“Balkan” (Used 11 times)

The Golden Festival is a massive Balkan and East European music and dance bacchanal. On January 14th, WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise presented its fourth live broadcast from the event's main stage in Brooklyn's kitschy and fabulous Grand Prospect Hall. The Grand Ballroom was one of four stages, and the two-night event featured over sixty groups. This year, the Free Music Archive will host archives from all four stages.

We're starting the Golden Festival 2012 Collection with the Atrium Room.

Black Sea Hotel (pictured) is the Brooklyn-based vocal quartet of Corinna, Joy, Sarah and Willa. Their set included traditional songs learned under a plum tree in Bulgaria, but with their own distinct twists and arrangements, since many of the songs were originally sung by larger choirs.

Brazda (pictured) is a New York-based Balkan band that plays fresh arrangements of traditional repertoire from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, and beyond. Like many of the groups, they have provided information about each song in their set including translations. I was surprised to learn that "Yiati Foumaro Kokaini" has lyrics that translate to "That crazy rascal, cocaine smoker For my troubles, now I smoke cocaine."

MWE's set of entrancing, eclectic Balkan brass (or "Turkish Metal", as @kentsandvik described) was a highlight of the 2011 Golden Festival. NYC's 26th-annual music & dance bachanal, organized by the scene's pioneers & ringleaders Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band, showcased a greater range of "border crossing" music from the Balkans and beyond than ever before. Its elegant new location -- Brooklyn's Grand Prospect Hall -- was more elegant than the previous setting (a school in Inwood, where one of the stages was a gym). The new venue allowed for more stages and more performers (well over 50!), so naturally the WFMU Transpacific Sound Paradise broadcast team got a little more ambitious and set out to record on three stages where in previous years we had only documented one. The stage we missed was primary focused on choral/multi-vocal acts like WFMU favorites Black Sea Hotel, and fortunately there is video (via David Byrne's blog).

MWE's set took place on the 4th floor "Grand View Room," presenting "Sounds of the Middle East and Much More" (everything is "more" at Golden Festival!). I wasn't able to witness MWE's Golden Festival set live, but a big thanks to engineers Dave Mambach and Mark Koch who produced a great live document. MWE's live tracks really grabbed my attention with their four wind instruments (3-clarinets + 1 Zurna) creating a darkly festive drone beneath traditional Turkish percussion: dumbek (hand drum), riqq (tambourine), and the Davul (large double-headed bass drum). Their bio describes the Oakland, CA-based 6-piece's sound as "about the closest to heavy metal you can get without amplification."

MWE have also offered five tracks from their new demo to share, which Davul player Sean Tergis describes below:

 Varshaver: Varshaver is fully named "Varshaver Freilakhs," which is Yiddish for "happy dance from Warsaw." It's a klezmer piece. We learned it from an early 20th century recording of violinist Abe Schwartz.

 Sirtos (from Yiannitsa): The name speaks for itself but it should be noted that Yiannitsa is in northern Greece and this tune is in 7/8.

 Süleyman Ağa: This song is a Turkish Roman traditional. This 9/8 karsilama rhythm is probably the most popular rhythm among Turkish Roma.

Los Bilbilicos: This is a traditional sephardic tune that has spread in popularity all over the Mediterranean and Middle East.

 Halay: Halay is actually the name of a line dance from Turkey. It is driven by a relentless 2/4 beat, and usually features zurna and davul.

We have only just begun adding 2011 Golden Festival performances to the FMA collection, since there are so many incredible performances to go through -- keep an ear out for more and subscribe to the RSS!

The Golden Festival is New York City's massive annual Balkan and East European music and dance bacchanal. For its 26th year, the Golden Festival moves from Inwood to Brooklyn's Grand Prospect Hall (263 Prospect Ave), for a two-night event this Friday and Saturday. On the schedule are 60+ groups from the Balkans and beyond, plus a dance workshop starting things off tonight, and several stations' worth of craft beer, wine, spirits (slivovica, raki and ouzo), and complimentary "meze" (snacks). All proceeds go to charitable causes. The Golden Festival is truly unlike any other event this side of the Dragačevo Trumpet Festival and not to be missed!

WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise will be on-site again this year to broadcast a portion of the festivities from the GPH Ballroom Stage (Saturday Jan 15th, 6-9pm). Previous broadcasts can be heard streaming at WFMU [2009 | 2010] and with mp3 collections available on the Free Music Archive [2009 | 2010]. Host Rob Weisberg previewed the Golden Festival during last Saturday's program with a live in-studio performance by Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band. North America's first and finest Balkan band are also the founders and ringleaders of the Golden Festival. The live session was followed by selections from Slavic Soul Party, Black Sea Hotel, and Raya Brass Band -- just a few of the many local and not-so-local artists who'll be performing this Friday and Saturday at Grand Prospect Hall. Here's the playlist from last week's Zlate Uste preview session, with mp3's below, plus a mix of highlights from last year's Golden Festival. Irene Trudel -- whose engineering virtuosity helps make the Golden Festival broadcasts possible each year -- also previewed the 2011 lineup during her show on Monday, with selections by Zlatne Uste, Veveritse Brass Band, Black Sea Hotel, Zikrayat and the What Cheer Brigade (playlist).

>> 2010 Golden Festival photo gallery on Flickr
>> 2010 Golden Festival mp3 collection on the Free Music Archive

Every January, NY Balkan music scene pioneers the Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band organize the Golden Festival - a massive two-night grassroots Balkan and East European music and dance festival at the Good Shepherd School, 620 Isham Street in the Inwood section of Upper Manhattan.

The Golden Festival is New York's largest Balkan music event, with multiple stages, Balkan & Middle Eastern refreshments, Balkan arts vendors, as well as beautiful Balkan textiles on display.  From international stars to local musicians, modern Balkan stylists to folk traditionalists, over 40 bands provide hours of ecstatic listening, dancing and partying. (via Zlatne Uste's website)

The Golden Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this Friday and Saturday, and tickets are available here.

For those who won't be able to attend but want to live vicariously, Rob Weisberg's Transpacific Sound Paradise program will broadcast live on WFMU this Saturday from 6pm until midnight NY time. The TSP broadcast will take place from one of the festival's three stages, the "Kafana" stage (Kafana is Serbo-Croatian for "cafe"; and the broadcast hq will once again be conveniently located right next to the beer line!).

To get an idea of what's in store, here are a few highlights from last year's TSP broadcast.