Balkan party music in Seattle

Posts made in June, 2018

Moj dilbere

Posted by on Jun 12, 2018 in 4/4, Balkan Sheet Music | 0 comments

A Bosnian song from the sevdah tradition, in what I hope is a sardonic female voice. It can accompany the women’s dance, danced by both sexes in the U.S., called jeni jol. Some recordings include an additional vocal phrase now omitted by some performers, including us.

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Lule te bukura ka Tirana

Posted by on Jun 8, 2018 in 2/4, Balkan Sheet Music | 0 comments

A beautiful song from Merita Halili, the superb Albanian singer living in New York. “Don’t despair, I’m still yours.” Our good friend Greta from Tirana loves dancing to this song when we play it live at Georgia’s, our favorite Greek restaurant in Seattle. We sing it in a lower key than Merita does.

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Voljela sam, voljela

Posted by on Jun 5, 2018 in 7/8, Balkan Sheet Music | 0 comments

A song in 7/8 meter about unrequited love. Written by Milic Vukasinovic, who went on to become the drummer for the famous Sarajevo rock band Bijelo Dugme, it sold a million copies in 1978 and made a star of Bosnian sevdalinka singer Hanka Paldum. We play it as a lesnoto dance tune.

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Osman Aga

Posted by on Jun 1, 2018 in 2/4, Balkan Sheet Music | 0 comments

Muharem Serbezovski sings about a guy who offers to buy Osman Aga’s daughter for a barrel of rakija. Osman Aga’s response is not recorded. We play this as a cocek with disco tendencies.

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