Ajde red se redat
A lesnoto dance song from Macedonia. The arrangement here is from a performance by the great singer Vaska Ilieva. I remember first hearing the song on an LP by the People’s International Silver String band from the San Francisco Bay area in California.
Read MoreMastika
A great party song in 9/8 whose refrain celebrates the anise-flavored brandy known by many names in the Balkans. It’s a Turkish melody with Serbian lyrics as sung by the great Rom singer Muharem Serbezovski.
Read MoreBubamara
Audiences always like this song from the Emir Kusturica movie “Black Cat White Cat,” a dark comedy about petrol smuggling and a wedding where almost anything can and does happen, including a return from the dead. We do the vocals, but not the same musical arrangement.
Read MoreAko umram il’ zaginam
A Macedonian lesnoto dance song beloved by emigres, often heard later in the evening. We play one of several versions of the instrumental break.
Read MoreDada sali
From the liner notes to this recording by Ferus Mustafov, the superb Macedonian Rom sax and clarinet player: “This is based on an Albanian tune that any traveller in western Macedonia or Albania is guaranteed to hear once a day at least, although rarely in such a jazzy form as this.”
Read MoreSnijeg pade
A lovely 7/8 song from Bosnia in the traditional style called sevdalinka. American folk dancers can do a lesnoto to this.
Read MoreLiljano mome Liljano
A dance song in 7/8 well known in Bulgaria and Macedonia, about a girl who’s sick in bed but makes a miraculous recovery when her boyfriend shows up at the door. Take it up a step to B minor if you prefer.
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