Romanian brass band and one of the most famous and legendary Romani bands
returns to Prague!
The world's fastest brass band has played more than
3,000 concerts around the world and released a number of highly acclaimed
albums in its quarter-century career. One of today's finest live bands
comes from a remote village in eastern Romania. It is easy to distinguish it
from other Balkan brass bands: it plays with a punkish commitment and jazz
virtuosity. The band originated near the Moldovan border, in the village of Zece
Prajini, home to 80 Roma families who have devoted generations to their
fields and music. During the totalitarian era, this was a region cut off from
civilisation, thanks to which music has been preserved here, which otherwise
disappeared in other parts of Romania. The roots of this music go back to the
Ottoman Empire and draw on the style of Turkish military bands.
The dominant instrument of these "Turkish musics" was originally
the zurna, an oboe-like flute whose sharp sound penetrated even the loudest
battle. In the 18th century, military bands replaced the existing oriental
instruments with European ones, but retained the original Turkish way of
playing. The band was discovered in 1996 by German music enthusiast and
later impresario Henry Ernst – and when he brought it to London, the Times
described its music as "a hell of a blast". Fanfare Ciocărlia recorded
ten albums, many of which topped the charts and inspired filmmakers – the
renowned Turkish documentary filmmaker Fatih Akin captured their triumphant
concerts in Berlin clubs. Eastern European music expert Garth Cartwright wrote
enthusiastically about the band in his book Princes Among Men, film enfant
terrible Sacha Baron Cohen commissioned them to score the film Borat, and their
songs have been remixed and adapted by dozens of DJs and bands.
On later albums, the band included radical arrangements of Western
evergreens – including the James Bond film theme and Duke Ellingtons
Caravan – that prove how insignificant the boundaries between musical
genres are. The band also excels in unique stage projects – Gypsy Queens
& Kings is a showcase of the greatest Roma personalities, and Balkan Brass
Battle is a dramatic duel between Fanfare Ciocărlia and the musically related
Serbian brass band known from the films of Emir Kusturica.