Multikultura Festival: TARAF DE HAIDOUKS - Romania
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The third Multiculture Festival, a festival of culture and tolerance, was opened by the concert performance of the Romanian Gypsy band Taraf de Hadiouks. As in the past years the festival organizers have made an effort to bring together an
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The third Multiculture Festival, a festival of culture and tolerance, was opened by the concert performance of the Romanian Gypsy band Taraf de Hadiouks. As in the past years the festival organizers have made an effort to bring together and present the top international world music performers.
Taraf de Haidouks is at the moment the most notable and the most famous Roma (Gypsy) band in the world. The band won the BBC3 Radio award for the Best European World Music Performer in 2002. Manu Chao was nominated in the same category.
Taraf de Haidouks has performed with the famous classic music performer Yehudi Menuhin. By performing with the band, the great Menuhin showed recognition and appreciation for their musical talent. They were invited to play at the opening ceremony of Graz – The European Cultural Metropolis of 2003. The band set a kind of a record having sold out 12 performances in a row at the same concert hall in Paris. A well-known music magazine Mojo published a 4-pages long interview with the band and presented them as an internationally known musical attraction.
The band comes from a small Romanian village of Clejami. It numbers 12 instrumentalists and excellent singers. The name of the band Taraf de Haidouks translates as “band of brigands”. Until 1990 when they were discovered by the Belgium composers and producers Stephane Karo and Michel Winter, they were known only in Romania. Fascinated by their music, Karo and Winter decided to support the album release and organize a European tour.
Their first album Music des Tsiganes de Roumanie fascinated both the critics and the public. The album soon topped the European world music radio charts. The warmth, virtuosity and joy expressed during the performances overwhelm the audiences on their European tours. The band is invited to play at the numerous famous and reputable festivals (Montreux, Womad, Bourges, Roskilde, Barbican Center etc.). Their second album Honorable Brigands, Magic Horses and Evil Eye was recognized and awarded by the German Critics Association as the Best World Music Album in 1995.
Taraf de Haidouks are also known for their engagement in the film industry. They played a big part in the award-winning movie Latcho Drom directed by the French movie director Tony Gatlif. The film won several prestigious awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Guy Demoy was inspired to make a documentary on them for the French-German TV Channel Art. Johnny Depp, a well-known Hollywood star is a great admirer of their music. He played with the band in the movie “The man who cried”, and has learned to speak the Roma (Gypsy) language in their honor. Depp uses these words to describe their music: “ The greatest musicians I know”, “The guys can play music which expresses the most intense joy”, “They have this gift to make you feel alive.”
Between recording and touring, the band returns back to their village of Clejami to enjoy their traditional lifestyle. Their third album Dumbala Dumba was recorded in 1997 in Clejami. Their latest album Band of Gypsies features their friends The Kocani Orchestra from Macedonia, Bulgarian clarinet player Filip Simeonov and percussionist Tarik Tuysuzoglu from Turkey.
For the past couple of years their tours were all sold out, and their performances at the prestigious concert halls such as the Parisian Olympia or the London Royal festival Hall confirm their status as the internationally known concert attraction.
The band composed of talented instrumentalists and singers ranging in age from 20 to 80 years of age, has proved just how much alive and authentic is the Roma (Gypsy) traditional music. In almost two hours of the concert a blend of musical virtuosity of the band members, their perfect synchronicity and Gypsy musical expression has overwhelmed nearly everyone in the audience creating a unique atmosphere filled with good vibrations. It was a memorable event!
