This just in from a friend who thought it was worth sharing.  He's right.
Istanbul's Sulukule, the world's oldest Gypsy settlement, known for its music & dance clubs, is being demolished by developers to make way for gentrification. If you have ever been entranced by the sound of Turkish Roma clarinet, read this and weep.

Good-bye, Gypsies: The Loss of 1,000 Years

Let's get some of the PR out of the way.  Yes, he is currently on tour, and yes, he has a new recording out called "Alkohol." BUY IT. It rocks, it has soul.  What more could you want?

Without question the most successful musician to come out of Sarajevo, Goran Bregovic has brought the sound of the Balkans to millions, first from his soundtracks for such films as Emir Kusturica's "Time of the Gypsy" and "Underground," followed by a plethora of collaborations with top flight musicians as disparate as Iggy Pop and Sezen Akcu, (remember "Prawy do Lewego" with Polish diva Kayah?) and more recently by touring with his "Wedding and Funeral Band."  His music is special to me, just because it touched me deeply during the days after 9/11. It seemed to reach out and say "I know how you are feeling." So I was a teeny bit nervous meeting him. I needn't have worried.  We laughed a lot! Maybe I should have brought along a bottle of Slivovitz.

The video for Jeremija was filmed at the Guca Brass Festival and Competition in Serbia, and if you want to know more about that giddy event, check out our documentary "Guca".

And speaking of Balkan Brass, we have to mention that it's getting to be quite the hip club thang, pushed by Deejay Shantel across the water (as in:Disko Partizani) and other mixmasters this side of the pond as well. --And right here in NYC we have our own Zlatne Uste Brass Band, that can pump it out with the best of them.

I first heard Tamer Pinarbasi play the kanun on our video for Amnesty International "The Price of Silence." Andres Levin, the producer, had him record the first layer of "world music" onto the existing basic track from Aterciopelados. As soon as I heard the results, I was entranced. Tamer just laid down one good take after another, plus it was all tasty stuff.  Later, when I was taping my first blog installment I caught Tamer playing again, with the New York Gypsy Allstars.  This time I was struck by his technique and velocity. He played some great solos, and even his backup (which I sometimes think is as much the measure of a musician as the solos) was great. So I contacted him and last week he gave me a quick interview and performance at our office before running off to a gig in Brooklyn.

I must say I got a bit hypnotized just looking at the kanun and at Tamer's hands...hope you do too!

On April 21, 2009 I went to see "The Lost Fingers", a trio from Canada who do Django-esque covers of 80's hits. The guys were amiable as you'll see in my hyper interview... they took my needling in good stride.

I confess I have a low tolerance for an evening's worth of even a master like Birelli LaGrene, but these guys put on a good show. Tight tight tight, and great arrangements. Plus they all sing, the backup harmonies are excellent (accurate falsettos) and they don't take themselves all that seriously. Highlights were a fabulous cover of "Belleville Rendez-vous," and Kool and the Gang's "Fresh, Exciting."

But of course, I still have to ask (since I think it is open to debate) is Gypsy Jazz really world music?  I know, I know, he's got his own chapter in the "Rough Guide to World Music," but we'll never know how Django's being a gypsy influenced the music he made. And yes, by now there are thousands of Roma out there who claim the music as their own. But there are equally as many gadjé who play le jazz hot.  Feel free to weigh in on this one, folks.

This is Day One: the first installment of Link TV's World Music Blog coming to you from Link's New York City office.
I just got a hand-me-down Flip camera and I'm loving it.  Sure, the zoom stinks, and it has a nervous breakdown in a dark rock club, but really, it's a valiant little thing, and it's also great to be able to just take it out of my purse and capture the moment.  And NYC is full of amazing musicians I've been wanting to interview or to talk to about their music, so WATCH THIS SPACE. I'm also inviting y'all to write in and make this a two way conversation. Hey, I don't want to have to float the whole boat!

04.11.09
I went to the "preview" of the NY Gypsy Festival and caught the first few hours - take a look.

It went on till 4 AM, but hey, I've got a day job, so I just couldn't stay for the whole thing.  You can catch an insightful evaluation of the total event on the Lucid Culture blog.

And my co-worker Deepak Unnikrishnan had this summation:
"Call me clichéd but I fell hard for the dark ambience, the palm readers and certain over-the-top touches of the event. But frankly, none of the props would have meant a thing if the musicians weren’t anything but outstanding. At one point it wouldn’t have surprised me if I looked at my shoes, saw smoke, and smelled burnt rubber from all the dancing." He stayed till they were putting the chairs on the tables.

Like I said, this was a preview of a series of Gypsy festivals to come, so there will be more!