296: Romantech, by New York Gypsy All Stars

New York Gypsy All Stars (USA/North Macedonia/Turkey/Greece)
Romantech (2012)
10 tracks, 55 minutes
Spotify

Eastern European Romani dance music usually brings to mind powerful brass bands, frenetic fiddles or comically trotting cimbalom. The New York Gypsy All Stars take it in a very different direction.

While they keep Balkan Romani music at the core of their style, they look for connections in many directions. That way they find links in the Turkish and Greek music of their band members, and even further afield with sounds from India and Latin America. The two most prominent instruments of the quintet – Macedonian clarinet and Turkish kanun – are an unusual but ingenious paring, able between them to bend around the whole width of styles that this international exploration takes them through.

What really makes this ensemble special though, is the ‘New York’ right there in their name. They’re not just undertaking dry musical research into the roots and shoots of Romani music throughout Europe and beyond, they are a thoroughly modern and thoroughly cosmopolitan band. That means taking cues from jazz and rock, and a vardo-full of funk. Because as well as the wailing clarinet (played by Ismail Lumanovski from the Liquid Clarinets project) and tinkling kanun, it is the keyboards and bass that give the band their driving edge and add a specific acidity that they bring like no other group.

Where most presentations of Romani music on the world stage root the music in its people’s history, its folk traditions and its quirkiest aspects, the New York Gypsy All Stars prove that not only is this sort of music very much alive, but that it is also very much a part of and in tune with the plugged-in and international lives of the 2010s – and onwards.

092: Liquid Clarinets, by Matt Darriau, Ismail Lumanovski & Patrick Novara

Matt Darriau, Ismail Lumanovski & Patrick Novara (USA/North Macedonia/Italy)
Liquid Clarinets (2009)
8 tracks, 59 minutes
Spotify • iTunes

I adore the clarinet. I tried to become a clarinettist once, thinking that, as a saxophonist, the skillset would transfer easily. It didn’t. But I don’t resent the instrument. In fact, I reckon it’s really underrated and under-utilised. Not here, though.

Liquid Clarinets is a culture-clash between three clarinet virtuosi, each from different traditions, but all with a passion for musical exploration. There’s Matt Darriau from the US, a master of Yiddish klezmer and known for his work with the Klezmatics; Ismail Lumanovski from North Macedonia, who plays in a Balkan style; and Patrick Novara, a French-born Italian with specialities in tarantella and Turkish music. It’s not just clarinets on this album – there’s also accordion from Dimos Voughioukas and hand-percussion from all over by Francesco Manna, as well as other windthings (gaita, kaval, bagpipes) played by Darriau and Novara, and they all add their own textures to stop it all from sounding too samey. But it’s definitely those clarinets that are the main attraction.

Together, the musicians guide the album through pieces in all of their various styles, with each bringing their own techniques to the traditions of the others. Their melodies weave around each other like multi-coloured threads, often moving in completely different directions but sometimes coming together to make harmonies so tight they sound like some sort of clarinet organ rather than three separate pairs of lungs and sets of fingers.

Altogether, it is a rich tapestry of frenetic dance styles, melodic acrobatics and calmer, more introspective moments. A wonderful adornment to any clarinet-lover’s record collection. And if you don’t like those single-reeded tubes of African Blackwood, then…well, wait until tomorrow’s Good Album, I guess.