Brass from the Past! How Romani Traditions Shape Modern Balkan Brass
In the world of modern Balkan Brass, groups like Fanfare Ciocărlia and Taraf de Haidouks are well known and loved.
Picture of all 12 members of Fanfare Ciocărlia and their instruments.
The genre of Balkan Brass and music from the Balkan’s in general is shrouded in mystery. It’s regarded by many as a borderland, a land of mixing and fusion between Europe and the East. Many attribute this fusion and feel of the music to the Romani or Gypsy people. Gypsy is a shaky term derived from Europeans mistaking these people for Egyptians, when in reality these people where refugees from India (1). The more common and excepted term for these people is Roma, and I continue to refer to them as such throughout this post. Roma people have been traditionally forgotten about and viewed with a stigma in Europe. One thing that keeps their culture and way of life alive is their music.
Both Fanfare Ciocărlia and Tara de Haidouks are Romani bands, but I’m going to mainly focus on Fanfare in this article. Fanfare is made up of 12 people playing a variety of instruments including tubas, trumpets, saxophones, clarinet and percussion. Unlike Taraf de Haidouks, which comes from a generation of lautari (Romanian for musician) expert musicians, the men of Fanfare have a background in military brass bands (2). Fanfare Ciocărlia doesn’t have dedicated vocalists and many of their songs don’t have lyrics. Their style is characterized by, “breakneck speed, technical chops, ripping rhythms and sweet and sour horns,” with songs having improved solo sections and an infectious funk groove (3). The band has released 10 full-length albums, released a DVD documentary called “Brass on Fire,” and was commissioned by Sacha Baron Cohen to cover “Born To Be Wild” and “Just The Two Of Us”, for the Borat movie and its sequel’s soundtrack (3).
A cover of Just The Two Of Us by Bill Withers in Fanfare Ciocărlia’s style, commissioned for the second Borat film.
The band hails from the town of Zece Prajini in north-eastern Romania. The village is composed of a few Romani families, and their music traditions are infused into their daily life. They got off the ground and played their first concerts in the mid 90s with the help of Henry Ernst, a German sound mixer (4). The style of music created by Fanfare is described as masterful, traditional Roma music and have been using their platform to showcase the musical arts of the Romani people. Other forms of popular music in Romania are performed by lautari musicians, like manele, but that genre is sometimes seen as vulgar and having low value compared to the traditional music performed by bands like Fanfare Ciocărlia (5). Bringing forth the traditional sounds of the Romani is crucial to fight against the stigma and make a more accepting world.
Popular original song by the band, also the name for the record company that publishes other Balkan and Eastern European artists, including Fanfare themselves.
A cover of the James Bond theme in Fanfare Ciocărlia’s style played live in Japan.
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