presentazione

11 musicisti + 2 tecnici

Mahala is the common name gypsies use to designate the areas where they form the majority of the population, and which sometimes develop into small towns.
Raï is a word of Arab origin borrowed by the Rom populations which travelled through Persia then Egypt and whose migration ended in Romania in the plain of Walachia. These generations of gypsy musicians (lautari) are considered to be a sort of aristocracy among gypsies and the term raï designates someone whose authority or know-how is recognised by all.
Banda designates an orchestra composed of various instruments (violin, trumpet, saxophone, cymbalo, percussion instruments, accordeons) which belongs to no particular genre.
It is neither a fanfare nor a folk band, but can be either according to circumstance. Traditional music from the countryside meets the radically modernist style of gypsy music from Bucarest, oriental ornamentation, modern rhythms and the more complex rhythms from the Balkans, and harmonies from the Banat of Moldavia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania and Turkey.
Shaped in the Gypsy ghettos (Mahala) around Bucharest, Mahala Rai Banda (literally Noble Band from the Ghetto), combines a surprising array of trends and styles.
However, once you delve down into the history of the place, surprise gives way to fascination as all the pieces slowly fit together.
The Mahala gravitates around two poles, a family core close to that of Taraf de Haidouks, and retired soldiers originally from Moldavia.
The first are the sons of the generation that left the little village of Clejane to settle down in the ghettos on the outskirts of Bucharest, grandsons of the late Neacsu. The are between 20 and 25 years old who have grown up playing music and having avoided the pitfalls of drugs and gangs, make a living by playing at Romanians' weddings. Living on the outskirts of a city they have been doused in modern culture which gives their otherwise traditional repertoire a pop twist.
The second, Gypsy as well but from Moldavia (near the Ukraine), have been in the army all their lives, enrolled at the age of 14, the only way their parents could guarantee them a decent education. Even though in Communist times technically everybody was a comrade, an equal, in reality things were quite different. A darker tone of skin due most likely to a Gypsy heritage was enough for a quick association to be made, sending these youngsters into the seemingly futureless musical ranks. There they learned to play a codified folklore of songs and dances with in-depth classes of musical theory. At the height of Ceaucescu's reign, there were 30,000 musicians in the Romanian army, playing at public functions and official governmental events. Now retired and on a small pension, they were discovered playing in a German restaurant in Bucharest.
An army-trained brass band versus young city-dwelling traditional Gypsy musicians definitely guarantees for a blend quite extraordinary

Incisioni
2007 – Mahala Rai Banda – Cramworld Craw 31