Balkan Night Northwest 2015

The fourth annual Balkan Night Northwest brings together an astonishing array of music and dance from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Greece, along with the raging sounds of Romany (Gypsy) brass. The 2015 Balkan Night NW showcases Serbia and Macedonia, via virtuoso accordionist Chris Bajmakovich and his hand-picked troupe of master musicians, along with local favorites Orkestar Zirkonium, Dragi Spasovski, Christos Govetas and Dromeno, The Bucharest Drinking Team, Eurodanceparty USA, and many, many more.

I don’t know much about Balkan music and the Balkan scene here in Seattle. In order to get familiar with this mysterious genre I decided to reach out to Eurodanceparty USA member, Anne Matthews, to get the scoop.

Balkan Night Northwest: Balkan Mardi Gras!
February 21st,
Buy tickets here!

Balkan Night Northwest: Balkan Mardi Gras! February 22nd,
Buy tickets here!

the mixtape: Can you give me a little bit of the background of what exactly Balkan music is and its origin?

Anne Matthews: The umbrella term “Balkan music” covers the huge variety of traditional and new sounds from Southeastern Europe: Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Turkey, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Romania, and so on. In popular-music contexts, people sometimes use the broad term “Balkan music” to refer to something more specific – for instance, Romani brass band music – but it’s far more diverse than one musical tradition.

In many of the region’s styles of music, you’ll find songs in odd time signatures (with, five, seven, nine, and eleven or more beats per measure) as well as more familiar dance forms and progressions. A lot of the styles feature lightning-fast vocal and instrumental ornamentation; some stand out via emotive melodies, harmonies, and chords; and frequently you encounter the lovely and complex melodic influences of Turkish music, Indian music, Middle Eastern music, or klezmer.

tm: You are involved in the Balkan music scene in a big way. How did you get involved with the Balkan music scene and what does it mean to be a part of this community?

AM: The Balkan music scene in Seattle is a welcoming place – a bunch of people whose delight in Balkan, or Balkan-influenced, music is a huge gift. People aged eight to eighty show up to the all-ages shows, and they drink and eat good food and hold hands and dance. Even if you don’t know the steps, folks welcome you in and encourage you as you stumble along.

I gravitated toward this genre of music in 2004, when I first heard Romani brass bands like Fanfare Ciocarlia and the amazing choral harmonies of groups like Le Mystere de Voix Bulgares. In 2005, I joined a local Balkan-influenced brass band called Orkestar Zirkonium. I started out playing a bass drum; later, I began learning davul (a traditional Turkish bass drum). Zirkonium plays American adaptations of Romani brass songs from Serbia, Macedonia, and elsewhere. Some of us, including myself, also compose music influenced by that tradition.

In the 2000s I’d formed a foreign-language song duo called the Lonely Coast with Valerie Holt, a singer and former bandmate from the Infernal Noise Brigade; we learned a handful of Albanian and Bulgarian folk songs and Valerie also knew some great Bosnian and Serbian songs from her time with a local Balkan women’s choir, Dunava. In 2013, Valerie and I joined forces with some fellow musicians to form an electronic folk-pop band called Eurodanceparty USA. We wear sequins, Valerie & I sing in harmony and dance, the instrumentalists play blistering melodic lines, and we all have a great time onstage.

tm: How prominent is the Balkan music scene in Seattle?

AM: Seattle is infinitely lucky to have a community of great longtime musicians and folklorists – Macedonian musical treasure Dragi Spasovski, the incredible Bulgarian folk dancer and singer Daniela Ivanova, the brilliant Greek-American musicians of the Govetas-Hunter family, Croatian-American tamburist-accordionist John Morovich, Bulgarian-music choral director Mary Sherhart, prolific folklorist Martin Koenig. Those folks and others have put decades of work and love into nurturing local Balkan-music audiences. There’s also a terrific community of dancers who put on really fun regular public events that include dance lessons for the general public.

Because of their efforts, the scene is growing. Great longtime bands (Dromeno, Balkanarama, Makedonians) now throw down alongside newer bands like the Bucharest Drinking Team (a sports-&-alcohol-themed party band), the m9 (contemporary Serbian Roma brass), and the Fetatones (vintage Greek pop).

Some wonderful public-radio DJs in town also do a lot of work supporting and promoting different types of Balkan music – Steve Ramsey, John Gilbreath (both at KBCS), and KEXP’s DJ Darek Mazzone all come to mind. There are terrific organizers in the scene who get more and more people out to enjoy this music. Last month, this year’s Balkan Night Northwest organizers put together a benefit show at the Crocodile with five bands on the bill, and the place was packed. People were having a great time. Audience members took off their pants. The bands were so surprised and gratified – we kept turning to each other and saying, “Whose fans are these? I don’t recognize anyone!”