Vranjanski cocek
An instrumental cocek dance melody in 9/8 meter from southern Serbia, played by an orchestra led by folk music composer and arranger Zarko Milanovic. The tempo slowly accelerates throughout.
Vranjanski cocek
The original recording isn’t available on YouTube, but here’s a nice version of the same melody by Duo Moderato from Beograd.
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Ah ya bibi
A hot dance tune from Fanfare Ciocarlia, the internationally popular Rom brass band from northeast Romania, on their 1998 debut CD Radio Prascani. I wonder if the name is related to the Arabic word habibi, “beloved one.”
Ah ya bibi
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Song for Baba Nedelya
Here is a pravo horo dance song from Thrace, Bulgaria, recorded in 1991 by singer Maria Karafizieva, accompanied by her husband, Ivo Papazov, and his legendary Bulgarian Rom wedding band. This simple transcription shows only the basic instrumental and vocal melodies – listen to the recording for its vocal and instrumental ornamentation, rhythmic inventiveness and mind-boggling clarinet solo.
Baba Nedelya
Baba Nedelya lyrics
(The video graphics are a mystery.)
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Lidija
This song was a hit for Serbian singer Branka Sovrlic in 1990. It has also been recorded by the Yuri Yunakov Ensemble in New York with vocalist Carol Silverman, who sings slightly different lyrics. We learned the song from her, but the chart below uses Branka Sovrlic’s lyrics (note that the second line of the chorus uses different words after each verse). We play it as a cocek.
Lidija
View high-resolution PDF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EsyEk0S5u8
(The video won’t embed, for some reason)
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