Kalyi Jag

'Ciganyszerelem -
Gypsy Love'

Kalyi Jag, Black Fire in English, play authentic traditional Gypsy music and have been doing so for almost 20 years. They are recognised as one of the foremost Gypsy folk ensembles in Eastern Europe today. The instruments they use are guitar, jug, board and oral improvisations.

Traditional Gypsy music sung in Gypsy and Hungarian (tracks 10, 11, 18) language.

Audio CD and CR ROM combined.
CD ROM section has extensive details on the band and their music, including a great video clip!

Please note that this CD can also be played as an audio only CD, starting at track 2.

Kalyi Jag

'Ciganyszerelem -
Gypsy Love'

Kalyi Jag (“Black Fire” in the Roma language) Burns with Passion on their New Release: “Gypsy Love”

by Erika Borsos

Listening to “Gypsy Love” (i.e., “Cigany Szerelem”) by Kalyi Jag ... one begins to understand how the Roma managed to survive for centuries without a country of their own: through passionate expression of their music. Transcending time and politics, music expressed the Roma way of life like nothing else could, since they traveled from place to place. Kalyi Jag brings to life the full gypsy spirit: they sing of cruel fate, lost love, poverty, infidelity and jealousy. They sing about a simple way of life: selling horses at the fair and the thoughts and feelings of being a knife-grinder, who wanders from village to village plying his trade. They sing about a son who abandons the straight and narrow life, breaking his mother’s heart, and about the son who brings pleasure to his young wife by playing music on his guitar. The rhythms are universally gypsy and Balkan-like, they do not resemble any of the Hungarian popular music know as “nota” which is often played by Gypsy bands in restaurants in Hungary. Although Kalyi Jag uses a few modern instruments, like the guitar, they provide traditional percussion using hollow milk cans and other common utensils, such as spoons or  vocalization. The harmonies are typical Roma .. they are hauntingly familiar to anyone who enjoys Balkan music, because so many ”traditional” Balkan sounds incorporate them into their village music. This is understandable as the Gypsies have wandered into and out of all the countries in Eastern Europe ... some settled down into ghettos in the cities or segregated sections of villages, maintaining their unique identity and way of life for centuries.
   
Most gypsies today, can be categorized by where they live: either city-dwellers (urban gypsies) or rural dwellers (village gypsies). The time of wandering in caravans, over mountains and settling in the valley for an overnight stay, has for the most part been abandoned. For the past 100 years or so, the better known gypsy bands have originated in the cities where their talents were utilized in restaurants and hotels, playing music for the clientele. The music which they played was usually the popular music of the day or national music of the country, with violin as the primary instrument In Hungary, the cimbalom (a type of hammered dulcimer, played with a mallet) has been almost universally identified  with gypsy music. Although segregation has  occurred, most often due to discrimination and often has a
negative connotation, it helped foster and maintain the gypsy way of life. On many levels, the gypsies were viewed as ‘outsiders’ yet this fostered their identify, cohesion, and community spirit in a way nothing else could. In the past, music was the only way to maintain the freedom of the gypsy spirit and express universal sorrow and melancholy in the midst of harsh circumstances. Today, the younger gypsy musicians, although remaining true to their roots, are often college-educated. Kalman Balogh, the world-renown young gypsy cimbalom player and some members of Kalyi Jag, Jozsef Balogh and his wife, Agnes Balogh-Kunstler, have
studied music formally. They remain true to the rural gypsy music. The rural gypsies were known for creating primarily sorrowful and melancholic songs. They also used vocalization, such as, repetitive made-up sounds or created rhythms, by slapping ones hand on the thighs, or stomping on the floor. Emotional extremes are the core basis of the origin of these sounds and the music itself. Gypsies can express, like nobody else on earth (except perhaps for African-Americans, i.e., Blacks, who sing the blues)  the pure love of life despite pain and sorrow. Kalyi Jag expresses the eternal yin and yang cycles of life, love and hate, happiness and sadness, hope and frustration as no other gypsy group has done before. In addition, they compose and create songs and music reflective of their roots. The compositions are original and new ... but the traditional sound they create is as old as the gypsy culture itself. “Gypsy Szerelem“ will live up to your highest expectations of what good music should sound like. It is a treasure-chest of music whose roots go very deep ... the expression of the eternal opposites of life provides a universal appeal for people who have eclectic tastes in music.

Submitted by Erika Borsos