Balktoberfest Balkan Brass Band Workshop
Balktoberfest Balkan Brass Band Workshop
with Michael Ginsburg
Saturday, October 3, 2 PM – 4 PM
Location:
St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral
15100 New Hampshire Ave.
Silver Spring, MD 20905
Cost: $20 for workshop (does not include Balktoberfest after 6 PM)
If you plan to attend this workshop, please contact: Beth LeaMond: bleamond@gmail.com
Michael Ginsberg is the leader of the band Zlatne Uste (Golden Lips) http://www.zlatneuste.org/ an internationally known group of American-born musicians playing traditional music of the Balkans, primarily representing Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian and Romany (Gypsy) traditions. Four-time invited guest at the Dragachevo Brass Festival in Gucha, Serbia, the 12-piece band is among the foremost presenters of traditional Balkan dance music in the United States.
Zlatne Uste will be performing later in the evening on October 3 at Balktoberfest, at the same location. Don't miss this opportunity to see this band in the Washington DC area!
Monday, September 14, 2009
with Michael Ginsburg
Saturday, October 3, 2 PM – 4 PM
Location:
St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral
15100 New Hampshire Ave.
Silver Spring, MD 20905
Cost: $20 for workshop (does not include Balktoberfest after 6 PM)
If you plan to attend this workshop, please contact: Beth LeaMond: bleamond@gmail.com
Michael Ginsberg is the leader of the band Zlatne Uste (Golden Lips) http://www.zlatneuste.org/ an internationally known group of American-born musicians playing traditional music of the Balkans, primarily representing Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian and Romany (Gypsy) traditions. Four-time invited guest at the Dragachevo Brass Festival in Gucha, Serbia, the 12-piece band is among the foremost presenters of traditional Balkan dance music in the United States.
Zlatne Uste will be performing later in the evening on October 3 at Balktoberfest, at the same location. Don't miss this opportunity to see this band in the Washington DC area!
New Boban i Marko Markovic album in november
Piranha Musik will release "Devla: Blown Away to Dancefloor Heaven" by Boban i Marko Markovic on November 10. The digital release will be available on October 2.
Clad in a suave white suit, it's not impossible to imagine why urban legends credit gypsy trumpet king Boban Markovic with getting his homeland out of a recent jam: Markovic'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: Markovic and his son, prized protege 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. Their latest album as the Boban and Marko Markovic Orkestar, Devla: Blown Away to Dancefloor Heaven (Piranha Musik, November 10, 2009),flies effortlessly between echoes of the Ottoman Empire and down-and-dirty grooves that would make P-Funk's jaws drop.
Boban's decades of experience are now fired by Marko's youthful vibe-an energy sustained by marathon practice sessions and a lifetime spent with dad on stage. As a kid, Marko put in ten hours a day at home with his horn, a practice that drove Boban so crazy he finally insisted his son stand and deliver with the Orkestar. The determined, then fourteen-year-old Marko played so perfectly, he soon became a fixture in the group.
But Marko has done more than merely play along. Together, Boban and Marko Markovicare expanding the idioms of gypsy brass, as Marko scats ("Devla"), raps in Serbian and English ("Benim Gecem"), and even flirts with flamenco ("Kazi Baba"). All while keeping true to tradition: the lightning-fast melodies, driving rhythms, and exuberant transcendence of the greatest Balkan brass bands.
Of course, to get to dancefloor heaven, you need some help from the Balkans' gypsy saints, the singers who have made and remade the centuries-old traditions now wildly popular worldwide. There are veteran singers like Rade Krstic ("Udre Mila") who Markovic lured out of his decades-long retirement, or Ljubisa Stojanovic ("Kum Boemcina") dubbed "Louis" for his Balkan-flavored renditions of Louis Armstrong tunes and his love of jazz. There are rising stars like Bulgaria's Sofi Marinova ("Soske Sul Na avea") and hidden gems like Mustafa Å abanovic ("Maruska"), a little-known idol of the Serbian gypsy scene. Devla showcases the melismatic and dramatic vocal stylings of these singers, adored at home but little known in the West; the best the Balkans have to offer.
Clad in a suave white suit, it's not impossible to imagine why urban legends credit gypsy trumpet king Boban Markovic with getting his homeland out of a recent jam: Markovic'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: Markovic and his son, prized protege 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. Their latest album as the Boban and Marko Markovic Orkestar, Devla: Blown Away to Dancefloor Heaven (Piranha Musik, November 10, 2009),flies effortlessly between echoes of the Ottoman Empire and down-and-dirty grooves that would make P-Funk's jaws drop.
Boban's decades of experience are now fired by Marko's youthful vibe-an energy sustained by marathon practice sessions and a lifetime spent with dad on stage. As a kid, Marko put in ten hours a day at home with his horn, a practice that drove Boban so crazy he finally insisted his son stand and deliver with the Orkestar. The determined, then fourteen-year-old Marko played so perfectly, he soon became a fixture in the group.
But Marko has done more than merely play along. Together, Boban and Marko Markovicare expanding the idioms of gypsy brass, as Marko scats ("Devla"), raps in Serbian and English ("Benim Gecem"), and even flirts with flamenco ("Kazi Baba"). All while keeping true to tradition: the lightning-fast melodies, driving rhythms, and exuberant transcendence of the greatest Balkan brass bands.
Of course, to get to dancefloor heaven, you need some help from the Balkans' gypsy saints, the singers who have made and remade the centuries-old traditions now wildly popular worldwide. There are veteran singers like Rade Krstic ("Udre Mila") who Markovic lured out of his decades-long retirement, or Ljubisa Stojanovic ("Kum Boemcina") dubbed "Louis" for his Balkan-flavored renditions of Louis Armstrong tunes and his love of jazz. There are rising stars like Bulgaria's Sofi Marinova ("Soske Sul Na avea") and hidden gems like Mustafa Å abanovic ("Maruska"), a little-known idol of the Serbian gypsy scene. Devla showcases the melismatic and dramatic vocal stylings of these singers, adored at home but little known in the West; the best the Balkans have to offer.
