Conscious dancing: Gypsy and Turkish musical influences in the UK

by

Eva Oddo

Last summer I embarked on a project to create a radio programme about Eastern European music in London. I interviewed various exponents of this side of the music ‘scene’, including musicians and promoters, and the result, a 2 hour mix of music and expert voices, was broadcast on Resonance FM last month.

Something which emerged from this exercise, and which was new to me, having approached the subject with hardly any knowledge, was the prominent position which Gypsy and Turkish music hold in Eastern Europe, and more specifically in the Balkans.

The Roma migrated from the Indian territory of Rajasthan, and have had musical influence on all the places they have settled in, with flamenco, from the Andalucian region of Spain, being the most notorious strand of Romany music.

Turkish music has had influence on the music of South Eastern Europe both historically and at present. Turkish military bands influenced the region’s current brass bands, and they are considered to be the precursors of the rest of Europe’s military bands, while Turkish pop again makes itself heard in Balkan pop music.

In the UK there have emerged a number of bands influenced by the sounds of the Balkans and Turkey. The London Gypsy Orchestra, for example, does what it says on the tin. An ensemble of about 40 amateur musicians, led by violinist Gundula Gruen, it plays folk tunes from Eastern Europe. When I interviewed her, Gundula pointed to the fact that sometimes there is no way of knowing whether a tune is Romany or not, especially since the Romany culture is not a literary one. There is much cross-pollination in the region, so that musicians of different ethnic backgrounds end up playing one another’s tunes. This was a claim supported by other interviewees.

A wry example of this cross-pollination, but which, with the advent of globalization, involves extraneous elements, is the Romany Romanian brass band Fanfare Ciocărlia, which has produced versions of the James Bond Theme and Born to be Wild. Fanfare Ciocărlia, and in general Romany brass bands, are an example of how Turkish and Gypsy music are inevitably connected. As mentioned above, Ottoman military bands seeped into the civilian musical consciousness, with the Romany population taking up many of the roles of professional musicians in Eastern Europe given their musicianship.

Following on from this, and an element that emerged from my interviews with various people, is the fact that, of course, music is fluid and metaphysical, and cannot be retained by borders the way physical elements, such as people, can. Sebastian Merrick, an independent promoter, also highlighted that, while it may be harder for Eastern European groups to play different music from the region (due to animosity, for example) for groups outside, who have no sociopolitical affiliations in the region, it is natural to combine multinational musics, because there are connections between these, or simply because they are to the musicians’ tastes. This is the case with the group Bucimis – the ‘electric Balkan band’ – which plays tunes from the former Yugoslavia, as well as Turkey and Greece.

Susi Evans, the band’s clarinetist, complained of the fact that, although people have started taking more of an interest in the music of Eastern Europe, no distinction is made between different genres, origins, styles, and everything gets piled under the label “Gypsy”, due to the romantic associations which the term still has, but which is simply inaccurate and, to some, misleading. A criticism of this sort was made of the London Gypsy Orchestra, which, the interviewee said, does not have any Gypsy members and does not play solely Romany music.

Accuracy is, of course, essential, and those promoting music in all its forms should be careful to present it in such a way (no, Hava Nagila is not a famous Gypsy track, as it was described on a radio station, and related to me by one interviewee). But music also works on many levels, a friend of mine bringing this up by reporting to me that, while dubstep is really big in Berlin, people don’t understand the lyrics.

As Steve Levi, from Oi Va Voi, said to me, musicians aim to entertain, if not one might as well play at home in one’s room. And given that these days musicians are making their money mainly from live concerts, and no longer from record sales, the visual, performative element of live gigs is being taken all the more seriously.

The London Gypsy Orchestra have a certain visual aesthetic, reminiscent of the bohemian look, and, well, yes, the “Gypsy” look. Cabaret –like performance is sometimes an element which British Balkan-inspired bands incorporate into their live acts and image. This is the case with the Edinburgh-based group Orkestra del Sol, The Destroyers (Birmingham) and The Baghdaddies (Newcastle). All three groups play original compositions and make no national distinction between their influences, with Orkestra del Sol being inspired by various brass musics, ranging from India, through the Balkans, to Latin America, and The Baghdaddies looking even further East than Turkey, as their name suggests. These groups are clearly not partisan in any way, but rather bringers of fun. And this seems to be the attraction of the Gypsy and Turkish music that has infused the dance and live music scene in the UK.

When dealing with music of minorities the issue of proper attribution and recognition always arises. Music, of course, is a voice, but taking it purely as music of minorities seems to reduce it to one thing, when that may not have been its intended purpose. For example, while System of a Down make no secret of their Armenian heritage, how important should it be to the listener? Surely, their music is against all forms of oppression and injustice, without referring to specific historical examples. It seems disingenuous to expect music-listening to be an overtly political act in a so-called free society, where any music at all is obtainable. In the same way that it stinks of phoniness to sell capoeira to white middle-class youth as a means of getting in touch with the psyche of African slaves in Brazil, it seems unfeasible to ask the same demographic group to feel for the plight of the Roma. Empathising definitely, and, as Jovanotti once sang, it is worth thinking about these things while dancing, but probably the main thing is to enjoy the dancing, and keep the activism for elsewhere, where it really counts.