One of the Balkan's best-known bands is Mostar Sevdah Reunion, whose 12th studio album Lady Sings The Balkan Blues (Snail Records, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is currently riding high on the World Music charts. The band is something of a Bosnian institution, carrying the torch for updated versions of folk music, in this case, sevdalinka music of Bosnian Muslims.
Sevdah has a distinctive melancholic feel to it, and it is often compared to the blues -- the title of the album, for instance, is a reference to Billie Holiday's classic 1956 song Lady Sings The Blues, but it has more in common with the sad laments of flamenco or fado music. Sevdahs are mainly love songs that talk about loneliness and longing, waiting for a loved one to return, deep, often unrequited love and even arranged marriages. Indeed, writer Rusnir Pobric says that the songs on the album are a sub-genre of savdah, known as kara-savdah, which means "dark love" or "blind love" in Turkish. Heavy stuff.
Mostar Sevdah Union (MSR) were formed in 1998 by Dragi Sestic, a producer, to create and promote Bosnian music through his Snail Records, the band's current label. The label released albums from the band like Secret Gate, Café Sevdah and Tales From A Forgotten City, all of which were well received. Staffed with a core of top Bosnian musicians and guest vocalists like Amira Medunjanin and, on the new album, Antonija Batinic, the band performs at international festivals and trade meets like WOMEX.
MSR's line-up consists of guitarists Miso Petrovic and Sandi Durakovic, drummer Senad Trnovac, violinist Vanja Radoja, Gabrijel Prusina and bass player Marko Jakoljevic, along with guest performers Boris Vuga (accordion), Ivan Susac (trumpet) and Orhan Maslo (percussion).
The band has mined Bosnian love songs on their previous albums, so does the new one offer anything fresh and new? Well, one song that has been recorded before is Moj Dilbere and it is very different from the earlier version, mainly because of Batinic's terrific vocals, which are really emotive (Lady Day would have approved).
The album opens with a new version of the cult song Tesko Meni Jadnoj U Saraj'vu Samoj, which showcases Batinic's voice and the jazzy groove the band creates -- it sets the scene for the rest of the album. After listening to the album a few times, my favourite track is Srdo Moja which is foot-tappingly good. I also liked the only non-sevdahlinka song, the final track Kad Muzika Stane, which was included as a tribute to band member Milutin Sretenovic Sreta who died just before the band recorded the album. A really top album that deserves attention.
The Balkans produces amazing music -- Ivo Papasov and His Wedding Band from Bulgaria has been a long-time World Beat favourite -- but little is known about just how diverse the region's music is. Interested readers should look out for two documentary films -- Stories Of Sevdah by Robert Golden and the BBC documentary The Bridge Of Bosnian Blues. More information at snailrecords.nl.
This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Algerian music pioneer Chiekha Rimitti, who is often called the "Queen of Algerian rai music". She was a fiercely independent singer who helped create the popular North African genre rai -- which means opinion in Arabic -- in Western Algeria, focused on the port town of Oran. She died in 2006 and was known as the top cheikha, or woman singer who improvised lyrics about life, love and hardship. You could compare her career to rebel singers like Bessie Smith in the blues or Bi Kidude in taarab music.
You can sample her marvellous singing on Rai Roots (Buda, France) but if you can't access that recording, check out the radio show dedicated to her amazing life story and music on the Afropop website afropop.org. The site also has a radio programme on the tragic life of jazz pianist Maurice Rocco, who was a resident at the Oriental Hotel's Bamboo Bar before he was murdered in Bangkok in 1976.
