TZIGANE !
Songs and dances of the Balkan Gypsies
Monitor, 1972, MSF 747
Monitor, American label, issued this LP with the Bulgarian label Balkanton. This is a good example of what was the mainstream Gypsy culture in Bulgaria before what is called ''wedding music" changed the musical scene in Bulgaria at the end of the eighties. But whatever the mode of expression Gypsies in Bulgaria always had complex and difficult relations to the socialist state and still are discriminated in post-communist Bulgaria. In the seventies the ethnic category ''gypsy'' was abolished and the word ''gypsy'' disappeared. There was also an attempt by the governement to force Gypsy citizen change their names when it was too obviously Turkish/Muslim for a more Bulgarian/Slavic one.
The introductory text was written by Jan Yoors a Belgian who lived with Gypsies between the age of 12 and 22. He died in 1977 in New York; he published three books about Gypsy culture and society. He spoke fluent Romani.
The singers and musicians here are Muslims based in Sofia. All the songs are in Romani.Four bands and six female and male singers perform urban Gypsy music with accordion, violin, trumpet, clarinet and darbuka. Among the musicians Ibro Lolov (accordion) and Hassan Chinchiry (violin and vocal) are the most famous.
No comments:
Post a Comment