The Music of the Gypsy Lăutari of Bucharest

The Inédit label comes out of the Maison des Cultures du Monde in Paris and showcases high-quality traditional music. No world music fusion here and there's nothing like it in the UK. The label has been quiet recently and this is the first release in five years. It's excellent. The Taraful Bucureştilor (Band of Bucharest) is said to be the only Romanian group playing classic lăutari repertoire of the genre's golden age from the 1960s-80s, as highlighted in Asphalt Tango's excellent Sounds from a Bygone Age series. Back then top Gypsy performers entertained with romantic, tragic and playful songs, generally in a falsetto voice, accompanied by superb playing on violin, accordion and cimbalom.

Here we have 20 tracks, vocal and instrumental, with George Petrache (also the guitarist) and Ştefan Ionel Ionița (accordionist) as the lead singers with Nicu Ciotoi on violin, Gheorghe Răducanu, super-delicate on cimbalom and Gheorghe Petrescu on double bass. The band has been hand-picked by the leading Romanian ethnomusicologist Speranța Rãdulescu. Lăutari repertoire is usually in Romanian, although there are a few songs here in Romani or both, including the comical ‘Mămăliga Brânzali’ (Mamaliga and Cheese). An instrumental highlight is ‘Trandafir de pe Răzor’ (Rose in a Flowerbed). This is something of a treasure then, the only drawback is the occasional popping on the vocal mic from the live recording of the Paris concert in 2018.