Fanfare Ciocărlia started out playing at weddings in a small village in north-eastern Romania, and went on to take their exuberant Gypsy brass music to a global audience. They are currently celebrating their 20th anniversary in style. While their best-known Balkan brass rivals, Boban and Marko Markovic from Serbia, have veered worryingly towards forgettable pop fusion, the Fanfare team are still expanding the range of their classy musicianship without forgetting their roots. In the past, they have applied a Balkan treatment to anything from Ellington to Algerian styles, and here they mix traditional Romanian songs with Colombian cumbia, a brassy re-working of Screaming Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell On You, or compositions by Koby Israelite, who adds percussion and accordion. The opening Crayfish Hora shows that their a capella harmony vocals are as slick as their brass work.
