Country of Origin
With millions of music tracks at our daily beck 'n' call, off the cloud like sweet rain on demand, here are a few which I recently cued up in a mood for all things 'gypsy'. We start with a Russian tune by Canadian formation Djelem, from their album Bridge.
Staying in the country but transitioning to a guitar duet, here is "Ayann" from the Pascal de Loutchek album Valse with Pierre Bluteau.
Adding a third guitar gives us options. First is the Transatlantic Guitar Trio with Joscho Stephan, Richard Smith and Rory Hoffmann.
Next it's "Gypsy Eyes" with Louis Winsberg, Antonio El Titi and Rocky Gresset.
From here we're headed for gypsy super group Bratsch with a Romanian-type "doina".
Our next stop become the Turkish fiddler Nedim Nalbantoglu and Romanian acordionist Roberto de Brasov from their L'odeur du vent album with this swingé number dedicated to Stephane Grapelli.
To a dance of different colors, we turn to the manouche guitar super duo of Romane & Stochelo Rosenberg, here with "Tangolero" from their 3rd Tribulations album.
Adding violin and cymbalom to the gypsy recipe points us at Marius Apostol from his Complicité album, with the silver-fingered Angelo Debarre on guitar.
In this livelier metier, it's time for another Bratsch tune "Neuf brouillé" which, if my French is to be trusted, means newly scrambled.
That leads us to Robin Nolan's strutting "Back in Black" from Sin City.
With gypsy style often meaning seamless absorption of tunes these nomadic people heard on their travels, here we have an inspired makeover of the famous "Yalgizam" tune replete with slinky Turkish clarinet.
To close out, there's Dan Gharibian's "Armenian Waltz" to end on a dreamier note.
And now time's up.
