Gypsies and music go together. Not just in popular imagination, but in fact. From the Gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt to the wailing trumpets of the brass orkestar, from Andalusia’s Flamenco guitarists to the profound and joyful singing of Esma Redzepova – and much more – the music of the Roma fires the imagination and moves the body.
Journalist Garth Cartwright goes to the heartland of Gypsy music, the Balkans, to meet the legends and present some of the truth behind those legends. Spending apparently much of 2004 travelling through Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, he looked for the heart of Gypsy music in all its messy glory. It’s a long, strange trip to say the least.
“Journeys with Gypsy Musicians” is the book’s subtitle, and Cartwright approaches it as a travelogue of sorts, starting in northern Serbia, proceeding southward through that country, into Macedonia, then eastward and north to Romania and Bulgaria. Along the way, he meets, interviews, and drinks and spends time with some of the top Gypsy musicians in the world: violinist Aca Sisic in Belgrade; sevdah singer Saban Bajramovic in Nis; trumpeters Boban Markovic and son Marko in Vladicin Han; Esma Redzepova, Queen of the Gypsies in Skopje, Macedonia; saxophonist Ferus Mustafov and trumpeter Naat Veliov in Macedonia; Romanian accordionist Fulgerica in Bucharest; the band Taraf de Hajduks in tiny Clejani, south of Bucharest; Bulgarian singer-songwriter Jony Iliev and folk-pop singer Azis in Sofia. And more.
He also explores old and new sections of Belgrade and other cities and towns along the way, attends the premiere Gypsy brass band festival in Guca, rides trains, buses, trams and in private cars, eats local food, drinks local rotgut and smokes local marijuana. All in the spirit of research, of course. Along side tracks, we learn a pocket history of the Roma people in Europe, discuss historic and more recent books and films about the Gypsies, and get a general cultural primer in the ways of these people, and the hazards they’ve faced down through the ages – including the threats to their culture with the fall of Communism and encroaching globalism. Euro-MTV culture is rapidly making inroads, sad to say.
Cartwright is a writer in the gee-whiz Brit tabloid style, which means lots of jargon, slang and injecting himself and his opinions into the story. Think an English Hunter S. Thompson fueled by Serbian rakija and allegedly Albanian pot. A typical sample is this, which follows an afternoon of drinking and talking with the elder Markovic:
By now we’re near meltdown, exhausted from the journey and oozing alcohol. Boban, realising we haven’t eaten, leads us to a local sandwich shop for Serb fast food – meat, pickles, bread, sauce – then leaves us at Millenium Turist Hotel with a promise to meet for coffee with Marko at 10 a.m. If ever an establishment were less aptly named it’s this dump. The hand basin floods the floor, there’s no hot water, the plaster’s peeling … grunge is the word.
For me, the best bits are in the back: select bibliography, discography, filmography. Especially in the U.S., a source for the names of some authentic, rootsy musical acts and the titles and labels of their recordings is invaluable.
Princes Amongst Men is entertaining and informative. A must for anyone who wants to dig beneath the surface of European Roma music.
(Serpent’s Tail, 2005)
