Iag Bari

Fanfare Ciocarlia – Iag Bari (Piranha)
Wow! Do you like horns? Tuba? Well this is an 11 man brass and woodwind ensemble that plays amazing Romanian Gypsy music and really blew me away. There are some Middle Eastern sounds which I think are Turkish and some Klezmer sounds. Some wedding songs, slow mournful songs, upbeat fun dance songs and some playful songs and all are pretty amazing. I read someplace that this band claims to be the fastest of all the groups like this and on some of the tracks they motor (#8).

1. Short, slow, droning track with Middle Eastern leanings.
**3. Big booming sound with vocals. A string instrument shows up for the 2nd half of this track which sounds sort of like a jam session. Catchy and poppy.
4. Fun, short, trumpet led dance. At one point the tubas lead the way!
5. More dramatic, slower vocal track with some nice vocals from the Bulgarian Women’s choir.
6. Very playful instrumental with a slight early jazz flavor to the solos.
7. Faster instrumental not unlike track 6 sped up.
**8. Wow. Short track were they let all it all hang out. FAST with blazing solos. They seem to be showing off a bit and it works.
**9. Percussion to starts this vocal track. The horns do a great job of squeezing in short runs in between the vocal phrases and the solos are intricate. Has nice breakdown towards the end with just percussion and vocals. Romantic feel.
10. Straight forward instrumental with a large group of horns singing the melody.
11. What a dramatic switch after all these fast tracks. This sounds like track one. Slow, droning, with a mournful solo. Vocals are the center of the track.
**12. A slow, sad walk and one of the longest tracks on the disc. Then all of a sudden the track switches to an up beat brisk walk….lots of player take their turns at solos. Then they pick up the pace again and we are almost running. Again after a minute they pick up the pace again. Now we are running. And you guessed it, the last minute they turn it all on full speed.
13. Slowly building drone into a fun gallop. I have this strange vague feeling of spaghetti western but can’t exactly explain why.
**14. Woah! They are playing so fast at the start of the track that it almost sounds like a record at the wrong speed. Instrumental. There is a semi-quiet part in the middle and I love how the tubas, who are keeping the bass line continue to go full speed.
**15. Vocal track with some fun pacing in the vocals. There is even a chorus with some yelling in the background. Fun!
**16. A bit of a drunken dance with a very melodic vocal-like solo.
17. A vocal track. Fun lyrics wishing he could be young again and bragging about how many women he’s kissed. Vocals are the center.
18. Another really fast instrumental.
An AMAZING CD! -mph