September 5, 2022
Comments are on!
I love brass music. There’s some interesting stuff going on in Brooklyn (Brasshouse, whatever) which is directly tied to (inter alia) COVID, busking, bored young men, loud instruments, wild talent, and our region…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTA7Qg6H92g
Dudes can play. See the marching band tropes?
Brasshouse has its roots in lots of things, but directly it inherits some traditions from marching bands, which were a thing in the 19th century, especially in… the Ottoman Empire, which is very much a thing in our piece of the world:
OK, skipping ahead a bit… The Romany (we used to call them, dumbly, gypsies) are autochthonous people who inhabit “our world” of SPREES. They suffered a lot during the Ottoman Empire, and things got worse for them in the 20th century.
Part of that culture, the culture of outsiders and insiders, gets manifested in today’s still quite alive tradition of… Marching bands, loud music, bored young men, wild talent, etc… You see where I’m going. It lives large in New Orleans.
Kočani orkestar is a funky brass collective. They sing in a mix of Turkish, Makadonian, Romani, and English. They are wild, totally wild. Maybe their “one big hit” (hahahahaha) is Siki Siki Baba… The language is.. well, Romany? Turkish? Makadonian? I can kinda understand it. It’s about a father who won’t let his daughter go. “Mean mean Dad.”
It’s about the brass, man, not the words. Oh, and that accordion. Wow.