Gypsy TV

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Lelo Nika

As you may have noticed I haven't written in a while. I've stayed in bed all week, depressed because I couldn't make it to Guča this year. But hey, life goes on (or does it?).

When I finally managed to get out of my bed and turn on my computer I found this:

Lelo Nika is a Serbian gypsy accordionist now living in Sweden, playing jazz and gypsy music in a Romanian style . He moved to Denmark with his family at the age of one. At five he got his first accordion from his father, who also sent him to Yugoslavia to really get in to the Balkan music tradition.

http://www.lelonika.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lelo_Nika

Re: Wanted: Amčo!

Here are two songs from the album:

boomp3.com

boomp3.com

Since he's not on google and I don't own a scanner I can't post pictures of him, but when I think about it, he looks like a serb...

Wanted: Amčo!

I took a trip to the state library today to pick up a record by Ferus Mustafov that I had reserved a few days ago. I scanned the CD section for European "world music", as usual, and found a few records that looked interesting and which I hadn't already heard. One of them was an album by an artist named (I think) Aljuš Amet, nick named Amčo. The album is called So grešingan ka bistrav, which to me sounds like romani. The album sounds very much Balkan and at the same time Turkish. Maybe Macedonia, I don't know.

So, I google him. Finds nothing. Google the album name, still nothing. The booklet is two sides color-printed from a computer, the backside is a b/w copy and the CD itself looks like a CD-R with a glued-on label. Very home made, but I found it in the library so it must be "real".

If anyone has any information about this guy, I would very much like to know.

Ivo Papasov

Both the Bulgarian clarinettist Ivo Papasov and Romanian Mahala Rai Banda are visiting Södra Teatern in Stockholm this fall.
Ivo papasov & his wedding band are playing on the 18th of september and Mahala Rai Banda on the 6th of november.

I don't know if it's hard to get good balkan musicians to come and play in Scandinavia. I guess this is as good as it gets this year.
Or..?
Esma Redzepovas official home page reports that she's singing in Stockholm in November. But where!?


This is fucking crazy! Balkan free jazz with Ivo Papasov.

Boban

Here is a young Boban Markovic playing in Guča, I don't know the year but it must be at least ten years ago. Excellent playing, that's for sure.

Guča

Guča announces that there might be an entrance fee of 500 dinars (~6EUR) this year. The organizers are currently working on finding more sponsors so they can get rid of this extra charge.

The Romanian field recordings

Here are the field recordings I wrote about a week ago. Finnaly!
Seems to be of really good quality too!

Hungary

Last summer I visited the small roma village Besence in southern Hungary, for a traditional celebration/party, including drinking some beer, killing a pig, eating a pig and then the band starts to play. One of the groups performing was the Szilvasi Gipsy Folk Band.
On Juli 20 they're playing in Sweden, together with groups from France, Spain and Sweden. Unfortunately I can't go, so I'm just gonna watch this clip instead.

The Shutka Book of Records

Shutka, just outside of Skopje, Macedonia. Europe's (and probably the world's) biggest Roma community. Of approximately 45.000 inhabitants most are roma. The czech movie The Shutka Book Of Records show us the lifes of a number of people living here. Interesting topic. The sad thing is that the director make us belive that Shutka is a city of freaks. There is not a single "normal" person in this film and I really doubt that's the truth about Shutka.

There is a few good moments in this film though. The annual competition of who has the biggest, oldest and best collection of tukish music on cassette tapes is a huge event. People argue loudly, it's all dead serious. It's up to the judges to choose a worthy winner.
Yet another reason to watch this film is to see the legendary saxophonist Ferus Mustafov being literally coverd in money at a wedding party.