Mahala Rai Banda
Shaped in the Gypsy ghettos around Bucharest, Mahala Rai Banda (literally Noble Band from the Ghetto), combines a surprising array of trends and styles. Once you delve down into the history of the place, surprise gives way to fascination as all the pieces slowly fit together.
The Mahala gravitates around two poles, a family core close to that of Taraf de Haidouks, and the brass section which is family with Fanfare Ciocarlia.
The first are the sons of the generation that left the little village of Clejane to settle down in the ghettos on the outskirts of Bucharest, grandsons of the late Neacsu. They are between 20 and 25 years old who have grown up playing music and having avoided the pitfalls of drugs and gangs, make a living by playing at Romanians' weddings. Living on the outskirts of a city they have been doused in modern culture which gives their otherwise traditional repertoire a pop twist.
The second, Gypsies from the tiny village Zece Prajini, are partly family with Fanfare Ciocarlia. While Fanfare Ciocarlia was touring since 1996 the world their brothers continued to play at the Romanians’ weddings where they met their later colleagues of Mahala Rai Banda and started to combine their amazing talent of performing wild brass music with the youngsters from Bucharest.
The power of the brass band versus young city-dwelling traditional Gypsy musicians definitely guarantees for a blend quite extraordinary!
