Papasov, Ivo/Legends of Bulgarian Wedding Music - Together Again
SKU
28-TRADITIONALCROSSROADS4330
Clarinetist Ivo Papasov founded the style of contemporary wedding music in Bulgaria, which wedded high energy rock rhythms to traditional folk forms of Bulgaria became a huge hit in Bulgaria. He became hugely popular in Bulgaria; if you were anyone of renown or of wealth, Ivo and his amazing band performed at your wedding. But because he dared to screw around with these traditonal forms of music (and also probably because he was of Roma (gypsy) ancestry), he and his fellow musicians were arrested, imprisoned and were about to be sent to a labor camp when they won a reprieve, but he and the band continued to be harrased by the authorities. In the new democratic society of the 1990s, the band were no longer harrassed and were now perceived as a great cultural assett, but too little too late, as a number of the musicians moved to the USA, happy to escape. Basically as breathtaking as they ever were! Recommended! "A Historic reunion of the superstars of Bulgarian "wedding music", a kinetic, rhythm-bending cultural force that ricocheted across Southeastern Europe in the 1970's and 80's. Built upon virtuosic technique, inventive improvisation, rapid tempos, and daring key changes, "wedding music" is based in Balkan folk music and infused with a reveting mix of jazz and rock, Gypsy, Turkish and Indian music, and pure testosterone. Ivo Papasov, Yuri Yunakov, Neshdo Neshev and Salif Ali together created and embodied this explosive sound becoming national icons in the years leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now, afer a decade on separate continents, they've joined forces again reinventing regional dances and melodies with their legendary breathtaking flair."
- LabelTraditional Crossroads