ROMA MUSICIANS IN BULGARIAN MUSICAL INDUSTRY (1944-1989) By Ventsislav Dimov

Introduction This text examines the music of professional Gypsy musicians that was recorded and presented by the media of “socialistic” Bulgaria as “gypsy music”. This music we will call “Roma” only to a certain extent. It is more music for the others (the non-Roma) and carries elements of the local musical traditions, interpreted in a new modern, urban, trans-cultural, hybrid way. There is no common Roma musical style, nor a special way for creation of musical identity, that would be valid for the Gypsies over the whole planet [Gojkovic, 1986:188; Silverman, 2000:271; Pettan, 2001:132]. And also there is no common understanding about the meaning of the notion “Roma/Gypsy music” [Radulescu, 2004:191]. The same applies to the problem of Gypsy/Roma music from Bulgaria [Peycheva, 1999:54-62] – in the different research, media (according to the labels) and musicians discourses it is ambiguous and is related to different musical contents and images. The common thing about Roma music in the European context is its important place in minority music (the Roma are unique case of transnational minority without a country of its own [Bohlman, 2007:65]) – it is a challenge against the “national” conception, being in constant trans-cultural processuality, openness to new styles, denial of ethnical boundaries. Hypotheses: The Gypsy/Roma music and musicians are related to many ambi-valences. Around the world and therefore also in Bulgaria, the Roma and their music are defined as both keepers and destroyers of the local traditions and musical folklore [Peycheva, 1999:121-122; Silverman, 2000:270]. They are also a common example of creative ethnicity – they quickly introduce outside and new ideas to the local musics, at the same time keeping alive old, local practices [Hemetek, 1999:323]. So, can the recorded music of Roma musicians in socialistic Bulgaria, with its contexts and discourses, contribute to the understanding of the shuttle trajectory between denial and acceptance, criticizing and eulogizing, building and destroying?

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An interpretation of the down-lived socialistic period in the past may be more ideologized than the period itself. Among the stereotypes of East-European socialism (“the communist states of the Soviet block”) are: totalitarism, nationalism, monotheism. So how is the recorded Gypsy/Roma music an illustration of the politics of socialistic Bulgaria to the Roma minority and its musical identity?

Recordings of Roma music during the second half of the 1940s and 1950s During the late 1940s a cultural movement began for the emancipation of Roma music – new Gypsy theatres and ensembles were created, old Gypsy songs were recovered and new songs in Roma language composed, to be recorded on gramophone plates and broadcasted on the national radio’s air. A musical expression of the politics of acceptance of the Roma by the new socialistic authority were the founding of a state’s Gypsy musical theatre “Roma” (1947), the first records of gypsy folklore and authored music by the “Radioprom” state’s musical company and the appearance of specialized radio shows for Gypsy music. A participant in these processes, Yashar Malikov, defines September 09, 1944 as a dividing moment in the development of Gypsy music from Bulgaria – the contemporary Gypsy music was born during the socialistic epoch: the authored swift and humoristic song and dance music [Peycheva, 1999:57]. Common marks of the new Gypsy songs are: they are sung in Romanes language; their authors’ names are known; they are popularized by the media. One of the most prominent authors of the contemporary Roma music in Bulgaria is Yashar Malikov – a composer, lyrics-writer, musician and conductor [Peycheva, 1994].

Recordings of Roma musicians and music during the 1960s and 1970s After Yashar Malikov, a leading figure in the creation of music for theatre plays and Roma musical programs during the 1960s becomes the violinist Hassan Chinchiri (1932-1994). As an author of the lyrics and music of songs, band manager, violinist and singer, Chinchiri has many hours of recorded Gypsy music on Balkanton plates (first of which was published in 1965).

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During the 1970s a new author of Gypsy songs and music emerged – the composer, lyrics-writer and arranger Anjello Malikov (1954) – son of Yashar Malikov. He started writing music in 1973, after graduating at the Musical High School in Sofia. Later he graduated at the Musical Academy, played at concerts and in restaurant bands, wrote music. He is the author of both lyrics and melody of most of his songs. Many performers of Gypsy music became popular at that time (the singers Naza Salieva, Hristo Elezov, Matsa Loteva, Alima Sabrieva, Asiba Kemalova, Nikolay Gurdev, the instrumentalists Peyu Budakov, Hassan Chinchiri, Ventsislav Takev, Ibro Lolov). Balkanton also published plates of Roma musicians from Yugoslavia.

Roma musicians and music during the 1980s’ Although the state’s and communistic party’s politics in Bulgaria, especially during the so called “reviving period” (1984-1989) did not support the expression of minority musical identity, some Roma musical pieces were published during the early 1980s (at that time Tomi and Hassan Chinchiri published the authored song “I am Gypsy”). During the 1980s the mostly published on gramophone plates Roma musicians were Hassan Chinchiri and Anjelo Malikov. Authored Roma songs of that time were also recorded by Ivo Barev, Radi Kazakov, Radoslav Tsekov, Georgi Emilov and instrumental music – by Ibro Lolov and Ventsislav Takev. The so far mentioned musicians are among the most famous authors of Roma music (most of whom with note literacy), whose names remained in the documentations of the official institutions for sound-recording and sound publishing. There are some more Roma musicians who created songs during the 1980s and whose names were not officially recorded, but their authorship is acknowledged in the musicians and Roma circles. Such is the case of the singer Nikolay Gurdev, who made records of his authored songs with the accompaniment of the band of famous Ibro Lolov. On Balkanton’s plates these songs are documented as authored (both music and text) by Ibro Lolov. Similar is the artistic destiny of Mimi Tsvetanov – singer and author of songs, which were folklorized, recorded by other musicians, even included in the Yugoslavian musical industry of the 1980s.

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Many Roma songs (in Bulgarian and Romanes) language and instrumental music (kyuchek dances) were published and spread in unofficial, illegal ways – i.e. the so called demo-cassettes (pirated recordings): home-made cassette recordings with often nonprofessional technical equipment, which were sold at various street-stalls and markets during the late 1980s and early 1990s [Peycheva&Dimov, 1994]. The penetration of Roma music from neighboring Balkan countries became more intensive during this period. After guest-performaces of Roma singers and players at weddings and celebrations, concerts and restaurant programs, during the 1970s (Shaban Bayramovich, Esma Redjepova), came the time of “guest-performances” of recorded Roma music from Yugoslavia through plates/cassettes and demo-cassettes (Sinan Sakich, Ferus Mustafov, Djan Sever, Zvonko Demirovich, Muharem Serbezovski).

Conclusion What is the Gypsy/Roma music, included in the Bulgarian musical industry between 1944 and 1989? A small part of the recorded performances were arrangements of old Gypsy instrumental melodies and songs. Greater, however, was the number of newly created authored songs (some of which related to the political doctrines of the government – “Brigadirka” by Yashar Malikov). The bigger part of the new Gypsy/Roma songs, as a commercial product satisfied the tastes of wide audiences, offering entertaining, dance, and sentimental, delightful music. In spite of the diversity of this music, its development mainly followed two parallel directions: 1) It was related to the local, whith typical Balkan ethno-pop idioms; 2) it had a cosmopolitan sounding, followind the established images of the European Gypsy music. The musical codes of the first line are the oriental motives and the kyuchek dance, whereas the second follows the established before the epoch of technical sound-recreation images of Russian, Hungarian, Romanian Gypsy musics. The first line was about satisfying the tastes of the general inside audience; the second cared more about the outside audience (Bulgarians, foreigners) and a small part of Roma intellectuals. These two lines would often interweave with the same author, performer or album.

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The recorded Gypsy/Roma music from Bulgaria has its own specifics. In spite of the similar political and socio-cultural conditions in the other East-European countries, it corresponds more with processes and manifestations from neighboring Balkan (not so much “communistic”) states, like former Yugoslavia. It seems that the recorded and media distributed Gypsy/Roma music in Bulgaria, during the socialistic period, compared to similar phenomena from Macedonia and Serbia may cause a disagreement to the certainty of some widely established opinions. It is said that during a short period – in the late 1940s and early 1950s – after the model of USSR, the Bulgarian government had a politics for establishment of the Gypsies as distinctive, equal in rights, ethnical community, part of the Bulgarian nation, but later, in the late 1950s a new political trend was taken – for ethno-cultural assimilation with the perspective for assimilation in the Bulgarian socialistic nation [Marushiakova&Popov, 1993:88-89;

Tomova,

2000:306;

Kolev,

2003:146-172;

Marushiakova&Popov,

2007:218]. The processes of cultural assimilation, however, are not simple and absolute. Gospodin Kolev (representative of the Roma intelligence and participant in the making of state and party politics to the Roma by the Central Committee of Bulgarian Communists Party) says that in spite of the negative changes, in the early 1960s the politics for acknowledgement of the Roma cultural identity continued with the founding of clubs and cultural centers; the acknowledging of the first original Roma composers and poets: Yashar Malikov (“Chaye Shukarie”), Yordan Ruschev (“Weavers”); the distribution by Balkanton of thousands of gramophone plates of Gypsy musicians (Boris Karlov, Yashar Malikov, Ibro Lolov, Peyo Budakov, the Ruschevi brothers). A good example is the media distribution of the Roma music – the presence of images of Roma musicians and artists in newspapers. In issue 3/1962 of the Gypsy newspaper “New Way” Serafim Severnayk wrote about the cymbal player Mokollo, and Yashar Malikov wrote about the dancer Asya Ilieva [Kolev, 2003:20, 28]. Roma music was recorded by and sounded on the national radio and the Balkanton plates during the whole socialistic period. According to Carol Silverman, the Gypsy ethnicity adapted creatively to the environment of pressure and assimilation in Bulgaria – even when the public space was silent about the Gypsies, the musical industry spoke with their voices and songs [Silverman, 1986:52]. Its

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messages reached the Roma audience and played their part in the emancipation processes before the NGO-boom of encouraged minority group identity. According to local Roma musicians from Bulgaria, the Roma style creates the specific character of the Balkan soundscape, because it is unique and because it is a bridge between the cultures of the neighbors. For the composer Anjello Malikov, the Roma music from the Balkans is the most preserved and refined [Malikov, 2005:69]. Comprehended as such, in the nationalism of the diaspora, which examines the culture and ethnicity as marking social instrument for self-identification of minorities [Gelner, 1999:135-146], the local Roma music in the conditions of liberalization and democratization after the fall of socialism is constructed as a original institution. Does that inclusion of Roma music in the constructions of cultural engineering make her in a new way vulnerable, when it turns from local tradition to resource for the recorded and commercial pop-music, from micro-music – to mainstream, from individual artistic presence – to claiming of a group identity? That is a matter for another talk – about the Roma music after 1989.

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