Just in case you didn’t know, Aliah (m’lady) & I are in Serbia, Vranje to be exact. Spent the weekend in Surdulica at the regional brass band competition, Vlasinsko Leto. This is the regional qualifying round leading to the big competition in Guc^a later in the summer. Since most of the bands I love most are from this area (the southeast, near the Macedonian border), this is kinda more interesting to me than Guc^a anyway.
Surdulica is a beautiful little town with one (expensive!) hotel, a (cobblestone-paved) stream running through it, surrounded by green (green) hills. Quite the lovely quaint post-communist town which would probably be quiet as well if it weren’t for the brass bands roving the streets. Yeah pretty much my dream. Though honestly during the day not that much was going on, except on Saturday when there was the parade of 20ish bands, all playing different things, ten feet from each other. And man, they play loud. My new definition of cacophony.
My friends Matt Moran & the whole Slavic Soul Party crew from New York were there too, as well as Sol (the guy who runs Amnesia in San Francisco) and his lady, Shiva. SSP has something of an in with a few of the bands, notably Vranjski Biseri (Pearls of Vranje), led by Demiran C^erimovic`. These guys are my new favorites. I got to see them play for tables of revelers a couple of times in our hotel’s restaurant. Demiran has such a calm, classy, deeply expressive way about him, in both his playing & bearing. He fielded the outrightly haughty & condescending attitude of the table patrons with humor & grace. One guy actually picked Demiran up (he’s tiny) & hoisted him onto his shoulders *while Demiran was playing*. If you can’t imagine being bounced around while playing the trumpet, well I’ll say it wouldn’t be easy. I won’t elaborate all his antics, but I gawked at his rudeness at least 50 times over the weekend. Yet all the players were eminently graceful & unfazed.
More importantly, though: even in these adverse circumstances, Demiran’s playing was so soulful & effortless. I have a new concept of the trumpet now. The music issuing from his horn had all the spiritual content of a Sufi’s ney and yet all the ecstatic open-heartedness of, well, a brass band. I need to spend some time in the presence of this. I tried to approach Demiran to ask for some lessons, but my Srpski wasn’t up to the task at all. But then Matt rode to my rescue: SSP are spending a few days working with Vranjski Biseri in their hometown of Vranjska Banja, and Matt invited me today to join them! So the next few days I hope to be immersed with a master who inspires me so deeply I can hardly express it. I’ll let you know how that turns out….
Hmm otherwise not too much to report. Got serenaded on the Frankfurt subway by some Romanian musicians (who tried to chat Aliah up in Spanish—happens all the time, even though she’s Iranian). Here in Vranje we’ve already found a favorite cab driver (our motel is 2km out of town) who loves brass bands & has promised me some great recordings. Our bus from Surdulica to Vranje was chased down by our favorite waiter from the hotel, bearing our passports. Unfortunately his cab driver was demanding 10 euros for the 8 km chase. The entire bus was in an uproar over the extortionist fare, but unjustly aimed their outrage at our friend, who slinked away with our uncomprehending underpayment of 200 dinars (about 2.50 euros). I’ll just mail him the rest, but I sure hope he didn’t have to walk home or anything.
Ok that’s all for now. Lots of love from a land that feels safer than anywhere I’ve ever been, 10 km from the border of Kosovo.