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Written in fRoots issue 326/327, 2010
 

NICOLAE GUTSA
La Grande Voix Tsigane De Roumanie
Innacor INNA21002 (2010)

There are, of course, the great singers of Roma music, particularly in slow songs, but much of the uptempo music claiming Gypsy connections suffers from a devaluing amount of crap male vocalising.
     But here Romanian Roma singer Nicolae Gutsa, a major figure in today’s manele music, shows how Roma dance-songs should be done.
     His high-note straining-but-hitting vocals in Romani and Romanian truly dance, always on top of the case, curling and stretching the notes, punctuating the lyrics with rhythmic vocables. The songs, mostly ardeleanas, rumbas and jocs with the occasional slow, yearning doina, are real Roma expressions; one translates as “Deutsch-marks are valueless (compared to you)”, another opens with “If the world were made of paper, Oh Lord, out of anger I’d set it alight; but this world is made of stone, Oh Lord, it’ll never catch fire”.
     His accompanying quintet of Roma virtuosi is impeccably hot and sparklingly spirited, providing at times almost cartoonishly snappy manouche-ish 1-2 1-2 vamping guitar chord progressions and single-string runs over which scamper Anton Trifoi’s hot, edgy violin and the melody end of Marius Gheorghe’s accordion, with outbursts of Remus Carpaci’s alto sax and a touch of organ.
     Mind you, the producer of this album, originally released on Silex, and Innacor label boss is Breton singer and clarinet player Erik Marchand, who has a fine ear for the real good stuff.
     www.innacor.com


© 2010 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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