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KOCANI ORKESTAR Alone At My Wedding Crammed CRAW25
BOBAN MARKOVIC ORKESTAR Live In Belgrade Piranha PIR1685
The brass bands of former Yugoslavia are rapidly making an impact on the world music fan's psyche; firstly through Emir Kusturica's films, more recently good management has found the likes of Kocani Orkestar and Fanfare Ciocarlia blowing away audiences across Western Europe and the USA. Serbia's annual Guca brass band festival is becoming something of a pilgrimage for hardcore devotees - Network's wonderful double-CD-book is a great Guca document - and now we get the King of Guca, Serbian Gypsy trumpeter Boban Markovic and his ten-piece band tearing the roof off some Belgrade joint. Frank London's sleeve notes claim Boban's Orkestar are the funkiest output on the planet and that's no mere hyperbole: this disc rocks!
Macedonia's Kocani Orkestar's connection with Taraf de Haïdouks (shared management, a supporting role on the Taraf's Band Of Gypsies live album), has helped them gain recognition. Phenomenal live - they blasted The Barbican at the Medfest - Alone At My Wedding is a long overdue follow-up to 1997's L'Orient Est Rouge. This is a superior album to their debut, in terms of sound and arrangements, although serious brass fans may miss departed leader Naat Veliou and question adding a vocalist (the dapper, if slight, Ajlur Azizov). Where Boban Markovic's live album is a sonic k.o., the Kocani have taken notes from the Taraf - Alone At My Wedding is dynamic while coloured with atmosphere for home listening. Both outputs draw on Turkish/ Bulgarian roots with hints of Arabic character (especially Kocani) and funky New Orleans brass (especially Boban). Which to choose from? Sorry, but you've got to buy both here we have the deep Balkan blues. Garth Cartwright
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Kocani Orkestar - Wedding
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Boban Markovic - live
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Article is copright 2002 Southern Rag/fROOTS, and is used by permission
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