Washington Post,
CD Review
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The U.S.-based likes of Balkan Beat Box, Gogol Bordello and Slavic Soul Party have done much in recent years to introduce the irrepressible sounds of southeastern Europe into the pop mainstream. As this exultant offering from Serbian trumpet virtuoso Boban Markovic and his son and protege Marko attests, those bands are drinking from a deep and abiding wellspring.
Though steeped in their homeland's rich brass band tradition, the Markovics and their Orkestar aren't kid-glove preservationists. Bending, twisting and stomping all over their native music, as well as that of places such as Spain, Africa and the Middle East, theirs is an ever-evolving hybrid, an ebullient fusion of jazz, funk and gypsy rhythms that does more than deliver on the promise of their CD's title. The record at times sounds like the Balkan answer to a cross between Louis Armstrong's groundbreaking early combos and the on-the-one funk of James Brown and George Clinton.
Swirling horn choruses and frenetic cadences abound, along with plenty of shouting, trilling voices. "Kazi Baba" weds a ska backbeat to spoken-word vocals and the occasional hip-hop breakbeat. Another hiccupping vamp, "Hopa Cupa," is played at such a runaway pace that the music sounds as though it's speeding up. The accordion- and sax-sweetened title track suggests the second-line rhythms of New Orleans and features the younger Markovic's scatting vocals; he raps on the head-bobber "Sljivovica."
The word "Devla" is a Serbian shriek of delight, the equivalent of the English phrase "Oh, my God!" The expression is bound to be on the lips of anyone who hears this glorious record.
11/16/09
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