Music Review
Light My Fire is the best composition that Doors created, in my opinion. The chord progression and melody are just brilliant. The lyrics, not so perfect, but, ah well – no one is.
Unique intro, good setting of the verse, excellent refrain, space for improvisation (organ and guitar – classic!).
There is also an amazingly original rendition of the same song by Jose Feliciano
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'Crni Leptiri' (Black Butterflies) from the Serbian band Yu Grupa is probably not one of the most beautiful, but it's surely one of the most important songs for all of us that lived in old Yugoslavia.
In the West, the first thing a future guitarist will learn more often than not will be 'Smoke on the Water' from Deep Purple.
In Yugoslavia, it was the introductory guitar phrase of Crni Leptiri. Its simplicity and naivety was like a magnet for all of us, future guitarists. Read more »
One of the most wonderful compositions of the band Leb i sol (Bread and Salt) from Skopje is the one called Bistra Voda (Clear Water). A sensitive and delicate instrumental on acoustic guitar as well as bass in the melody and electric guitar in the improvisation. Balkan music is beautiful, and with this composition its beauty shines from far away.
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This is a setting of Psalm 51 (music over the Psalm), written for two choirs, 4 and 5 piece. Composed and performed round 1630 in the Sistine Chapel, it was so beautiful that apparently it was decided that it should be performed only in the Sistine Chapel, and nowhere out. The piece is known by its high C, among other things.
Legend goes that when Mozart visited the Sistine Chapel with his father, upon hearing it, was able to write it down by ear. After some time, he gave it to some English publisher who published it. Mozart was not punished.
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This song is released in 1973, in SFR Yugoslavia. Time was a Croatian band. The folk music of Macedonia was always beloved by most of Yugoslavian musicians and peoples. Time was a quite unique, Progressive Jazz-Rock band. In this song they are using a combination of 7/8 and 4/4 (Rock) time-signatures. The 7/8 was usually perceived as a 'Macedonian' rhythm in old Yugoslavia. This is a song that survived the times and remains as an document of the beauty of life that excisted in that country.
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SMAK is a Serbian band that existed in Former Yugoslavia. Pioneers in many fields of Alternative and Progressive Rock Music, with the guitarist Radomir Mihajlovic Tocak as one of the most subtle European/World guitarists ever. The song Alo Alo is an inventive composition using the 'echo' musical element and shows high vocal mastership of the singer Boris Arandjelović.
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The Serbian trumpetist Boban Markovic and his orchestra performed at London Barbican on the 11 July 2009.
They shared the stage that evening with Toni Kitanovski and Cherkezi Orchetsra from Macedonia.
After the one hour long performance of the Cherkezis, we saw 12 musicians entering the stage: 9 brass and three drummers.
They were dressed in the same chequered shirts, with the exception of Boban and his son Marko Markovic. Read more »
Saurday, 11 July 2009, Toni Kitanovski and Cherkezi Orchestra performed at the Barbican Concert Hall, London, together with the Boban Markovic Оrchestra.
It was an evening of Balkan Brass music at Barbican.
It was a summer evening in London, August 2009. We were walking with my wife along Themes. As we approached the Shakespeare Globe Theatre, we heard some nice and pleasant live music. Sounded cool and interesting, so I lured my wife into the posh pub where a trio was performing. Read more »
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