Author: ChrisC
Date: 2003-10-29 20:22
I saw the band in New York on Friday--a tremendous experience to say the least, and I have little to add to Ralph's commentary. I was disappointed that there was no room for dancing at Symphony Space, very much a concert hall venue, but most of the tunes were probably too fast anyway. The soulful elegance with which all the musicians approached the technically demanding music was remarkable to behold, as was the ease with which they performed within the eclectic wedding band idiom, combining jazz-based accompaniments with tunes and improvisations in Bulgarian and Turkish modes. I'm very, very new to this music so I'm sure that there was plenty that I missed, musically speaking, but it was still an exciting show, and a reminder that there is a lifetime's worth of concepts to explore within the ostensibly simple "folk" tradition that this group represesents.
As a minor correction to Ralph's assertion that this was an "all-Bulgarian group" with the exception of Silverman, I'd like to note that Papasov and Yunakov, as well as accordionist Nesho Neshev and drummer Sarif Ali, are ethnically Rom (gypsies) and Kalin Kirilov, according to the program notes, is Vlach, belonging to a Romance-language speaking group that is scattered throughout the Balkans. Thus, there were no ethnic Bulgarians in the band! This points up the ethnic cross-pollination characteristic of ther music of the region, one of the reasons, I think, that I find it so appealing.
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The Ethnic Clarinet
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