Gypsy in a Tree

Sanda Weigl has a strong, warm voice with a touch of grit – just right for the lautari Gypsy songs she sings from her native Romania. She performed on TV as a child, but eventually left Romania for East Germany where she joined a rock band. She was imprisoned and then deported to West Germany after speaking out against the regime. Since the early 90s she's been in New York working in a variety of venues and with a range of musicians. Her album Gypsy Killer was reviewed in #74.

On Gypsy in a Tree, Sanda (as she now seems to call herself) is working with a trio of Japanese musicians on piano and accordion, electric bass and percussion. Percussionist Satoshi Takeishi is credited as artistic producer. I don't particularly like the jaunty style of the piano arrangements here, which inhabit a curious world in between cabaret and jazz. The more traditional arrangements, like that of the love song ‘Saraiman’, with accordion, or the more experimental ones such as ‘Un Tigan Avea o Casa’, with fragments of klezmer clarinet, are preferable. Sanda is clearly an accomplished performer, but I'd recommend newcomers to start with Gypsy Killer's songs from Maria Tanase's repertoire, accompanied by some marvellous guitar, cimbalom, violin and percussion playing.