TARAF DE HAÏDOUKSTZIGANITA, A GYPSY COLLECTION
Taraf de Haïdouks are a troupe of Romanian Roma musicians, from the town of Clejani, the most prominent such group in Romania in the post-Communist Era.
They are known in their native Romania as "Taraful Haiducilor". Roughly, this means "band of outlaws", but "taraf" is also the traditional name for a group of lăutari (traditional Romanian Gypsy musicians). "Haidut" or "haydut" is a word of Turkish origin which means "outlaw"; in Romanian it has a rustic or archaic connotation. Most of those who know the band in the Western world know them by way of French-speaking areas, where they are known as "Taraf de Haïdouks."
The group formed in 1989, shortly before the death of dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, but actually they discovered Romanian ethnomusicologist Speranta Radulescu, who first recorded them in 1983 for the archive of "The Institute for Ethnography and Folklore". The original group encompassed about a dozen musicians; later configurations were to include as many as thirty.
Their music both has feelings of melancholy & happiness (sometimes at the same time) and is a feast for the ears and an uncompromised display of the Romanian gypsy sound (except for the remixes, of course). Enjoy this slice of gypsy pie!
Samples:
Duba, Duba... Si Hora
Ostinato & Romanian Dance
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