[Dixielandjazz] not OKOM, (or Dixie) but Wild!: Boban Markovic Orkestar

[David Richoux]

Hi all,

There is a band from "The Balkans" called the Boban Markovic Orkestar 
that is touring through Northern California right now - their main 
performance will be at the Monterey Jazz Festival next week but they 
will also be at a few other venues in the area. I had not heard of them 
before, even though I do try to keep up with all sorts of "world brass" 
but I am sure glad I bought two of their CDs! This group is based in 
the more traditional Eastern European Brass ensemble style but mixes in 
elements of both further eastern and more western styles of music and 
it is quite WILD! The CD producers call it Gypsy Brass but it is more 
complicated than that.

The instrumentation usually is: 4 flugelhorns, 4 tenor horns ( I think 
these are what we call Euphoniums, Baritones and Alto Horns - not what 
used to be called Tenor Horns in the USA and UK - more of a mixed 
range) , 1 Helicon tuba and 3 drummers and many other instruments drop 
in on the recordings. Tempos range from slow ballads to super speed 
dance tunes in time signatures that still count as "odd" for most 
western ears. Don Ellis tried to introduce this flavor of 
jazz/folk/brass/ back in the 1960s and there have been a few bands in 
the US that have also brought this style to us (Les Misérables from the 
1980s and Zlatne Uste more recently, and a new mixed tradition group 
Klezmer Brass AllStars are just a few - look for them!)

Anyway, there are whole different worlds of "sort of OKOM"  out there - 
it is not an easy thing to learn and the audience is slow to grow, but 
it is some wild and crazy, fun stuff to listen to - even if you don't 
understand the lyrics or know how to clap along in 21 beats per 
measure.

I think "everybody" will be talking about this group after their 
Monterey performance - check out what happened a few years ago when 
they were in New York City: 
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/creviews/c1002_02.htm

I know King Oliver or Jelly Roll probably never heard of any kind of 
Balkan Brass Band but that  does not stop this from being interesting 
music, IMHO...

Dave Richoux