Fanfare Ciocărlia, A Retrospective [part 6/6]

Wendell Berry: "What I stand for is what I stand on"; Fanfare Ciocărlia: "What we play is played upon sacks of potatoes"? (photo © Arne Reinhardt) As I stated in part 2, I'm all but certain that I discovered Taraf de Haïdouks by stealing their music in a shot-in-the-dark gesture

From the Gutter of The Lounge Lizards' Confidence Schmuzic to Fanfare Ciocărlia and the Peak of Music [part 5/6]

The sounds of the Romanian countryside, unleashed by Fanfare Ciocărlia for twenty years and counting (photo © Arne Reinhardt) As put by Ioan Ivancea, the late patriarch of the Romanian Gypsy brass band Fanfare Ciocărlia, Our ancestors were serfs for the local Boyar from Dagița [a neighbouring village] and were

Bands of Gypsies, Assisting us in Achieving Harmony in the Face of Collapse [part 4/6]

Fanfare Ciocărlia's lead vocalists (and trumpet players) Rădulescu Lazăr and Costică "Cimai" Trifan, as well as the late Ioan Ivancea Back before I'd discovered Fanfare Ciocărlia and was (almost contently) listening to nothing but Taraf de Haïdouks, Kočani Orkestar, and their Band of Gypsies combo act, I spent some time

Onwards to Mars, or Onwards to the (Ten) Fields? [part 3/6]

When I finally made the first steps to end my abstention after more than ten years in the "musical wilderness" – where I of course overheard music on many occasions but didn't actually own any myself nor even so much as turn on a radio – there really wasn't any