King Naat Veliov & the Original Kocani Orkestar
Cigance
17.99
| "The ten-man Kocani Orkestar's twin trumpets, flugelhorns and saxophones, along with tuba, accordion, parkesion and darbuka produce an effervescent, jazz-inflected repertoire of festival, wedding and funeral music from Macedonia and neighboring Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Turkey." - Michael Stone, RootsWorld |
More recordings by Naat Veliov and Kocani
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From the liner notes:
This is the particular
groove in which the human and musical experience of forty-something trumpet
player NAAT VELIOV is situated. Born in Kocani a small town about fifty
miles from the Macedonian capital Skopje, VELIOV comes from a family of
musicians of Turkish origin. A popular figure in his country VELIOV, thanks
in part to his role in Emir Kusturica's film The Time of the Gypsies has managed to gather a considerable following abroad, quickly becoming
the most well-known and appreciated Macedonian artist on the international
scene. The Kocani Orkestar which he founded has over the years undergone
many line-up changes, yet has managed to maintain unaltered the freshness
and spirit of its early years, demonstrating itself on disc after disc to be one of the most innovative and original Balkan brass bands around. Gigance, their latest excellent recording does nothing
other than confirm VELIOV and his cohorts passion for playing music, uniting
mastery of their own traditional heritage with a number of influences
from neighbouring cultures (Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey).
Both popular themes
and dance numbers are nonetheless injected with just the right does of
modernity, expressed though VELIOV's capacity for both rhythmic (on Gigance can be heard jazz inflections that blend perfectly with the traditional
body of the music) and melodic (with atmospheres permeated by Turkish
and Middle Eastern nuances) variation.
Some tracks, such as the poetic and melancholy Muli Devla or the
amusingly ironic Eleno Mome, were written by VELIOV, confirming
his talent as a musician not only able to perpetuate with bravura and
feeling his own ethnic heritage but also to measure himself against the
innovations that any musical tradition brings with it.
With its warmth,
its passion, the dynamism of the ensemble and the brilliance of its virtuoso
solo passages, not to mention the charm of the encounter between different
cultures, Gigance will, thanks to the talent and artistic sensibility
of KING NAAT VELIOV and his orchestra, without doubt make Macedonian music
known to a wider audience, breaking free of the narrow confines within
which it has so far been constrained.
In the
ex-Yugoslavian republic of Macedonia the Romany people are regarded as
the uncontested kings of the music field, with a tradition that dates
back to the 1400s, when the population left the Indian lands of Rajasthan
to settle in the Balkans. For centuries Rom artists have animated festivities,
marriages and other rites, and with their different styles continue to
exercise a considerable influence on contemporary Balkan music.