balkan

Clad in a suave white suit, it’s not impossible to imagine why urban legends credit gypsy trumpet king Boban Marković with getting his homeland out of a recent jam: Marković’s spit-fire precision is rumored to have so seduced Bill Clinton that the saxophone playing president called off the further NATO bombing of Serbia. True or not, one thing is clear: Marković and his son, prized protégé Marko, are the bomb in Balkan brass dance music, harnessing the absolute flexibility of Miles Davis and the cool funk of Herb Alpert in the ultimate expression of their Southern Serbian Rroma roots.

Amira Medunjanin is a singer from Bosnia & Herzegovina, who records as Amira. Coming from Sarajevo, she's a performer in the sevdah tradition. Amira was born at a time when the popularity of traditional music in the former Yugoslavia was at high tide, and sevdah held a special place for her. For her, sevdalinke were the most beautiful of songs. Amira’s fascination with the beauties of the oral tradition of Bosnia and Herzegovina led her to devote herself to creating a special artistic language, a language which was not subject to new musical fashions, or compromised to fit existing models.

Besh o DroM was formed in 1999 in Budapest, Hungary. This Hungarian band combines Hungarian folk elements with Balkan music into waves which are meant to collapse all our senses. The band does not confine itself to the Balkan category, but draws its musical inspiration from Jewish, Afghan, Egyptian, Lebanese, Armenian, Bulgarian, Romanian and Greek tunes, presenting folk and electronic instrumentals simultaneously. More: www.beshodrom.hu.

The Rootsman is a musician and DJ based in Bradford, England. His musical career began when he was living in Edinburgh, Scotland and taught himself to play guitar in 1978 at the age of 13 and formed his first punk band. With his group "State Oppression" he made his debut gig in 1981, supporting the Angelic Upstarts. After 3 concerts, he decided that being a guitarist in a band was not for him and he retired from that aspect of the music business.