Folk dancers can effect the quality of a performance - much like any other audience, but maybe more so, especially if they choose to dance up front. They can inspire the musicians, and that's the way it's supposed to work. But they can also be a damp blanket. The latter, unfortunately, is what this post is about...
Much good music at Golden Fest - and the same at the "After-party" yesterday at Drom. At the latter, a telling contrast between two good bands, a solid "Pontic Firebird," not Greek themselves, and a much younger "Balkan Express" (a.k.a., Ork. Zlatni Makedoncinja), apparently from the local Macedonian Roma community. My guess is that the former would have powered through their set, regardless of the audience in front - though actually they were blessed with some very decent dancing. Whereas the latter were more "patron conscious," an ancient tradition among professional musicians. The Express went on earlier in the evening - smaller audience, and few dancers, but the kind prone to do bouncy-wiggly American-style chochek to anything that "sounds Gypsy". Thank goodness that BJH got up to lead a gaida.
As the Express is leaving, I thank one of them for playing, and ask where he is from. "Macedonia" - well, yeah, but I meant locally. I mention "Sazet" band - who played at the Fest the previous two years - and it turns out they are related. Others from the group cluster around. I mention how I like tallava, and eyes light up. "We play that, too." I relate the experience of seeing Sazet in Sebastopol in 2012 - and how Sani onstage had to ASK them to play tallava, and what ensued. And I mention that fabulous YouTube video that recorded the whole thing (minus Sal Mamudoski's initial taksim). One of the clarinetists says he has seen the video many times (as have I). And yes, annoyingly, for the first several minutes, there's a dude in the audience (who was standing near me), screaming "YEAH BABY," over and over again, like he's in a jazz club.
Then one guy says that during their Drom set, they scaled back their act, because the dancers couldn't handle the rhythm. But no sweat, hey, of course they need to keep the crowd happy. It didn't occur to me to remind that the non-dancing part of the audience often has more receptive ears than the folk dancers - e.g., at this gig, with a lot of musicians in the audience.
Later, I pass on to a friend that the previous set had been scaled back - and he tells me how he has sometimes seen the same in jazz, where a soloist may start the evening playing fairly "dumb" - and if he doesn't see receptivity, just won't put out. I may never really know why Sazet didn't play tallava their two years at Golden-Fest (or almost didn't at Herdeljezi). But I imagine that poor expectations about audience reaction might have been a big part of it.
The festival blurb for Balkan Express, describes them as "traditional Macedonian, Albanian, Serbian, and Romani music in a modern and exciting way" - video clip 2013. But at the After-party, they ended their set with Hava Nagila.
Much good music at Golden Fest - and the same at the "After-party" yesterday at Drom. At the latter, a telling contrast between two good bands, a solid "Pontic Firebird," not Greek themselves, and a much younger "Balkan Express" (a.k.a., Ork. Zlatni Makedoncinja), apparently from the local Macedonian Roma community. My guess is that the former would have powered through their set, regardless of the audience in front - though actually they were blessed with some very decent dancing. Whereas the latter were more "patron conscious," an ancient tradition among professional musicians. The Express went on earlier in the evening - smaller audience, and few dancers, but the kind prone to do bouncy-wiggly American-style chochek to anything that "sounds Gypsy". Thank goodness that BJH got up to lead a gaida.
As the Express is leaving, I thank one of them for playing, and ask where he is from. "Macedonia" - well, yeah, but I meant locally. I mention "Sazet" band - who played at the Fest the previous two years - and it turns out they are related. Others from the group cluster around. I mention how I like tallava, and eyes light up. "We play that, too." I relate the experience of seeing Sazet in Sebastopol in 2012 - and how Sani onstage had to ASK them to play tallava, and what ensued. And I mention that fabulous YouTube video that recorded the whole thing (minus Sal Mamudoski's initial taksim). One of the clarinetists says he has seen the video many times (as have I). And yes, annoyingly, for the first several minutes, there's a dude in the audience (who was standing near me), screaming "YEAH BABY," over and over again, like he's in a jazz club.
Then one guy says that during their Drom set, they scaled back their act, because the dancers couldn't handle the rhythm. But no sweat, hey, of course they need to keep the crowd happy. It didn't occur to me to remind that the non-dancing part of the audience often has more receptive ears than the folk dancers - e.g., at this gig, with a lot of musicians in the audience.
Later, I pass on to a friend that the previous set had been scaled back - and he tells me how he has sometimes seen the same in jazz, where a soloist may start the evening playing fairly "dumb" - and if he doesn't see receptivity, just won't put out. I may never really know why Sazet didn't play tallava their two years at Golden-Fest (or almost didn't at Herdeljezi). But I imagine that poor expectations about audience reaction might have been a big part of it.
The festival blurb for Balkan Express, describes them as "traditional Macedonian, Albanian, Serbian, and Romani music in a modern and exciting way" - video clip 2013. But at the After-party, they ended their set with Hava Nagila.
