Over the course of a career spanning a quarter of a century, the world’s fastest brass band has played more than 3,000 concerts around the globe and released a string of highly acclaimed albums. One of today’s finest live bands comes from a remote village in eastern Romania. They are easy to distinguish from other Balkan brass bands: they play with the energy of punk and the virtuosity of jazz. The band was formed near the Moldovan border in the village of Zece Prăjini, home to 80 Roma families who for generations have devoted themselves to farming and music. Under the communist regime, the region was largely cut off from the outside world, helping to preserve a musical tradition that disappeared elsewhere in Romania. Its roots reach back to the Ottoman Empire and the music of Turkish military bands.
The dominant instrument in these “Turkish bands” was originally the zurna, an oboe-like wind instrument whose piercing sound could cut through even the deafening turmoil of battle. In the 18th century, military bands replaced their traditional Oriental instruments with European ones while retaining the original Turkish style of playing.
The band was discovered in 1996 by German music enthusiast and future impresario Henry Ernst. When he brought them to London, The Times described their music as a “heavy, heavy monster sound.” Fanfare Ciocărlia have recorded ten albums, several of which have reached the top of the charts, and their music has also inspired filmmakers. Acclaimed Turkish-German director Fatih Akin captured their triumphant performances in Berlin clubs, while Eastern European music expert Garth Cartwright writes enthusiastically about the band in his book Princes Amongst Men. Cinematic enfant terrible Sacha Baron Cohen commissioned them to contribute music to Borat, and their tracks have been remixed and adapted countless times by dozens of DJs and bands.
On their later albums, Fanfare Ciocărlia have included radical reworkings of Western classics – including the James Bond theme and Duke Ellington’s Caravan – demonstrating just how insignificant the boundaries between musical genres can be. The band also excels in unique stage productions. Gypsy Queens & Kings brings together some of the greatest personalities in Roma music, while Balkan Brass Battle is a dramatic musical showdown between Fanfare Ciocărlia and a kindred Serbian brass band known from the films of Emir Kusturica.
