Gypsy Hop: Boban & Marko Marković Orchestra with "Sljivovica"

I have waxed poetic in the past on my surprise and delight at the emergence of Balkan brass band music, especially in dance-able club music. Today's song is another example of this, but with a twist. Hip hop, until I started listening to it in a world music wrapper, was not a really big attraction for me. Hip hop lost my interest when it seemed to become, at least in the popular songs, hedonistic and glorifying violence instead of highlighting up front the social and economic issues of the communities from whence it sprung. Thankfully, hip hop seems to have gone through that adolescence and, while it now has pop success there is also a new focus on issues of substance.

With hip hop in foreign languages, I could listen to the beat and the rhymes without understanding the language and I found that I actually liked that. There is a great quality to hip hop, to me at least, in that you don't need to understand the language to appreciate the artistry. Hip hop in French sounds great. Hip hop in German has a fun quality to it. Today's song gives us hip hop in Serbian - and while I might seem like a hypocrite because the song is about a plum brandy and it appears, from the video, that it is promoting some of that hedonistic qualities that drove me away in the first place, I love the use of it with the brass band sound. So yeah, if I close my eyes and listen to the song, and I don't understand the language, I like the new sound it brings.

Boban Marković is a Serbian Romani trumpet player and brass ensemble leader frequently recognized as the greatest trumpet player to emerge from the Balkans. The Boban Marković Orchestra has been one of the leading Balkan brass bands in Serbia over the last 17 years. They have won several of the most important prizes ("Golden Trumpet", "First Trumpet" and "The Best Orchestra") at the Guča trumpet festival, called "Dragačevski Sabor" which has been held every August in Central Serbia's town of Guča since 1961. Boban Marković's son, Marko, has played with the band since 2002. Marko was said to practice ten hours a day before joining with the band. During the two years he spent touring with the band, Marko became the main soloist and arranger of the renamed Boban & Marko Marković Orchestra at age 17. Sljivovica can be found on the Boban & Marko Markovic Orchestra's 2013 album Gipsy Manifesto.

I Nodi: I Califfi and "Ti Giuro è Così"

Today's random tune is an Italian throwback cover. You'll recognize the tune immediately as a cover of The Kinks You Really Got Me. I always thought of The Kinks as the forgotten fourth band of the British Invasion. Not that they were really forgotten, because they weren't. But they just seemed to me to be in the shadow of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. But for me, they put out the most memorable riffs and guitar hooks. When You Really Got Me or Lola begins to play, you immediately know what it is and are ready to take up the song as soon as the lyrics come around. Their songs, especially the early ones, didn't aim for any fanciness - they were simple tunes with lyrics that were easy to remember. That doesn't mean that the songs themselves were somehow lacking - what they didn't have in musical artistry they made up for in pure raw power and emotion. Even their later songs, as the band became better songwriters and practitioners, seemed to me to keep simplicity at the forefront. Come Dancing, for example, is a great tune masquerading as a simple melody, the lyrics concealing pain and loss behind an uptempo dance beat. No, to me The Kinks were the real deal.

The Italian band who covers the song, I Califfi, was formed in 1965 by musicians Franco Boldrini, Giuseppe Maffei, Marco Bracci and Carlo Felice Marcovecchio. It was their first experience in a rock band, though Boldrini had played bass previously in professional orchestras that toured abroad. They were influenced early in their career by such bands as the Spencer Davis Group, The Animals, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. Boldrini stated in an interview that in the 60s, the musical skill of Italian bands was very low and everyone imitated someone else. The band went through several lineup changes through the 1960s and 70s, and disbanded for a while. However, Boldrini has resurrected them and also has started a solo career, with the most recent I Califfi album released in 2010. Ti Giuro è Così (You Really Got Me) was initially released as a single in 1966.

A Lozenge: Yat-Kha and "Ahoi"

Hello friends! I'm back from my travels and hopefully will be able to resume my more intensive commenting on the music in the next couple of days. However, you know how it is...having to get back into the work scene after a two-week vacation means that there are many things in my in-box. I hope you'll forgive me if there is just a bare-bones entry today.

Today's random tune is by Yat-Kha, a band from Tuva, an ethnic region in Russia. Begun by Albert Kuvezin and Ivan Sokolovsky, Yat-Kha originally blended traditional Tuvan music with post-modern rhythms and electronica. After the departure of Sokolovsky after the release of their third album in 1993, Yat-Kha began to de-emphasize the electronica and focus on a blend of Tuvan traditional music with rock. This song, Ahoi, is from their 2005 album Bootleg and the 2010 compilation The Ways of the Nomad - The Best of Yat-Kha and features Kuvezin's distinctive throat singing.

Legend: Clannad and "Robin (the Hooded Man)"

Today's random tune is from the soundtrack to a British TV series called Robin of Sherwood. The music to this series was provided by Clannad, an Irish band whose music draws from Celtic, traditional Irish, new age, folk and folk rock. The band was formed, according to local story, when Ciarán, Pól, and Máire Brennan were performing late at night in their uncle's pub and a police sergeant walked in - they feared a summons but instead he had a form to participate in a music contest. After winning a local folk festival, they scored a record contract. Subsequent years saw them shooting to fame, providing music for television and film and collaborating with superstars such as Bono. They are considered pioneers in the fusion of Celtic and new age music, creating an earthly yet spiritual sound. This song, Robin (the Hooded Man), is from their 1984 album Legend, which is all of the music from the British TV series Robin of Sherwood.

Fixes Your Wagon: Buena Vista Social Club and "El Carretero"

The random tune for today is from Cuba - appropriate given our newfound relations with that country. El Carretero is by the Buena Vista Social Club. The Buena Vista Social Club was the name of a club in Havana where musicians met and performed together in the 1940s at a time when new Latin styles were being created. Juan de Marcos González and Ry Cooder assembled a number of those musicians that had played there and recorded them for a CD in 1997. After the release of the CD, they were invited to play as a full ensemble in Amsterdam where filmmaker Wim Wenders captured the performance on film and interspersed that footage with interviews of the musicians in a documentary called Buena Vista Social Club. The documentary went on to receive an Academy Award nomination, and made stars of the once forgotten musicians as well as reviving interest in Cuban music and Latin music in general. El Carretero is a guajira, and has Eliades Ochoa on lead vocals. The song is about a wagon man who brings the harvest of the plains to the harbor. It can be found on the 1997 CD Buena Vista Social Club. Interesting postscript - Ry Cooder was fined $25,000 by the US government for breaking the Trading with the Enemy Act in regard to the Cuban embargo. I guess that obstacle will soon be coming to an end.

Modern Geisha: Umekichi and "Kirigirisu"

Today's random song is by Japanese folk and pop musician Umekichi. She is well known in Japan for her interest in traditional Japanese music and also for her playing of the shamisen, a traditional 3-stringed Japanese instrument, in both traditional and modern styles which has garnered her both support and criticism. She is also a modern Geisha, and combines her performance with education about the art of the Geisha. This song, Kirigirisu, is from her 2006 album The Voice of Geisha Doll.

Artist to the Stars: Valya Balkanska and a song from Glas ot Vechnostta

Breaking in the new year is a song by Valya Balkanska. You've probably never heard of her, but you should, as she is one of the human voices that may eventually be heard by aliens should they ever run across one of the two Voyager spacecraft leaving our solar system. A Bulgarian folk singer, she was known locally for her wide repertoire of over 300 songs. Her rendition of the song Izlel e Delyu Haydutin was chosen to be included on the Voyager Golden Records included on the two Voyager spacecraft. She is a recipient of Bulgaria's highest honor, the Stara Planina Orden, and is a member of Bulgaria's Walk of Fame. I'm not sure what this song title is as it is in Cyrillic, but it is on her album Glas ot Vechnostta.