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Welcome to
our English language magazine page where you will find articles
on the music, interviews with the musicians and more... |
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Nicolae Feraru:
Gypsy Timbal player |
| Romanian Gypsy
Nicolae Feraru is a maestro of the Cimbalom, or Timbal to give it its Romanian name. He has toured almost 50 different countries playing Romanian and Gypsy folk music and recorded with many leading orchestras, with two albums released (c1974 and 1984) on Electrecord being credited to him.
Here Nicolae tells his own story of being Gypsy and
playing the Timbal. More>> |
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Potta Géza - Születtem mint prímás... Born like a prímás...
by
Péter Árendás |
| This article was first published by the folk music ensemble Ifjú Szivek Magyar Táncegyüttes (Ifjú Szivek Hungarian Dance Group).
It is a profile of the rural Gypsy violinist, or prímás, Géza Potta from a village on the Hungarian-Slovakian border. The text refers to his solo CD, available here. Special thanks to Konrad Rigo for permission to re-produce this article. More>> |
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The Bulgarian National festival of Folklore
Koprivshtitsa – August 2005
Liz Mellish and Nick Green |
| Koprivshtitsa
festival is one of the largest folk festivals held in the
Balkans and is also one of the best known among folklore
enthusiasts. The festival is held at the beginning of August in
the Voivodets meadows above the museum village of Koprivshtitsa
in the Stara Planina Mountains. It usually lasts 3 days, and is
the culmination of local folk festivals held throughout Bulgaria
in the preceding months. More>> |
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Interview with
Yves Moreau
Bulgarian Folk Music expert |
| French-Canadian Yves Moreau is an acknowledged expert in Bulgarian folk and dance music.
In addition to his many workshops on the subject he is also active in projects run by such bodies as the US-based EEFC (East European Folklife Center) and the Canadian Folklore Canada International. From the Bulgarian Government he was awarded the Cultural Order of Kiril & Metodi (1st Degree) in the late 1980s for his work.
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Interview with
Mihály Borbély
of Vujicsics Ensemble |
| Mihály Borbély is a founding member of the ensemble Vujicsics, who for over 25 years have been one of the leading folk music groups in Europe, playing the music of the southern east European Slavic people. In addition to playing with Vujicsics Ensemble Mihaly can regularly be seen in several other jazz, folk and rock ensembles, either as a guest soloist or leading member.
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Hungarian Folk Instruments
by
Ermese Kerkay |
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The drum, Jaw harp, horn, pipe, bugle, recorder, zither, bagpipe,
cymbalom, hurdy-gurdy, violin, clarinet, cymbalom, bugle, accordion,
harmonica etc. More>> |
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Ioan
'Popicu' Pop
Folk musician
by
Speranţa Rădulescu |
| This article is reproduced from the Ethnophonie CD release ETHCD006 'Romanian, Ukrainian and Jewish Music from Maramures', which features Ioan Pop and others.
More>> |
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Bela Bartok -
A brief look at his life
and work
by Terry Herbert |
| "Many people think it is a comparatively easy task to write a composition on found folk tunes...This way of thinking is completely erroneous. To handle folk tunes is one of the most difficult tasks; equally difficult, if not more so, than to write a major original composition. If we keep in mind that borrowing a tune means being bound by its individual peculiarity, we shall understand one part of the difficulty. Another is created by the special character of folk tune. We must penetrate it, feel it, and bring out its sharp contours by the appropriate setting...It must be a work of inspiration just as much as any other composition." Belá Bartók
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'Hey
Everybody, Quijano's back!'
by
CHICO ALVAREZ PERAZA |
| Band-leader, crooner, composer and percussionist
Joe Quijano knew how to keep the salsa dancers happy in the 1960s and 70s; surrounding himself with some of the finest latin musicians and arrangers in New York and recording songs that people just couldn't stay still to. For many years
Charlie Palmieri, Barry Rogers etc worked in Joe's Conjunto
Cachana, recording some of the best salsa ever! Now the entire Cesta Records label (owned by Joe) have now been digitally re-mastered onto thirteen CDs. Here Chico Alvarez Peraza puts Joe's place in latin music history in perspective. More>> |
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In conversation with....
Willie Rodriguez |
An
unsung hero of salsa music in New York, Willie Rodriguez
led his own hard-hitting orchestra from the late 1950s to the
early 1970s. Specialising in the uncompromising hard salsa
popular at the time with local Puerto Rican audiences, his music
featured punchy arrangements and strong playing - a
combination that has stood the test of time. A fact ably
demonstrated by the high price his original LPs exchange hands
for on the collectors' market!
This interview is probably the only one he has given, and I am
proud to present it here for those interested in the history of
Latin music in new York and Puerto Rico. - More>> |
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In conversation with....
Chino Rodriguez
aka Chung Mui |
CHINO RODRIGUEZ aka Chung Mui
- Band leader, composer, musician, impressario.
In the 1970s heyday of Latin music in New York you had to be good to 'cut the mustard'. Many of the bands of that time cut an album or two, broke up, went their separate ways and thought that that was it.
Nowadays with the benefit of hindsight salsa music lovers worldwide are looking again to that fertile period and re-discovering those recordings and enjoying the music. At the time it was a localised Hispanic market, but now it is a global appreciation -
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Rubén
Blades:
A Musician By Choice
by John Child |
| This article on multi-talented Rubén Blades originally appeared in the sleeve notes to the Nascente CD compilation
'RUBÉN BLADES - Salsa Caliente De NuYork!'. It reproduced here which the kind permission of the author John Child and the Nascente record Label. John has added some revisions to the original article.
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