Fanfare Zimbrul
Concerts
Members
The group is from Moldavia (north-eastern region of Romania, not from the state with the same name from CIS). It consists in 10 to 15 gipsy musicians playing brass instruments.
The band leader and his brothers (playing the bass and drum) played with Bregovich in Italy and the whole band played with Emir Kusturica on stage at Odissey 2001 concert in Bucharest. They also represented Romania at highest level at Aichi Expo - Nagoya in Japan, as part of Romanian Exhibition and show during “Romania National Day” on 1st of June 2005. Their daily performances (more than 100 live concerts in a month) at International Forum of Cultures in Barcelona 2004, established the band's basic successful repertoire and enhanced their ability to communicate and share the passion of the music with the audience.
(Playing at Cinema Paradiso Club - St. Polten, Austria)
for more photos please visit: http://picasaweb.google.ro/evoineag
The artists are all related to one another. They do not use musical notes. The art is passed through generations by practice and lot of exercise. The origins of this kind of brass gipsy music are unknown. It is said Turkish and/or Russian military bands influenced them during 18th and 19th century wars between the two empires over Moldavian territory.
The band is known locally as Fanfara de la Chetris (former Fanfara din Cozmesti). They released an album in international distribution at ARC Music Int. Ltd. In 2000 - “Gipsy Brass Music from Romania – Fanfara din Cozmesti”. Other two albums distributed only in Romania in 2003 and 2006 , produced by Softplus and Roton.
Actually the band members are born in two villages, Cozmesti and Chetris. The band was named after these two villages were they used to play at weddings and events. After being successful abroad more bands from the same villages appeared and this led to a particular name given to the band as “Fanfare Zimbrul”.
The music they play is traditional gypsy music, Romanian folklore, some new tracks from Kusturica's movie "Black cat, white cat" were added after playing with his "No smoking" band on stage. They also play balkan type music learned in their experience with Bregovich and required by audience at festivals and weddings in Europe. They used to be invited at weddings (as mariachi type band) in Italy especially but they also can be hired in Romania to play “serenades” at beloved balcony or front door.
The band is suitable for stage show, street theatre, marching and playing, luring people from one stage to another. The music they play is wild, loud and strong and attracts audience immediately, as they usually march and play are followed by a mass of people so many festivals used them to lure people from an event to another as the first ended and the second was to start in a remote location.
They use two sets of costumes. One is white traditional (“iie”) shirt with red intricate model and black trousers and red traditional belt, the other is white classic shirt with black vest & trousers and the same belt.
They do not require amplification unless they play in open air for more than 100 people. Actually the music they play is a bit loud for some indoor events, small pubs and clubs so they try to blow more softly in order to manage audience's ears.
The music type is for dancing and entertainment. Some more soft and slow tracks are used at the beginning of the show to warm up and then the storm they start will not let anyone to sit and relax. Rithms are wild and especially young people enjoy the show very much. But they can also play for older audience tangos, slow dance latin american melodies so nostalgic old people can remember the times they were dancing and a whole brass ensemble played for them.
The instruments used are all brass instruments except a middle size goat skin drum: 2 trumpets, 1 flughorn, 1 clarinet, 2 baritones, 2 euphoniums, 2 bass:
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