Last Stop Southern Serbia: Vranja

 Good Morning to Vranja !

Vranja is a town in Southern Serbia with a high Romany population. In Yugoslav times, folk ensembles repertoire included dance suites, which they called ‘Vranjansky Čoček’. These were inspired by Romany music and dance and are fantastic to both listen, and of course, dance to. Enjoy!

Sadly I have to say, that this type of Romany music was and is neither created and often not performed by Romany musicians. Nevertheless, it is enjoyable. So I hope you will also enjoy my arrangement of another Vranjansky Čoček, which has even another non-Romany middle man, or rather middle woman meddling with it. This is Tatcho Drom performing:

Towards the end of our Serbian cyber travel, I would like to teach you another piece of music: Nišava Kori Pani, a Serbian Romani Gypsy song, here as instrumental version. I love the ‘internal’ combination of Serbian music style with Ottoman influences in certain part, see, or rather learn for yourself:

In my own cyber travels on YouTube, I came across this one. Join me in a little time travel in Serbia: watch the piece you learned last time on a music video from 1993. Make sure you stand up to do so, so you can’t fall off your chair laughing…

I feel, I would like to leave Serbia in a more serious mode, by sharing a song full of old history: Vidovdan, translated to 'St Vitus Day'. This song refers to the battle of Kosovo in 1389. Read more here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidovdan_(song)

Travelling to the land of the Spirit and visiting a Serbian Music Legend

Ground breaking for Serbia's, or rather former Yugoslavia's music, and neck-breaking for many a TV show or concert organiser, the late Šaban Bajramović. Get to know the man, his full persona, including imprisonments, gambling and his amazing musical career in this publication – unfortunately this article misses each first letter of his name ’Š’, so add it in your mind in front of each ‘aban’….

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/aug/15/serbia

To make Šaban's musical acquaintance at the same time, you could listen to the video below whilst reading:

Šaban has hugely influenced the development of Serbian popular music. A Romany, loved and respected by both Romany and non-Romany, he was crowned 'King of Gypsy Music' in India by Indira Ghandi in the late 1980s, when the work 'Gypsy' was not yet politically incorrect... 

He composed and performed lots of Serbian songs, with lyrics and Serbian and Romany language back to back, thus influencing Serbian music slowly with Romany elements, which due to his huge popularity left large footprints on popular Serbian music of that time. Lets watch him live:

Time to travel to the Southern borders for today's Serbia, to a place with a high Romany population and great music, a music with much more Ottoman influence then in the rest of Serbia: Whilst travelling, lets listen to Đelem Đelem, the song considered as Romany Anthem:

The world of Emir Kustorica, fantastic phantasy cyber space

 Whilst in Serbia, one can not bypass the movie world of Emir Kustorica. A Yugoslav film maker, famous for his Balkan Romani-themed movies, creating un-imaginable worlds. As much as he seems to be ridiculing the culture at times, I actually have experienced plenty of scenes which could have been part of the movies, however, they occurred ion reality when researching and jamming music with Romany musicians in former Yugoslavian regions. 

Lets start our cyber explorations in the real village of Drvengrad, a village built by the famous Balkan Movie maker Emir Kustorica to function as scenery in his movies. It is such a beautiful place, I will first share my own snaps taken there on my visit in 2006:

Some more professional images, and some history about this lovely village you van read here:

http://www.serbia.com/visit-serbia/natural-beauties/ethno-village/drvengrad-an-enchanting-ethno-village-by-emir-kusturica/

The movies are full of fantastic music - as they gained fame around the western world, Balkan Romany music also became famous. It's high time you dive yourself a little into the Emir Kustorica's world. Lets start wit one bit of music, the Underground Tango from the movie Underground:

In my own concerts, I dive regularly underground, in as many meanings as the word offers. Here a little excerpt from a Tatcho Drom performance, a dance medley starting with a Serbian Rhumba BoCaCeZo, then we drop into our interpretation Kustino Oro, from the same movie as above:

Lets finish todays journey with another learning experience for yourself. This is Bizerka, a great cheerful waltz tune, I love the social dance for it at least as much as the tune....

Southern Serbian Brass Adventures

Today we cyber travel even further south in Serbia. Anybody who likes Balkan Brass Music and Balkan drinks (alcoholic ones apply here) will know this town: Guča, famous for its annual Brass Festival. The event started off as a Balkan Brass competition for insiders, but became over time an international event for many to enjoy - with all the good and bad things which Balkan parties with a lot of alcohol involved bring with them. Lets drop right into the middle of it:

BTW, currently it is Cyber August in Serbia, as this is when the real festival is usually taking place. 

We shall stay a little longer there, as, whilst you are, you need to meet father and son Boban and Marco Marković, probably the two most famous Romany trumpeters and band leaders in the Balkans. They won the competition at least 10 times in a row:

 A funny story related to Boban Markovic, who you met previously on our adventure. I was visiting my late friend Gordana, who was a concert organiser and behind many Balkan Band shows in London. She didn’t like that Boban’s sound was heading in a jazzy direction. So, after several glasses of Šlivovica in her sitting room in Kensal Rise, she rang Boban and caught him fishing in his local river… She told him off for playing his traditional music too jazzy, and he should rather listen to the London Gypsy Orchestra, the group I led at the time, who would play this music much better than him. This is not quite true, but form your own opinion:

We are going South, to areas of sunny Serbian music

Lets travel a little further south, towards central Serbia, more precisely to Čačak. And I think it is high time for your to get some hands-on experience. I shall teach you the music to Čačak, a Serbian dance. Here nobody is quite sure if the town was named after the dance or visa versa:

From there, we can travel 50km eastwards, to Kragujevac, In a funny way, Kragujevac seems to be the birthing place of talented accordionists, as during my own (real life) travels through Serbia, every accordionist that I came across would, when asked, told me that they originated from Kragujevac.

I was fortunate enough to play with Zika, alias Živorad Nikolić, in the time before social media and easy videoing.

Ha! On my voyage into the depth of my hard drives, I found a video from my time playing with Zika: Here we are performing a number of famous Serbian pieces, including Ederlezi, Tama Daleko and Ajde Jano and in the village hall of Wood Norton on the 21st March 2008:

I think we can fit in one more destination for today: Niš. I went there in 2008 to celebrate my late friend Gordana’s birthday. Having always had a great but perhaps hidden interest in the gothic, I particularly enjoyed seeing the Skull tower and the chandelier made of bullets:

When I travelled there in 2008, I had hoped to meet a great Serbian Fiddle player called Alexandar Šišić. Sadly, Alexandar died just a few weeks before I arrived, but I would love to celebrate him by sharing some of his great music for us all to enjoy:

Another happy discovery from digging through my old archives. In this video I'm performing a Kolo by Alexandar Šišić. The music is also accompanied by a slide show of me and my fiddle through the years. This recording is unedited as it is from the years before everyone could edit things on their own computer, so you either paid for an expensive studio, or you hoped to play well in the first place :-)

Trip to Vojvodina, Serbia's little Hungary...

 Lets start a tour around the country, starting in the north:

Vojvodina was a previously Hungarian occupied region. The Serbs call this music ‘Hungarian music’. This following dance is funny as well as interesting for me, as I can hear Hungarian elements as well as similarities to German folk music – with little twists of Romanian harmonic progressions at the end of phrases.

If you feel like a little tour of the area, check this out:

Whilst in Vojvodina, lets pop by Novi Sad, which will be Culture capital in 2021. We are first taking part in a little City Tour:

Whilst in the area, we definitely need to check out the local music. The Romani Band Earth-Wheel-Sky is based in Novi Sad. Their performance of Chaje Shukrarije is rather different from other interpretations:

Flying to Serbia

Today we set out on our big musical autumn cyber travel through Serbia. A place full of contradictions, which reflects in the music. We will explore and discover a highly enthusing dance music back to back with deeply emotional songs. Relaxing music, however, you won't find much in Serbia, at least I didn't, it all grips you, moves you, touches you....

Our online adventures will be mixed with past memories of my real physical travels there...

We will start in the capital city Belgrade, a beautiful city on the Danube. Its name translates to ‘White town’. Let me show you some of the interesting and romantic scenery starting at the Kale, the castle, through the centre, passing by the big Orthodox Cathedral, and finally arriving at the banks of the Danube. Lets go on a little sight seeing trip, and a memory tour from my travels in 2006. 

Whilst watching the pix, do listen to this lovely track from the Serbian Romani band Odjila: 

  

 

 

Time to find a good place to eat to replenish your energies. The Skadarska Ulica is the best place to eat yummy food whilst being showered with local music performer by Serbian Romani bands. Here you'll find out about the history and details of the area, and with the beautiful accompanying images, you can witness the beauty of it also: https://www.011info.com/en/it-happened-once-in-belgrade/belgrades-skadarlija-from-a-bohemian-quarter-to-an-ethnic-style-attraction

Here some music to accompany the images: Sekstet Skadarlija is a group who perform there regularly:

I myself also had a cracking time in the Skadarska Ulica in 2006, here a few pix of the cute interiors of some places:

Serbian people can definitely party, and nightlife here in Skadarlija is exciting: