For this New Sounds, listen to American-based Balkan brass bands, like Brooklyn-based Slavic Soul Party!, San Francisco-based Brass Menažeri, Boston-based Balkan tango-jazzers Grand Fatilla, and the New York-based Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band.
There’s music from the San Francisco-based Balkan brass band called Brass Menažeri together with the rapper Mr. Lif. They first got together at the Seattle Folk Festival in 2010, and they fit so well that they made an “intriguing and wonderful” collaborative record, Resilient (New Sounds staff, 2017). Listen to caffeinated music, an instrumental tune called “Doppio Macchiato” without Mr. Lif and a number with Mr. Lif's brainy wordplay, “The Wanderer.”
From Slavic Soul Party!, hear their arrangement of music by Duke Ellington from his “Far East Suite” - the 1963 collaboration with Billy Strayhorn - where they’ve re-imagined the suite from the perspective of an Eastern European brass band discovering the exotic sounds of American jazz. Then listen to an actual Romanian brass band, Fanfare Ciocarlia, and their arrangement of “Caravan” by Duke Ellington and his sometime trombonist Juan Tizol (with rarely heard lyrics by Irving Mills). Then, listen to difficult-for-dancing meters in the tune "Ciganska Oro" from the Boston-based Balkan tango-jazz band Grand Fatilla, along with music from Breakdown Brass which blends heavy Afro-funk vibes with the sizzle of Balkan brass-band music.
There’s also music by the Luminescent Orchestrii, a self-dubbed “gypsy punk band from New York City.” Yes, and they’re also a Balkan-style string band with clarinet and percussion. Then, hear the influence of Sephardic music on Balkan music in an adapted Ladino song from around the Mediterranean and Balkans destroyed in WWII, as done up by the Guy Mendilow Ensemble,
Plus, hear music from New York City-born 12-piece Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band, who also host an annual January Event of music, food, drink, and dancing, called Zlatne Uste Golden Festival. They’ve been invited to the annual Guca Trumpet festival in Serbia four times, they are that legit. Listen to their “Brazil Cocek”, where the cocek, is a type of Rom (Gypsy) dance that might be in either 2/4 or 9/8 from the southern Balkans. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4243: Balkan Music, American-Style (First aired: 5/30/2019)
ARTIST: Fanfare Ciocarlia
WORK: Caravan [1:00]
RECORDING: Balkan Brass Battle
SOURCE: Asphalt Tango ATR 2911
INFO: asphalt-tango.de
ARTIST: Brass Menažeri
WORK: Doppio Macchiato [4:08]
RECORDING: Resilient
SOURCE/INFO: mrlifbrassmenazeri.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Brass Menažeri with Mr. Lif, feat. DJ Mr. Sonny James
WORK: The Wanderer [5:51]
RECORDING: Resilient
SOURCE/INFO: mrlifbrassmenazeri.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Slavic Soul Party
WORK: Blue Pepper [4:18]
RECORDING: Duke Ellington's Far East Suite
SOURCE: Ropeadope RecordsRAD 314
INFO: slavicsoulparty.com
ARTIST: Fanfare Ciocarlia
WORK: Caravan [3:34]
RECORDING: Balkan Brass Battle
SOURCE: Asphalt Tango ATR 2911
INFO: asphalt-tango.de
ARTIST: Guy Mendilow Ensemble
WORK: Esta Montaña D'Enfrente (The Mountain Ahead Burns) [3:14]
RECORDING: Music from The Forgotten Kingdom
SOURCE/INFO: guymendilowensemble.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Luminescent Orchestrii
WORK: Dreaming in Turkish (Fand) – [4:53]
RECORDING: Neptune's Daughter
SOURCE: Nine Mile Records 0190
INFO: ninemilerecords.com
ARTIST: Grand Fatilla
WORK: Sandansko Oro [5:12]
RECORDING: Global Shuffle
SOURCE: GrandFatilla Records
INFO: grandfatilla.com
ARTIST: Breakdown Brass
WORK: The Horseman [4:30]
RECORDING: The Horseman (single)
SOURCE: breakdownbrass.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band
WORK: Brazil Cocek [4:05]
RECORDING: Do Zore (Until Dawn)
SOURCE: ZU -04
INFO:zlatneuste.org
ARTIST: Slavic Soul Party
WORK: Hymn [5:59]
RECORDING: Taketron
SOURCE: Barbes Records 0023
INFO: barbesrecords.com
