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

I'm going to a Gypsy Festival at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC, on Saturday, and we'll see if my little flip camera can capture some of the event. It's going to be quite the gathering, with Turkish clarinetist Selim Sesler setting the tone for some wild and wooly music, fortune tellers, and some trumpet madness from Frank London of the Klezmatics. (He has several extra-curricular projects, and Roma musicians figure prominently in some of them.)

Speaking of Gypsy music, a few years ago I was given a DVD of a great little video of the Hungarian violinist Roby Lakatos. He claims descent from the great Janos Bihari, the gypsy musician that had royalty in thrall in the 18th century, and was known as the king of the Gypsy violinists. Well, Lakatos certianly has plenty of flash, and the video was cool enough for me to want to show it on the channel. But the record label was laconic to say the least and was not interested in tracking down video for me. So it never made it to Link TV.  Then, out of curiosity, I looked on YouTube and voilá! There it was. So here it is, if you are curious. Of course, my DVD is better quality……!