This should be definitely our first day of rehearsal. I
practised the whole morning, firstly the pieces from Asan so I would to not
embarrass myself at the rehearsal, and secondly, Bojana had asked me to join
her gig the day after and play a few pieces. She sang with her trio at the
opening of an exhibition of Hungarian Roma artists. My contribution of a few
real Hungarian Gypsy pieces fitted just perfect. So I got my fingers around F
minor and F hijaz modes, as most of Asan’s pieces were in this typical brass
key, and it’s not very convenient on the violin; after that some finger
gymnastics in Hungarian followed.
I felt very excited when taking my cab up to Topana in the
early afternoon. Everyone, including hotel receptionists and cab drivers felt
very curious and puzzled, when I ordered my cab to this area, as no normal
person seems to want to go near that place. It’s close to Šutka, quite poor,
and the streets are not very tidy. It’s mostly inhabited by Roma people, and
therefore lively and exotic. To the left and the right of the main road, there
are lots of small houses gathered very closely together. In our vision, it
would be more barracks than houses, as they are mostly pretty run down, giving
the whole settlement a rather Favela-type of feel.
Amit lives together with his mum in a small one-storey
house. After an outdoor area, which is full of undefinable items, and where you
must leave your shoes before entering the house, one comes into the kitchen and
from there into the living room, where also his mum sleeps, as I only found out
later. There are also 2 other adjoining rooms, and a bathroom to the other
side. There seem to be no bedrooms, neither beds…
There was no luxury here, apart their smart phones and a
flat-wide-screen TV, and of course all the instruments. It was cosy with a few
of sofas, a picture with roses and symbols of good fortune, and it was very
clean.
After the obligatory Turkish coffee, we started. It took a
while to communicate what kind of music I’m interested in, or rather would be good
to play in concerts in the UK. It was difficult to move them away from the
usual Saban Bajramovic and Boban Markovic covers, which they think would be a
lot better for British or German people then their more specific material.
Finally I managed to get pieces out of them, some in compound time signatures,
and pieces which were specific to Shutka or Macedonia, or which their dad/granddad
who had formed the Orchestra 40 something years ago had arranged and composed.
In typical Romani life-style, every 10 minutes another
relative or friend popped in, mostly attracted by the arrival of this western
Gadjo lady, who played their music, and having a little laugh at it. I managed
however to convince them otherwise, and they soon grabbed an instrument to join
in, or they videoed us on their phones… One of them Serdzo, Asan’s younger
brother, who would play a bigger role in the story at a later stage.
As a starting piece for the concert, they insisted on Djelem
Djelem as their hymn – ME SINGING IT !!!
After 20-something pieces, we called it a day, and my head
was spinning from new notes, phrases and tunes, and from speaking a weird
language, which does not quite fit into my head yet…
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