Taraf de Haïdouks


    Set up shortly after the downfall of Nicolae Ceausescu, Taraf de Haïdouks were initially led by violinists Nicolae Neacsu and Ion Manole, and cymbalum player Dumitru Baicu. All have since died but the band continues to expand and gain in popularity. “Taraful Haiducilor” roughly means « band of brigands, but « taraf » is also the traditional name given to Rom musicians called “lautaris”. “Taraf de Haïdouks” is in fact a French-ified version of the original Romanian name.
    The band’s first contact with western Europe came largely thanks to their exchanges with Swiss ethnomusicologist Laurent Aubert and the Belgian musicians Stéphane Karo and Michel Winter. Earlier, in the Eighties, several of the artists had been involved in albums like Musique des Tziganes de Valachie; les lăutari de Clejani (1988), a record which was largely confined to the circles of ethnomusicology. They were then given support by the Fundaţia Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcas and Euroart, to release further records like The End of the Millenium in the Romanian Village and Outlaws of Yore / Les 'Haïdouks' d'Autrefois.
    It was in 1994 that the Taraf broke out of the closed circles of music specialists with the album Honourable Brigands, Magic Horses and Evil Eye. Their notoriety was largely assisted by the French-Algerian director Tony Gatlif and his masterful documentary “Latcho Drom”. Musicians Winter and Karo then helped to organise a series of concerts in Belgium and this led to their first contacts with music labels like Crammed Disc. Shortly afterwards, the great Yehudi Menuhin invited the band to participate in the televised programme “La Marche du Siècle”, while designer Yohji Yamamoto asked the Taraf to accompany his fashion show in Paris in 1999. By then, they had released three further albums and were being called the “most extraordinary Gypsie Band in the world" by the likes of The Independent newspaper.
    Band of Gypsies, their 2001 release consolidated their popularity. Two years later the Romanians bagged the prestigious BBC Radio Awards for World Music in the Europe/Middle East category. Actor Johnny Depp was flying them into Hollywood for his private parties. In 2007, the band brought out a homage to the great Romanian composer Bela Bartok in their album Maskarada. Despite the range of age in the group (from the mid-20s to the late 70s), the Taraf retain a bounce and rare energy that should guarantee their longevity for years to come.
 February 2008.

Daniel Brown