round table was covered with a white tablecloth and they were eating a delicious dinner of tilapia and lemon herbed chicken, salads and profiteroles, drinking sweet iced tea, laughing and joking and offering their guests wine and food. Casually, the diners excused themselves from the table and moments later began to go upstairs to perform to a packed theatre where the excited crowd of over 2000 fans erupted in cheers.

In the third decade of the 20th Century during the Spanish Civil War, a group of Catalonian gypsies afraid for their wives and children fled Spain for France. In a recent interview, Nicolas Reyes explained the decision: "The Gypsy people were not allowed to take part in the fight, other than being shot at, so the best way to stay alive was to run away from Spain." Most of these gypsy families settled in the Camargue region, where they live now, between Marseille, Arles and Montpellier. The Reyes family joined a Gypsy encampment at Arles in 1936, and they sang as they worked odd jobs, did horse trading, harvested grapes and gathered scrap metal. In the evenings they brought out their guitars and the traditional songs and sang at Sunday village gatherings while the women danced in the safe and intimate caravan circles. They improvised with guitar players, Palmas (clapped rhythms which are derived from their Spanish heritage), and singers around the campfires of their adopted home. "They still do that, even now," Said Josquin Des Pres, who grew up in San Tropez and has known the Reyes and Baliardos for decades.

Des Pres, an award-winning record producer and songwriter here in Southern California, said that it was in the Fifties, during a traditional Gypsy pilgrimage–"Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer" in the Camargue–that their unique flamenco singing and guitar strumming gained mainstream notice. Ricardo Baliardo, or "Manitas de Plata" (Little Hands of Silver) was being feted by artists from the area including Pablo Picasso, Cocteau and Salvador Dali; his nephew, Jose Reyes, quickly became renowned as the best flamenco singer in France and was accompanied by his uncle, Manitas de Plata, who is still considered one of the best guitarists in history. Picasso is said to have exclaimed of Baliardo's playing in Arles in 1964, "that man is of greater worth than I am!" He proceeded then to draw on the guitar.

The style of their music, "Flamenco Puro" was so popular that their fame spread worldwide and they had fans like Charlie Chaplin and Brigitte Bardot to name a few. Jose Reyes and Ricardo Baliardo performed to a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall in December of 1965. Manitas' brother Hippolyte Baliardo, a well known Rumba guitar player, invited his sons to become the members of Los Baliardos Players. In the Sixties and early Seventies, after he left Manitas, Des Pres said, "Jose Reyes, with Plata and Baliardo, who was an uncle, formed a group called ‘Los Reyes', which means "The Kings," which included four of his five sons, (Andre was too young at the time), and Chico Bouchikhi, who was married to one of Jose's daughters".

In 1979, the patriarch Jose Reyes died, and the Reyes Brothers formed a union with their cousins, the Baliardos. This group was a more modern fusion of the music they had played in their family for generations. There are eight members of the Gipsy Kings but you'll see six on the stage because they rotate on tour. Some like to travel more than the others. Nicolas Reyes, the main singer, Canut and Andre performed on stage at the Warfield that night, and at the new Conga Room in Los Angeles, on New Year's Eve; the two other Reyes brothers Patchai and Paul remained home with their families. They still live in the Camargue region when they are not on tour and are devoted to their wives and children. The Baliardo Brothers–Paco, Tonino and Diego–are guitar wizards. All of them have played together since they were young and prefer to compose and play their own music. Their music is derived from a form of flamenco, a sort of rumba: "Rumba Flamenca, which is easier to dance to," said Patty Weiss, who has played violin with the Gipsy Kings on some of their North America tours, including here in LA at the Greek Theater.

Their songs are mostly about love and travelling and having a good time and are sung in a mixture of French, Spanish and their own gypsy dialect, Calo.

"They learn to play a guitar as soon as they are born," said Des Pres of the Reyes and Baliardo families. "There is a Gypsy legend which says that when an old Gypsy singer or guitarist is ready to die, he will sing or play for a pregnant woman. Then that baby will get his talent. Many times when the Gypsy Kings are on tours, at the end of the show, they will put one of their younger children on stage. They all know the strum."

The crowd at the Warfield demanded two encores and the concert ended with standing ovations from the audience.

"I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did. Drums and bass guitar are not traditional gypsy instruments. Their sons did really really well tonight, "Des Pres told their manager, Michel Crupel, that night after the concert when everyone was getting ready to go to the Four Seasons. "For gypsies, as an ever oppressed and pursued community, our children have a particular importance." Nicolas Reyes has said in many interviews, "Children are Kings!"

Editors Note: Videos of the Gipsy Kings can be found on YouTube. One of the videos features Manitas and Jose from the Gipsy Kings serenading Bridget Bardot and can be viewed at YouTube). The other is of Picasso signing Ricardo Baliardo's guitar, available at YouTube).

Born to Roma

Dan Rule
January 10, 2009

On the eve of legendary Romanian group Fanfare Ciocarlia's Melbourne appearance, Dan Rule looks at the motivations behind our fascination with Gypsy music.

THE story behind Fanfare Ciocarlia's rise to prominence is the stuff of myth. Hailing from a line of Roma farming families in the tiny north-eastern Romanian village of Zece Prajini, until 1996 the 12-piece ensemble had played no stage larger than a local wedding, baptism or funeral. Twelve years on, their frenetic brass sound - born from traditional Roma melodies and the brass bands of the Turkish military, which had occupied the region at the start of the 19th century - is one of the drawcards of the world music circuit.

"They were unlike anything we had ever come across, just letting the music flow out from themselves, completely different to trained musicians in Western music," says Helmut Neumann, one of the group's label managers at German imprint Asphalt Tango Records.

"It's very human and very emotional - so honest that you can't leave it. You are automatically attracted by it."

But according to Neumann, who discovered the group with business partner Henry Ernst in 1996, there was no great fable to Fanfare Ciocarlia's unearthing. It was pure chance.

"We were both living in Leipzig, which is a city of about half a million in East Germany, so until the '90s the East was our only possibility for travel," he says, talking on behalf of the group (who don't speak English) on the eve of its Australian tour, which will take in next week's Gypsy Queens and Kings concert at Hamer Hall as part of the Arts Centre's Mix It Up series.

"We had gotten to know Romania very well," he continues. "But it was just good luck that Henry entered the village where Fanfare Ciocarlia were living. Very quickly Henry made the decision to bring them to Germany and France to do a tour. We thought of it as a one-off because we were so fascinated by the music - it was not thought of in a professional way. Financially it was a disaster."

The archetypal image of the Gypsy - boundless, anchorless and free - is instilled with romanticism and mystique. But the Roma's signifiers are still the source of both reverence and derision in the West. While their cultural product, from the great Django Reinhardt to the pop chart-ready sound of the Gipsy Kings, has been happily consumed, as a people they have been held at arm's length by a Europe still fixating typecasts of the thief and the mystic.

Today, the Roma remain one of the most persecuted communities in Europe. Discrimination abounds across the continent. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni sparked outrage in mid-2008 when he announced that government agencies had begun fingerprinting the country's 150,000-strong Roma population in a proposed bid to curb the crime rate. Meanwhile, according to reports in international affairs magazine Monocle, Roma children are being routinely dumped in the worst-performing schools across Eastern Europe and are 10 times more likely to be erroneously classified as intellectually disabled.

According to Neumann, this "heavy" lineage engenders the music of Fanfare Ciocarlia and other Gypsy artists. He frames their sound in the context of a kind of activism and adaptation. "They've dealt with long travels, persecution and racism all the time, because they have basically been considered as outlaws, not involved in any society," he says.

"But somehow they've adapted to each society in which they arrive, so the question then becomes: what is their own culture? What is their way to express their own culture? Because they have been adapting so many of the local things wherever they settle, there aren't many things of their own left. I think one of the last ways they have to live their own culture is through music, and there's a real pride in that."

Billed as "an epic celebration of Gypsy life", the Queens and Kings project seems to embody these ideas of both expression and fusion of culture. Along with Fanfare Ciocarlia, the concert features Gypsy vocalists and musicians from throughout Europe, including twice Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Macedonian Gypsy Queen Esma Redzepova, Hungarian master-vocalist Mitsou, 21-year-old Romanian star Florentina Sandu, Bulgarian songwriter Jony Iliev and Perpignan guitar trio Kaloome, and blends several disparate Gypsy styles and stories.

"It's the common way of performing music, but it's not common music," says Neumann.

"The Gypsy music is very human and not about reading music from a page. It's more about feel and emotion and the stories of life, and I think that's why audiences relate so much."

Indeed, Roma music has survived longer than most in a world music market constantly on the prowl for something new. But is our fascination really connected to the tales of the Roma, or is their visage simply more exploitable?

World music observers, such as veteran Melbourne broadcaster, journalist and DJ Kate Welsman, tend to the latter. It's the exotic and the quixotic, rather than our sense of empathy, that draws us to Gypsy music, she says.

"I'd like to think that there's this understanding and compassion for what they've been through, but I think the reality is quite different. I think the notion of Gypsy or Roma has been so romanticised that it's basically become all about layers of beads and big frilly skirts and hitting the road.

"Meanwhile, the reality is that these people are still persecuted and hated throughout Europe."

But Welsman, who also curated Africa (the first concert in the Mix It Up series) and will be DJing under her Systa BB moniker in support of Gypsy Queens and Kings, also sees the music's appeal in terms of it's sonic relationship to rock.

"Some of the tones that are used in Gypsy or Balkan music and the timings are very, very different, and there's a shrillness and a big bass that comes through, so much so that people relate to it almost as punk," she says.

"Anything is possible with this music. You don't have to do a particular style and there's constant dancing and there's an energy to it."

It's what Neumann hopes the audience will take away from what promises to be a typically frenzied set from Fanfare Ciocarlia and their guests at Hamer Hall. "With this music, it's definitely about experiencing it firsthand," he says. "There's a magic to it."

And according to Neumann, the songs will ring on for years to come. "You know, the world music community, they just want new, new, new exotic things all the time. It's something we've really had to fight against.

"We took Fanfare Ciocarlia from a far-flung corner of Eastern Europe and brought them to the rest of the world because we loved their music. And it is our responsibility to help them travel the world and play their music for as long as they want."

Mix It Up: The Gypsy Queens and Kings is at Hamer Hall, the Arts Centre, Sunday, January 18, at 5pm (free pre-show activities from 3pm). Tickets $79 premium/$63 adult/$34 concession: theartscentre.com.au, 1300 136 166 and ticketmaster outlets.

(MORE)

American Gypsies

A Hawk and a Hacksaw does Eastern Europe with an American accent
By Amre Klimchak

JEREMY BARNES HAS no greater passion, at least from a musical standpoint, than Eastern European folk. During our conversation, Barnes uses the word “love” more than half a dozen times to describe the intensity of his feeling for the region’s fervent, dizzyingly passionate sounds.

But Barnes (who made his name originally as the drummer for one of indie folk’s most lauded bands, Neutral Milk Hotel, and brings his duo A Hawk and a Hacksaw to town this week) became an ardent fan long before his fellow lovers of socalled gypsy music in Beirut, Gogol Bordello and Devotchka gained a following. Barnes first heard Bulgarian women’s choirs while driving through West Texas in 1996 on a tour when he was 19, and he was hooked. He moved to Hungary two years ago to live among and learn from some of the area’s masters but has always sought to interpret traditional styles through the contemporary lens of his American background.

“We’re really into music from Eastern Europe and from Turkey, and that is a huge influence, but we have to keep in mind that we’re not a cover band and it’s not our intention to recreate music from that region,” Barnes says from Chicago, where he is finishing the mix of the group’s fourth fulllength album, due out in the spring. “We have to bring something of ourselves into it in order for it to be fulfilling.”

And like their gypsy inspiration, Barnes, who sings, plays accordion and handles percussion, and his cohort Heather Trost, whose primary instrument is violin, have lead a largely a nomadic lifestyle, following their hearts.The couple met in Albuquerque where they subsequently encountered Beirut’s Zach Condon, whose musical aesthetic matched their own.They later contributed to the first Beirut record, and Condon, in turn, to A Hawk and Hacksaw’s albums. But they relocated to Budapest in 2006 to plunge themselves into a thriving international folk scene with Hungarian, Romanian, Serbian and Bulgarian elements.

Their chemistry with a particular group of musicians led to the formation of the Hun Hangár Ensemble with whom A Hawk and a Hacksaw recorded a sweeping, sophisticated EP that bears the unmistakable marks of the duo’s cultural immersion. Barnes and Trost sound both incredibly well versed in the musical idioms of their surroundings and confident in their ability to maneuver among the accompanying sonic ambiguities.

“Whenever we do traditional music, we try to put it in a different setting or adapt it somehow so that it’s not just a song that we love,” Barnes says. “It’s kind of like half and half—like a folk song has inspired us to write a melody and then we combine the two.” The duo returned to Albuquerque in October, partly because they wanted to vote (and were thrilled with Obama’s win) and to finish recording their latest album, but also to reconnect with their roots, their families, their American friends and their homeland.


“In our lyrics we’re usually commenting on things that are happening here. That’s part of what I mean about bringing in our own identities into this music,” Barnes says. “In the end it’s not Eastern European music that we’re playing, even though we’re influenced by it.We’re Americans and we have to present that as where we’re from.” And the new album, which was partly recorded in Hungary, partly in Albuquerque, is a distillation of what they’ve learned after completely steeping themselves in music that holds an unending allure, Barnes says. “I feel like it’s an obvious progression from what we were doing previously. I do think it’s a lot stronger than any of our other releases,” Barnes says. “It’s still focusing on what we love. And I think we’ll always be doing that, whether or not it’s trendy or fashionable, we’re still going to be doing it… In a way, we’re just a little bit lost in it, I guess. And I can’t really do anything else.”

> A Hawk and a Hacksaw

Jan. 10, Mercury Lounge, 217 E. Houston St. (at Essex St.), 212-260-4700; 7, $13/$15.

Also Jan. 11 at Union Hall.

Gypsy jazz, American swing intertwine delectably

REVIEW Pianist Hyman, guitarist Debarre flavor the Django Reinhardt festival

October 29, 2007
BY JOHN LITWEILER
Chicago Sun Times

The swing revival came to Symphony Center on Friday night in an American and a European version. The Europeans played Gypsy jazz, based on electrifying guitarist Django Reinhardt's 1930s Hot Club of France Quintet. Compared to the festival sextet's virtuoso razzle-dazzle, American pianist Dick Hyman swung simply and with the greatest of ease. Lots of fine flavors in this concert, but not quite complete nourishment.

The Hot Club heirs, little known in America, played mostly in threes and fours. Remarkably, guitarist Angelo Debarre sounded just like Django, with Django's fast, wide, note-bending vibrato, Django's lyricism and Django's sense of formal contrast. Debarre was full of speeding, swooping lines, and if he somehow missed the feeling of inevitability in Django's solos, that surely testifies to the master's subtlety. Though the other guitar soloist, young Kruno, was undermiked, his phrasing was more vivid and his sense of musical line was more flowing. Both were marvels, and the highlight was a Gypsy song, sung by Kruno, to furious two-guitar strumming.

High-caffeine violinist Florin Niculescu sawed away in double-time, wildly flinging scales and arpeggios around. Ludovic Beier conveyed a flavor of old European movies with clever but wheezy accordion solos. Energetic rhythm guitarist Tchavolo Hassan and ex-Chicago basssist Brian Torff completed the group.

Hyman's piano solos in the fast "Swing Is Here" and "Ornithology" were especially inventive, with a light touch, an old Johnny Guarnieri flavor and a delightful sense of space in his lines. He's a swing-revival eclectic who channeled Count Basie in an unusually slow "Dickie's Dream," but his disappointing other solos were loaded with up-down runs.

Hyman's four younger Friends were eclectics from the 1980s swing revival. Guitarist Howard Alden also offered pleasing relaxation and played a clever "Panama" duet with Ken Peplowski on clarinet. Peplowski, who soloed more than his mates, nervously reflected early-jazz reedmen from Benny Goodman to Kansas City, even in two tenor sax solos. Bassist Jay Leonhart killed time by singing, and Ed Metz Jr., a good drummer, stayed in the background.

This quintet's set was abbreviated. Though they returned to play a finale, Django's standard "Minor Swing," with the Gypsy-jazz six, leader Hyman's heart seemed to be elsewhere this evening.

John Litweiler is a Chicago jazz critic and author.

2nd Edition of the International Romani Yag Gypsy Festival Opens Today

Discover the Gypsies!

MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - Oct. 11, 2007) - The 2nd edition of the Romani Yag Gypsy Festival opens tonight! This festival, unique in Canada, features more than 25 activities between October 11th to the 14th. Dedicated to the Gypsies, the festival presents more than 50 artists and speakers, including guests from 5 different countries that will offer many glances on this mysterious culture.

In order to allow all to step into the world of the Roma people, the informational activities will be free for all audiences. As for the concerts, poetry reading, storytelling and master classes, the entrance fees will range from a mere $10 to $25, with reduced rates for students and presale. Most of those activities will be presented at the Ukrainian Federation (5213, Hutchison), at the new Cafe Sarajevo (6548, St. Laurent), at the Parc des princes bistro (5293, Parc) and the Kola Note (5240, Parc).

To find out more about the Festival's complete programming, visit www.romaniyag.com.

Source: Ljuba Radman, President, Romani Yag

Are you ready for the Budapest Gypsy Symphony?

The Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra, in Hungarian Szaztagu Cinanyzenekar is the worlds largest Gypsy Orchestra.

The Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1895, when Sandor Jaroka, at the time Hungary’s most famous “primas” (gypsy soloist) died . All Hungarian Gypsy musicians decided to attend his funeral and after the ceremony they began to play . The orchestra had been born out of this improvised moment. Since its foundation the Orchestra has performed numerous concerts in many European countries , especially in France , where the orchestra performs 60 sell- out concerts every year. The orchestra has also toured successfully in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Turkey, and Japan.

The Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra performs with the most amazing virtuosity, the soul of a whole nation. Their repertoire mixes the traditional Gypsy violin of Lazlo Berki, Grigoras Dinicu, Jeno Hubai, Victorio Manti, Elemer Szentirmay, with the great classical works of composers Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt , Jacques Offenbach, Giocchino Rossini and Johan Strauss.

There are violins, viocellos, Double Bass, cimbalons and clarinets, all brought together to bring us lively and heart rending music of a distressing tradition and art that only belongs to them.

Magic atmosphere where each note is like a moan, a farewell, a sob and at the same time an incredible hymn for life. What dazzles the public is the art, that belongs only to these musicians, the art of playing without a break, the art of short turn and variation, which never betrays the composition but enriches it. They transmit to the spectators the energy of a nation, which has chosen music as its universal language.

Instinctive as a Gypsy gathering, rigorous as a Vienna concert, in black tuxedo or traditional dress the Budapest Gypsy symphony Orchestra gives as much to look at as to listen to.

With no contest, it is the most exciting Symphony orchestra of our time, the worlds greatest orchestra of Gypsy musicians. The Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra will play the Royal Theatre Castlebar on Friday October 5 at 8pm. Tickets cost from €39.50; for more information log on to www.royaltheatre.ie.

The Romani Yag Gypsy Festival Unveils its Program

MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - Sept. 27, 2007) - Mr. Jorg Metger, Consul General of Germany, Ms. Ljuba Radman, President of Romani Yag, and a special guest will present the program of the international festival dedicated to Gypsies (shows, exhibitions, films, conferences, round tables), followed by a live performance by Le Hot Club de Ma Rue.

The Romani Yag Gypsy Festival's 2nd Edition will take place from October 11th to 14th, 2007 in Montreal.

Date: Thursday, September 27th
Time: 5 pm
Venue: New Cafe Sarajevo,6548 Saint Laurent Boulevard, Montreal

The Spellbinding Music of Vardos

By Emma Hall
Special to the Epoch Times Jun 21, 2007


Vardos' Alana Hunt with her quick violin, Sofia Chapman plays the piano accordion and Indra Buraczewska on the bass at the Surrey Music Cafe in Box Hill. (Jarrod Hall)

Stories of cheese, milk, flies, horse taxis and mountains may not sound like the ideal night out, but it's merely the appetiser to the gypsy music that regularly sweeps the audience off their feet when Vardos work their magic. The trio play gypsy as well as traditional Hungarian and Romanian songs with a few Russian tunes thrown in.

Vardos energetically play a game of cat and mouse with their instruments while closely interacting with each other and the audience. Violinist Alana Hunt drives the trio with her violin; Sofia Chapman plays the piano accordion, while Indra Buraczewska – "the authentic European" – plays the bass.

Sofia Chapman explains why she is drawn to specialise in European music: "With the folk music and the gypsy music it just seems to be very lively and when you go and hang out in those communities you see everyone in the village just gets involved and so for weddings they'll go for days on end. It's just dancing and enjoying the music. It's exciting to get caught up in that too."

The band was formed in 1993 in Perth by Alana Hunt and since then Alana, along with Sofia, has made several trips to Europe to enhance their gypsy music training.

Watching them perform, it really doesn't matter where they're from; they've certainly captured the European gypsy music spirit excitement and humour.

During the show, Alana tells earthy stories of cheese, milk, flies, horses and mountains to introduce the origin of many songs. Some of Vardos's songs, particularly the Romanian ones, have slow melodies that are perfectly interwoven with each other. Other songs spin into a dizzying passion and dancing, and showcase the fantastic interaction between the three musicians who exchange meaningful looks.

One Romanian song about fairies at a stream had a lingering and mysterious quality to it that really made one feel as if walking in a deep forest.

"A lot of the people that we've learnt from do happen to be gypsies. That section of the gypsy community that plays the music, they just try and outdo everybody and play the best that they can and that's why whatever sort of music they play, gypsy musicians can excel at it," says Sofia Chapman.

Apart from playing to live audiences, Vardos have also branched out into film and television with a line-up of several short-film soundtracks to their name, including the ABC series "Seachange". More recently, in March this year, they were guests on The Footy Show playing their version of It's more than a Game.

They also featured in Ruth Cullen's documentary on artist Vali Myers, Painted Lady.

Vardos have toured in the US, Germany, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Switzerland, around Hungary and also played at the Famous Spiegeltent in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2003 they were nominated for the BBC Radio3 World Music Awards.

It is rare that musicians who are not native to the cultures of Romania and Hungary can hold their own when playing the music to which locals claim ownership. But even the locals admit that gypsy music is best left to gypsies; the fact that Vardos dare to tread into such emotionally charged territory speaks volumes. A quote from a Romanian local newspaper illustrates their passion: "If in the beginning of our careers we thought that we couldn't live without music, now we are sure that we can't live without Romanian music."

Vardos will perform on Saturday June 16 at the Austrian Club in Heidelberg West in Melbourne and at the Czech House on June 17 in North Melbourne. In true gypsy fashion the trio perform at a whole range of events that also include weddings. To find out more and sample their spellbinding music visit www.vardos.com.au.


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Copyright 2000 - 2007 Epoch Times International

Gypsy Jazz Festivals Recall Grappelli, Reinhardt: Mike Zwerin

By Mike Zweri

June 20 (Bloomberg) -- The musette is the musical expression of the beret, the baguette, and the yellow corn-paper Gauloise cigarette. It is, says Didier Lockwood, ``as French as the Tour de France.''

Lockwood, a violinist, composer, and educator, is officially described as ``godfather'' to the Festival Jazz Musette des Puces that takes place in the Paris flea market in the suburb of Saint- Ouen on June 23 and 24.

Musette is bouncy, merry music, perfect for dancing and partying. It is now a kind of folk music, fixed in the time of its heyday, the first half of the 20th century.

Elements of the tango, the waltz, the mazurka, and flamenco were incorporated into the gypsy culture to give birth to the musette. The accordion was king, followed by guitars, clarinets, violins and bass fiddles as the style segued into what was called Gypsy Swing. Similar to the tango, it excluded drums. It is useful to remember that Chet Baker once said: ``It's got to be a pretty good drummer to be better than no drummer at all.''

When Jean `Django' Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France combined the musette with jazz in the 1930s, it became the only major jazz style not born in the U.S.

Gypsy Swing generates its magical percussionless groove (the accordion was dropped) by several guitars playing the ``pompe,'' an insistent strumming of four beats to the bar.

Adding Charisma

The quintet was still a quartet when Reinhardt complained to his co-leader, the violinist Grappelli, that it wasn't fair that he had only one guitar playing the pompe behind his solos, and Grappelli had two. So they added a third guitar, and that clinched the group's charisma.

Grappelli took Lockwood under his wing when he heard him play at the age of 21, when he was with the jazz-rock fusion group Magma. Lockwood has since played and recorded with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Elvin Jones, Claude Nougaro, Michel Petrucciani, and Frank Zappa.

His Centre des Musiques Didier Lockwood, south of Paris near Melun, teaches improvisation to an international assortment of students. He has been made a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.

Lockwood compares the musette to Irish traditional music, sounds that will not disappear, but ``which needs to be exposed to a wider and younger public.''

David Reinhardt, Ninine Garcia, Stochello Rosenberg, Christian Escoude and Marcel Azzola among others will perform afternoons and evenings in the brasseries, bistros, bars and streets of the market, surrounding Saint-Ouen and the neighboring 18th arrondisssement.

The festival's costs are covered by councils, tourist boards, cultural organizations and private sponsors, making the music free of charge. Lockwood calls it a ``fete populaire.''

Double Outlaw

Reinhardt was, like Artie Shaw, one of those jazzmen who was good and genuinely popular at the same time. His popularity topped out during the German occupation of France (Grappelli spent the war in London), when posters for his concerts were on the walls of Paris next to Maurice Chevalier posters.

Reinhardt ate in the best Italian restaurants, stayed at the best hotels, and won and lost fortunes playing billiards. Being a gypsy and a jazz musician in wartime Paris, he was a double outlaw at a time when jazz was a metaphor for freedom.

The 28th annual Django Reinhardt Festival in Samois-sur- Seine, an enchanting river port west of Paris, will take place from June 28 through July 1, a week after the market festival. Reinhardt had settled down in a house in Samois when he died aged 43 on May 16, 1953, while fishing in a rowboat on the river.

Many gypsies continue to claim to be his cousins. Most of them play guitars, and they like to gather their caravans in Samois for the festival.

Featured musicians include Mike Reinhardt, Tchavolo and Dorado Schmitt, Alma Sinti, Wawau Adler, and Florin Niculescu.

(Mike Zwerin is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Gypsy Caravan: US Theatrical Release!

Gypsy Caravan (a.k.a.: When the Road Bends...tales of a Gypsy Caravan) launches its U.S. theatrical release in New York City this June! It will screen in over twenty US cities throughout the summer.

Don't miss this dazzling display of the musical world of the Roma, juxtaposed to the real world they live in! Check for screening dates and theaters in a town near you.

For more details contact Little Dust Productions at 212-228-7777 or info@littledust.com
-or-
Karen O'Hara at karenoh@aol.com or 520-326-0813.

More about the film...

This rich feature documentary by Jasmine Dellal (American Gypsy) and shot by Albert Maysles celebrates the luscious music of top international Gypsy performers and interweaves stirring looks at their home life and personal stories.

GYPSY CARAVAN is an uplifting and moving documentary which explores the real lives of the Roma as we travel to their homes in Macedonia, Romania, India and Spain. Meet their families and see what music brings to their lives – a link to an ancient culture, a common language, a traditional career – all of which is a stark and often painful contrast to life on the road.

The personal drama and stories of these characters are interwoven with their performances, reflecting the imagery and emotion of their music. We see love and death and tales of lives that are raw and rich. They make us laugh and cry and laugh again, allowing us to understand and expand on the riches of Romani music and history, and letting us enjoy knowing the people intimately.

GYPSY CARAVAN is currently screening at festivals in Seattle, London and Transilvania. It launched at Tribeca and garnered festival awards from San Francisco to Nashville and Vancouver, and from Korea to the Czech Republic.

Read about the outreach efforts of Gypsy Caravan and the lessons learned about bringing this film to Roma communities and new and unexpected audiences around the world.

• Gypsy Caravan Outreach Journal I by Lucy Kay

•Gypsy Caravan Outreach Journal II by Sara Nolan

•Salon.com summarized it well: "Let me read your thoughts: You're not much interested in Gypsy music, and the historical and cultural stuff might be pretty dry. That's what I thought too: Wrong and wrong. ...a cinematic and musical experience that's absolute magic."

Read the full article.

When the Road Bends...tales of a Gypsy Caravan released by Shadow Distribution

Starts
06/15/2007
Ends
08/11/2007

Issues
Economic Justice, Family & Society, Immigration, International, Politics/Government, Racial Justice, Poverty, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Romany

Homepage
www.GypsyCaravanMovie.com

Contact
info@littledust.com

Posted on June 15, 2007 in Film / Screening by Anayansi

Vinok falls under Gypsy spell

Canada.com

Homage to often-misunderstood people plays out in music, words and dance

Pamela Anthony
Freelance


Monday, May 14, 2007

The romance and mystery of the Gypsy life has fascinated people for ages.

The popular view of Gypsies is that of beautiful outlaws who reject conventional life for a world of passionate independence and the freedom of the road.

Hollywood has reinforced this vision, portraying Gypsies as attractively dangerous, characterized by their haunting music and sensual dance.

These are attractive myths, and they contain elements of truth.

There are also darker sides of the image, that of the "tramps and thieves" variety.

But reality is always more complex than stereotypes.

The Gypsies are a unique ethno-cultural group, with a distinct language, laws, traditions and ethos.

Even the term "Gypsy" can be a bit problematic. Gypsy is an English word for the Roma people, and in some parts of the world it's used in a derogatory fashion.

Then there is the notion of a free, nomadic lifestyle. In many cases, a more accurate description would be of a permanently displaced people. Roma have suffered centuries of discrimination and oppression, and are still part of a vast, ongoing diaspora. They're people whose history of survival is still unfolding.

And yet the art and cultural traditions of Romany people have had immeasurable impact throughout the world, inspiring generations of artists.

The artists of Vinok Worldance are among those who have fallen under the Romany spell.

They have developed a new show, Romany Blues, that is a homage to the Roma, played out in poetry, music and dance.

Vinok executive director and show co-creator Leanne Koziak says it's a celebration tempered by a keen awareness of the complexities of a still largely misunderstood ethno-cultural group.

"There are so many myths and ideas about the Roma," she says. "We did a lot of research for this show. It was a long process, but we wanted to get a better idea of who they are as a people. We're trying to be realistic, not overglamourizing or romanticizing their culture, but not focusing on too many of the racial and political issues either."

The issues are complex, but Romany Blues reflects them through art, music and dance.

"It's done with a story that links everything together. It's set in modern times, but we kept with the strong traditional representation of Gypsy dance."

The story is that of a young man who wanders Europe, fuelled by the memory of his great-grandfathers, and searching for a treasured guitar. He becomes enthralled with a woman -- and Romany culture.

Koziak says the company is trying to express that sense of enchantment, one the music and dance can easily create.

"The music is just fantastic, it's beautiful. And the dancing is easy to connect to on a personal level. It has forms, but generally it's very personal -- there is lots of room for improvisation and individual style."

Koziak says wide-ranging regional and artistic influences, from India and across Europe, have created distinct variations in both the music and dance. Recognizable dances such as the flamenco will be seen beside less well-known forms.

But they're all part of the Roma history and traditions.

Tracing out folk traditions and giving them an authentic place onstage in contemporary society is what Vinok is all about. The company has a repertoire that includes folk dance and music from cultures around the globe. Koziak says the anthropological aspects of "folkloric" work are endlessly fascinating.

"Music and dance tell us so much about who people are. Folk dances are snapshots of people from a very specific time and particular place."

Koziak recognizes the often tragic history and daunting contemporary challenges faced by Gypsies the world over.

But Romany Blues is a chance to express her own lifelong admiration for a special people.

"Growing up in Ukrainian culture, Gypsies were seen in a positive light.

"Others might be very negative, horrified to accept any relationship to Gypsies. But for us, there was a sense of attraction to the culture. They were always the most desirable, the most beautiful girls, and the most handsome men. And of course, the most beautiful music and dancing."

Dance Preview

Romany Blues

Company: Vinok Worldance

Where: Maclab Theatre, Citadel

When: Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30

Tickets: Citadel box office, 425-1820

© The Edmonton Journal 2007

Gypsy Caravan at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival

This documentary about the Roma musical tradition screened Saturday at MMoCA!
Emma Lierley on Sunday 04/15/2007 09:04:26.

"Now they're still learning," a northern Indian man told to the camera in the opening scene of the documentary Gypsy Caravan.

It panned to show a group of smiley young boys, awkwardly holding instruments. Without so much as counting off, the group effortlessly creates a beautiful sound. The first chills of the film quickly followed.

Gypsy Caravan is an incredibly strong documentary -- well produced and edited -- but it is the people in the film that give it the extraordinary edge. The most amazingly adorable wrinkled old men share the stage with perfectly theatrical divas, while a troupe of chillingly talented Indian musicians makes fun of them all.

Following five bands, from four countries, for six weeks as they tour America, the documentary tells the musicians' story -- showing us their weddings as well as their funerals -- and creates a dialogue around the plight of the incredibly diverse 10 million Roma people world wide.

The musicians are not being "found" on this American tour; they are all incredibly successful in their own countries. They are, however, playing to sold-out concerts, like the film was shown to a sold-out audience, and with similar effects. Film-goers had to hold back their enthusiastic applause at the end of every concert shown in the documentary.