Tag Archives | Romani

Lots of Love for Lautari

All Around This World adores lautari, and so should you.

The Romani are an ethnic group generally believed to have originated in northwestern India over 2300 years ago and to have migrated westward, ending up in most regions of Europe. For centuries many European Roma lived outside the mainstream, dwelling in impermanent “squatter” communities or in small, economically depressed villages — sometimes due to discrimination, other times, to maintain their own culture, by choice. Despite being held at arms’ length, Roma musicians, especially those from a sprawling “clan” of virtuosos known as “lautari,” like those see in this video, who earned respect due to their their musical prowess. All Around This World certainly respects them; especially the way they carry two millennia of music wherever the go.

Klezmer is Cool and the Roma Rock

This week in our online class we depart from our usual country-by-country routine to go off the beaten track with the Roma/Romani people and with Ashkenazic (Central and Eastern European-descended) Jews. Both groups have lived at one point or another in almost ever corner of Eastern Europe, and have been evicted from the same. Both groups have long histories full of unfathomable struggle, yet have somehow managed to survive. Both make music that bursts with joy and at the very same time can be so, so sad.

Let the Old Man Dance

This week in class we sing “Amari Szi Amari,” a song that is a favorite in Romani communities around Europe, especially during weddings. In this Romani dance song the family welcomes a new daughter-in-law and implores the patriarch to do a dance to get the party started. In our version we sing, “Amari szi, amari, Amari szi Amarai, Ay dai dai dai dai dai dai dai dai dai, Let the old man dance, let the old man dance. Let the old man dance,” and then, “Ay dai dai dai dai dai dai dai dai dai!”

Snapping, Clapping and Slapping our Shoes

Romani dancing in traditional Roma communities is ubiquitous, an overflowing embodiment of joy.

There are organized Roma dances but the informal and improvised snapping, clapping and general glee we see in this video make us want to dance too. This video of Roma dancing in Transylvania, Hungary, will inspire you to hop to your feet. (A note: the term “gypsy,” long associated with the Roma and included in this video title, is pejorative and one we don’t use in class.)

Bravo for the Brigands

In class this week we raved about Roma musicians and may have even name-checked one of our very favorite Roma band, Taraf de Haidouks — “Band of Brigands.”

Taraf de Haidiouks is composed of 11 Roma musicians from the town of Clejani, Romania. Celebrating Roma music gives us a chance to marvel at our friendly brigands’ spirit as they channel centuries of Roma survival in every song. In this video, “Rustem,” these virtuosos strut their stuff.

We Traffic in Joy

This week in class we we learned about two infamously musical peoples, the Roma and the Jews, so how can we not dance? In this video I do some informal Romani-style dancing — ’tis true, I do it terribly — and teach “the grapevine,” the most basic of basic steps one may use to dance to klezmer. Remember, our mission when we dance in class is not perfection! Technically we’re terrible; we traffic in joy.

Classic Klezmer Standoff from “Train of Life”

Today we ride the “Train of Life,” and make joyous music as we do.

We can surely all get along, at least if we’re making music! In this exuberant clip from “Zug des Lebens” (“Train of Life,”) Jewish and non-Jewish, presumably Roma, musicians find common ground in song. (The party really kicks in at about 1:30.) The 1998 film, a French-language collaboration between French, Belgian, Dutch, Israeli and Romanian filmmakers and musicians, tells the tale of Jewish village’s attempt to escape the Holocaust by masquerading as a Nazi transport train while really heading away from the concentration camps, toward Palestine.

Before the Romani were Romani

We start our bonus week in Rajasthan, a state in India’s northwest. Rajasthan (“Land of Kings”) is India’s largest state by area though not by population, in part because its land includes the vast Thar Desert. The state is known for its vibrant ghoomar dancing, epic folk songs and colorful embroidery and block print art. It also home to several wildlife refuges — a great place to see tigers — and is potentially the ancestral land of the Romani people, who migrated westward and now mainly live in Europe.