Aj mene majka jednu ima
A song in 9/8 from southern Serbia recorded by singer/songwriter Zorica Brunclik in 1977, one of many songs in which the girl wants the bad boy (bekrija), not the safe one favored by her parents.
Aj mene majka jednu ima
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Bugarsko K4 Oro
A Thracian-style dance instrumental by Ferus Mustafov, the great Macedonian Rom sax and clarinet player. (K4 refers to Klub K4 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.) The transcription below shows only the first six phrases of a longer melody, a chunk that we think makes a nice one-page chart for a Bulgarian pravo horo. We often play this after the Thracian dance song Edru na oder lezase.
Bugarsko K4 Oro
The chart shows the first 1:40 of this. The rest is left as an exercise for the student.
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Edru na oder lezase
On his deathbed, a man tells his mourning kin that all his worldly wealth is less precious to him than his small children and his beautiful wife, Tudorka. We learned this Bulgarian horo dance song, from Malkoturnovo village in the Strandza region of Thrace, years ago from Jane Sugarman. She wrote the name Edru as jEdru to reflect the local dialect. When playing for dancers, Balkanarama often follows this song with Ferus Mustafov’s Thracian-style Bugarsko K4 Oro.
Edru na oder lezase
Edru na oder lezase lyrics
(Sad face: This song does not appear to be available on YouTube. It’s on an ancient Bulgarian LP, Balkanton BHA 189.)
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Jasmina
Written by the Rom singer Saban Bajramovic in the late ’70s or early ’80s, this song is about a bridegroom who can’t sleep on the last night before his wedding and is looking forward to dancing the cocek with his beautiful bride, Jasmina.
Jasmina
Jasmina lyrics
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I bavlal purdela
This song by the late legendary Serbian Rom singer Saban Bajramovic asks, “I waited for you to come to me, girl, why didn’t you?” We’ve seen many versions of the Romani lyrics and trust these. We play the song in maqsum rhythm for the dance jeni jol.
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