Ivo Papazov’s Balkanology

Description

From countercultural resistance to world music craze, Balkan music captured the attention of global audiences. Balkanology, the 1991 quintessential album of Bulgarian music, highlights this moment of unbridled creativity. Seasoned musicians all over the world are still in awe of the technical abilities of the musicians in Ansambl Trakia–their complex additive rhythms, breakneck speeds, stunning improvisations, dense ornamentation, chromatic passages, and innovative modulations. Bridging folk, jazz, and rock sensibilities, Trakia’s music has set the standard for Bulgarian music until today, and its members, especially Ivo Papazov, are revered stars at home and abroad. The album reveals how Romani (Gypsy) artists resisted the state’s prohibition against Romani music and fashioned a genre that became a youth movement in Bulgaria, and then a world music phenomenon. Balkanology underscores the political, economic and social roles of music during socialism and postsocialism. Cover Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments 1 Introduction Why Balkanology? Genesis of the Book Wedding Music: Style and Genre 2 Prelude and Golden Age: The Paradoxes of Wedding Music during Socialism Romani Music in Bulgaria Defining Heritage, Tradition, and Bulgarian Folk Music Economic and Social Contexts of Wedding Music The Stars and the Style Emerge The Ivo Papazov Phenomenon Balkanology’s Artists The Political Crackdown in the 1980s State Ambivalence Stambolovo Festivals 1985–1988 3 Balkanology: The Album Conception and Production Balkanology: A Listening Guide 4 Music and Mafias: 1990s Postsocialism 5 Global Balkanology Into the Twenty-First Century Populism and Anti-Gypsyism Into the Future Notes References Discography Index