Since these two lovely music numbers I felt like writing, are quite different, I will pronounce them happy and sad. See, i’m trying to pretend there is a concept behind this, in order to justify the act of cramming these two in one post. Surely they deserve better than that.

Happy:

Although being the top wedding player in Bulgaria sounds like something Balki Bartokomous in Perfect Strangers would do, it really means being the Bulgarian superstar. Since weddings are the highlights of every Bulgarian’s life, competition amongst wedding bands is a fierce fierce battle and being able to outplay everyone else requires great talent and personality. Seriously, it’s not the same thing as hearing a gypsy band play in a Scandinavian jazz festival. Hell, there are a helluva lot more gypsies in Bulgaria than Norway.

The Bulgarian/Turkish clarinet player was so succesful in enliving the oriental gypsy culture in his music that he easily became a target for the Soviet imposed nationalistic government of his time. He was imprisoned during the 80s and put in a labor camp where people who dissapeared suddenly and never heard of again usually ended up. Luckily he got out somehow, which made him even more famous, now as a political martyr. Oh, they also gave him the BBC World Music Award in 2005 after he added jazz between his talents. In his wedding band, now a worldwide musical act, he has worked with many talented musicians like saxophone talent Yuri Yunakov who is also a very famous wedding musician.

Sad:

The second number is a little on the heavy side, by Erkan Ogur, which i wanted to post very much. Being the inventor of fretless guitar, he has of course made a certain impact around. His technique isn’t only due to the fretless though, some credit also goes to the guitar he broke in an airport by toppling a suitcase on top of it. The sound of the guitar stroke him as a unique fretless sound and because he could never master the same sound artificially, he still uses that same broken guitar he hastily glued at the airport. This is his interpretation of an anonymous piece that means in Turkish “Why did i come to Istanbul” (as in why the hell did i come to Istanbul). Gloom chart here reads: Yeni Raki.

Ivo Papasov & his Orchestra – Hristianova Kopanitsa
Ivo Papasov & his Orchestra – Song for Baba Nedelya
Erkan Ogur – Neden Geldim Istanbul’a