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Mahala Rai Banda
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Discography · Booking Agency · Similar Music
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| Biography: | |
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Photo by Youri Lenquette Mahala Rai Banda is an "all stars" Gypsy band, which includes players from the rural villages and Bucharest ghettos, and combines virtuoso violin playing, spectacular solos by master cymbalom players and powered by a funky rhythm section.Mahala is the common name gypsies use to designate the areas where they form the majority of the population, and which sometimes develop into small towns. Some call them Gypsy ghettos. Ra? is a word of Arab origin borrowed by the Rom populations which traveled through Persia then Egypt and whose migration ended in Romania in the plain of Walachia. These generations of Gypsy musicians (lautari) are considered to be a sort of aristocracy among gypsies and the term ra? designates someone whose authority or know-how is recognized by all. Mahala Rai Banda literally means Noble Band from the Ghetto. The band has two pillars, a family core close to that of Taraf de Haidouks, and retired soldiers originally from Moldavia. The first are the sons of the generation that left the little village of Clejane to settle down in the ghettos on the outskirts of Bucharest, grandsons of the late Neacsu. They are between 20 and 25 years old, who have grown up playing music, and having avoided the pitfalls of drugs and gangs, make a living by playing at Romanians? weddings. Living on the outskirts of a city they have been doused in modern culture which gives their otherwise traditional repertoire a pop twist. The second, Gypsy as well but from Moldavia (near the Ukraine), have been in
the army all their lives, enrolled at the age of 14, the only way their parents
could guarantee them a decent education. Even though in Communist times
technically everybody was a comrade, an equal, in reality things were quite
different. A darker tone of skin, due most likely to a Gypsy heritage, was
enough for a quick association to be made, sending these youngsters into the
seemingly futureless musical ranks. There, they learned to play a codified
folklore of songs and dances with in-depth classes of musical theory. At the
height of Ceaucescu's reign, there were 30,000 musicians in the Romanian army,
playing at public functions and official governmental events. Now retired, and
on a small pension, they were discovered playing in a German restaurant in
Bucharest.
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| Discography: | |
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Mahala Rai Banda (Crammed, 2004) Suburban Bucharest (Trikont, 2005) |
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| Booking: | |
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Divano Production Michel Winter |
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| Similar Music: | |
| Gypsy, Romani, Romanian, Cimbalom, Violin, Tuba | |
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