Cudna jada od Mostara grada
A Bosnian sevdalinka song about the tribulations of young love. We play this for listening, not for a particular dance, though the first video shows a line of women doing a simple kolo.
Read MoreHanuma
A Bosnian sevdalinka song about marrying a girl on her 16th birthday. We’ve played this as a tango and, with a maqsum beat, as a jeni jol.
Read MoreNazad, nazad mome Kalino
Fatal Attraction in Bulgaria: The other woman refuses to take no for an answer. We play this as a lesnoto dance song in 7/8.
Read MoreBelmont
A hot dance instrumental written by Yuri Yunakov, a Bulgarian Rom virtuoso on alto sax and clarinet, who used to play with Ivo Papazov’s legendary Bulgarian wedding band and now lives in New York. We play it as a cocek.
Read MoreMoj dilbere
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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