- Title: ROMANIA: ROMANIAN GYPSY BAND "TARAF DE HAIDOUKS" PLAYS IN SOUTHERN ROMANIA
- Date: 1st February 2002
- Summary: VARIOUS OF BAND PERFORMING
- Embargoed: 16th February 2002 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CLEJANI, ROMANIA
- Country: Romania
- Reuters ID: LVA63NB6ALP6XGGT3QAWI9D4G2MQ
- Story Text: Taraf de Haidouks, the Romanian gypsy band have charmed the world with their virtuoso music for over ten years now.
The band discovered by Belgian-based producers, Michael Winter and Stephane Karo recently received an award in London which was presented by their most famous fan and supporter, Johnny Depp. Reuters took a visit to the place they hail from, the little village of Clejani in southern Romania to meet Manole Ion, the man who formed the original band with his brother many years ago in his youth.
The Wallachian region in southern Romania has long been renowned for its outstanding lautari (folk musicians). 40km southwest from Bucharest sits the little village of Clejani, thought to be around 500 years old. Its population is made up of both gypsies and Romanians. The gypsies here traditionally work the land and make bricks but most important of all, they play music, old gypsy melodies that are passed down the generations from father to son.
The village is home to one of the most internationally well-known gypsy bands, Taraf de Haidouk, formed by Belgian-based producers, Stephane Karo and Michael Winter in 1990. The name literally means Band of Brigands. (Haidouk is a legendary Robin Hood-like folk hero).
Karo and Winter first came across the Taraf's music when they heard a musicologist's recording of gypsy ballads from the region. Determined to find musicians who still played in the traditional style, Karo and Winter took off to Romania in the last year of Ceausescu's regime. Despite being warned of the dangers and even told that the gypsy village of Clejani didn't exist they persevered until they found it, discovering to their surprise not just a handful, but over 200 professional Romany musicians. After spending the summer listening to music from the village they decided to organise a European tour for their new found friends. The problem was, all of the village's musicians wanted to go. Six of the best were chosen including Ion Manole, who founded the village's original Taraf with his brother.
Under pressure from the village the new band swelled to thirteen, ranging in ages from 13 to over seventy. The tour that followed, led to a contract with Crammed Discs, invitations to concerts and festivals all over Europe and an album release at the end of 1991 entitled Musique des Tsiganes de Roumanie. Film roles came next when French, Algerian-born Roma Director, Tony Gatlif featured the Taraf and Clejani in his stunning film, Latcho Drom (Safe Journey) (1993), which musically follows the trail of the original gypsies from Rajasthan in Northern India through the Middle East and Europe.
More recently Sally Potter featured the Taraf in her film, The Man Who Cried (2000) after they performed with the renowned Kronos Quartet on Caravan. Johnny Depp who stars in the film invited them to Hollywood to perform at his Viper Club. Depp, has remained a great admirer of the band and last month travelled to London to present them with a BBC, Radio Three World Music award.
Ion is now 82, too old now to travel the world with the taraf (band) but not too old to reflect on what his life may have been like if he'd not been introduced to music at the tender age of six. "I'd have been a slave, a slave, a slave. I'd have worked as a servant for the rich people here in the village.
Maybe I would have been a thief and for sure I'd have ended up in prison If I'd done that, so I decided to sing."
Ion's music first earned him a living at local weddings, baptisms and funerals. Never in his dreams did he envisage that in his late sixties early seventies, when most people are thinking of retiring, that his music would take him around the globe as the world discovered the carriers of Romania's rich musical traditions.
And as Taraf de Haidouk continue to impress international audiences with their complex musical arrangements. Ion has a new generation to play with on his doorstep who'll carry on the rich tradition for another lifetime.
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