f50
Dragi with Klapa Reful Split interesting for Western people.” “N Šesti´ ZEN AND THE ART OF BANJO
The Derroll Adams story begins with growing up in the back seats of cars in 1930s America, listening to early country and old-time music on the radio. The 1950s found him on the West coast where he wrote his celebrated song Portland Town and his life intersected with Pete Seeger, Odetta, Guy Carawan, Woody Guthrie, James Dean, Lord Buckley and eventually Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, who he came to Europe in 1957, never to go back.
He became a folk hero in Britain and Europe in the 1960s, appearing in the Bob Dylan Don’t Look Back film and with fans of his zen banjo playing and singing including Donovan, Bert Jansch, Wizz Jones, Billy Connolly, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane, Long John Baldry and many more. In 1972 he recorded his best album, Feelin’ Fine, for cult English label Village Thing.
Here it is on CD for the first time, in a triple- fold digipak, expanded with six tracks from another mid ’70s release and with guest musicians including Wizz Jones, Tucker Zimmerman, Roland Van Campenhout and Maggie Holland.
Klapa singing is traditional, polyphonic singing from Croatia’s Dalmatian coast. The word ‘klapa’ translates as ‘a group of friends’ and traces its roots to littoral church singing. In 2012 UNESCO desig- nated klapa as an “intangible cultural heritage of humanity”. In the meantime it has become fairly commercial in Croatia, with main- stream singers presenting songs accompanied by cheesy keyboards and guitars.
“But the guys that I know – there are six of them – they sing how it is supposed to be,” says Šesti´
c. “First tenor, second tenor, first
baritone, second baritone, first bass, second bass. That’s it. Just with the soul. And they have one of the last of the great singers of real klapa singing.”
c organised a klapa gig in Budapest in late October as part of the Budapest Ritmo festival, and was bowled over at the audi- ence’s response.”And all these journalists were running round say- ing, ‘This is wonderful. You can really feel the Mediterranean’.”
Additionally, Mostar Sevdah Reunion has come out with a new
live album, Kings Of Sevdah. The line-up has changed over the years. Gone is the raspy cigar-inflected voice of Ilijaz Deli´
c, who Šesti´ c described as having a voice like John Lee Hooker. Deli´ c died three
years ago, and gone from the lineup as well is the soulful Bosnian blues accordeon and clarinet player Mustafa Santi´
Šesti´ c fondly recalls when he first heard Ilijaz Deli´ c. It’s a new group
of musicians who tour under the name of Mostar Sevdah Reunion. But the legend lives on.
c as the bombs
were dropping all around him in Mostar, listening to sevdalinkes performed by candlelight. “In his hopelessness of the situation the music provides incredible comfort to the human soul,” recalls Šesti´
“Here I was, suddenly, I felt all the strength of sevdah, of the poetry and melody. It took me until now, and still does not leave. I started the project in 1998 with Mostar Sevdah Reunion, and sevdah has became my preoccupation.”
Sevdah was the key to Šesti´ came as a revelation to Šesti´
c’s personality and his success. It c, recalling the blues of the American
south, yet coming from the heart of Europe. In war-torn Bosnia, he knew he could sell it to people in the West.
“When they think ‘Balkan music’ people from the West thought of this Gypsy music with oopma-oompa-oompa, you know. Bregovi´
Boban Markovi´ ly different kind of music,” says Šesti´
c. And I had to explain about sevdah that it is a total- c.
“Sevdalinkes are diverse. For example, in fado songs all sound alike. But sevdalinke has various kinds of rhythms, different harmony. Fado is very beautiful music, but now a somewhat overhyped genre.”
ghostsfromthebasement.bandcamp.com
Sevdah was old, and somehow it was new – at least to Western ears. It was a sensation to people who knew Bosnia for one thing – the war. “Then came the first Mostar Sevdah Reunion album, and it was a shock… Diamonds from the war-torn country. Journalists from the world of world music could not believe it comes from the heart of Europe, this type of music. They are world music experts and did not know that there is this kind of music.”
c. c.
ow I am busy with Croatian klapa a cappella singing. It’s a totally different style of music. It is from the Balkans, real – you say ‘Balkan music’. I had a look at these different beats and great rhythms, and I just saw it must be
Photo: Dave Peabody
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