New take on the old world.

Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

If the phrase Balkan Gypsy "wedding music" inspires images of happy-go-lucky bumpkins playing village music in the town square, it's time to revise your thinking.

The Bulgarian music that the Yuri Yunakov Ensemble plays is rooted in the past, but also firmly planted in the pre- sent.

Based in the long-standing culture of the Turkish and Gypsy (or more correctly, Roma) populations of Thrace (the border region between Greece and Turkey), the style has evolved to include modern jazz riffs and electric guitar licks. Their performances include daredevil runs, bold chord changes, lightning-fast tempos and dazzling improvisation.

Performances often resemble fiery jazz sessions, or even rock concerts.

"It's not a folkloric ensemble in peasant costume," said Carol Silverman, an associate professor of anthropology and folklore at the University of Oregon. "These are urbanites in suits and ties who consider themselves very cosmopolitan peo- ple."

Folk with contemporary twist

Silverman, who has studied Bulgarian and Romani music as well as Eastern European folklore and Roma culture, will sing with Yunakov (pronounced "you knock off'), possibly Bulgaria's most famous sax player, on Monday in a Hult Center program titled "Balkan Gypsy Music."

The show is part of a reunion tour for Yunakov. He will be joined by some of his former bandmates, including legendary clarinet player Ivo Papazov, accordion player Neshko Neshev and drummer Salif Ali.

The musicians played together in the Bulgarian band Trakija during the 1980s and 1990s. Yunakov emigrated to New York in 1994.

"It's a historic occasion," Silverman said. "That band in Bulgaria formulated a distinctive style of folk fusion with jazz and rock elements. It's a very contemporary sound, but it's also based in Bulgarian folk music."

Monday's show will be divided into two 50-minute sets. Kalin Kirilov - a UO doctoral student in music theory and a keyboardist, guitarist and vocalist - will join Silverman and the Yunakov ensemble.

The program will explore the various genres within wedding music, including the rhythmically unstable Bulgarian, the heavily Middle Eastern-influenced Roma Bulgarian and the Bulgarian and Romani ballads and melodies. Requests also will be taken for Turkish, Greek, Serbian, Eastern European and other types of music.

Although the term Bulgarian "wedding music" now is somewhat of a misnomer, during the 1970s, Silverman said, Bulgarian groups played at wedding celebrations that sometimes stretched on for days.

The weddings drew hundreds of people, many of whom had no connection to the bride or groom and simply were there for the music.

The music was defined both by the choice of instruments - from clarinet, sax, keyboard, accordion and drums - and by the exciting collision of performance styles and influences.

"There are set passages, and the passages usually are quite complicated (with) fast, daring key changes, arpeggios, very eclectic musical tastes where passages are borrowed from Indian, Serbian, Irish, Greek music, all the other European sources," Silverman said.

"Then, the set passages are contrasted with the solo passages of each individual musician who improvises, and the improvisation is very wide-ranging. People are very discerning listeners, they want to know how technically good you are, what kind of soul you can put in, and also, what you draw from, how creative you are."

Because wedding music flourished during the height of communism in Bulgaria, when large gatherings made government officials nervous, wedding musicians such as Yunakov often were forced to elude authorities. They sometimes were jailed for playing, and they were seen by some as underground heroes, Silverman said.

The obstacles faced by Roma musicians in Bulgaria were compounded by the discrimination faced by Roma populations as a whole.

Contrary to the stereotype of the always-smiling, always-wandering Gypsy, many Roma families have been settled down for hundreds of years and have faced unfair treatment long after establishing themselves, Silverman said.

"They're everywhere considered outsiders," she said. "And so in Eastern Europe, in many countries, they play the role of the exalted professional musicians, but the hated minority members.' She compared their lot to the historical role of black musicians in the United States, `where you have, on the one hand, (people) admiring them for a particular ability, but not accepting them fully as citizens."

Roma music finds new fans

Romas continue to face discrimination and hardship, she said, but in recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in Roma music from the Balkans, fueled in part by the popularity of the 1993 French documentary "Latcho Drom."

Fans such as Silverman once were forced to travel to Eastern Europe and crash weddings if they wanted to hear the music, but the fall of communism has opened up the floodgates. Now, musicians are able to bring their music to the rest of the world.

In the United States, there have been several large traveling shows, including two Gypsy Caravan tours. And American audiences have started to learn to make distinctions within the music.

"People are following the music," Silverman said. "They want to know is this a new composition, they want to know how people are developing, they want to know how the style is changing, what new songs (are playing), what old songs (are playing)."

The fall of communism may have helped spread wedding music beyond the borders of Eastern Europe, but the resulting economic problems have made wedding performances, and even concerts, less common throughout the region, Silverman said.

After 1989, Yunakov faced even more government persecution than he had under communism, from officials who called themselves "reformed communists." He moved his family to New York City and began playing weddings for Albanian, Macedonian Roma, Turkish, Armenian and other Eastern European immigrants. He also performed in concert halls with his ensemble.

Although Yunakov is of Turkish Roma descent, he grew up speaking Turkish. According to Silverman, only about half of the Roma from Bulgaria speak the Romani language.

Because Bulgaria was ruled by the Ottoman empire, many minorities picked up Bulgarian and Turkish in an effort to move up the social scale.

Silverman will sing in Romani when she performs with Yunakov's ensemble. She'll also provide narration and lead a pre-show lecture with the group at the Erb Memorial Union.

"I'm always trying to convey to the audience the meaning of the words, and I try to give some background to the music in my narration," Silverman said.

"My mission as an educator and a performer is to combine entertainment with knowledge."

CONCERT PREVIEW

Balkan Gypsy Music

What: Modern Roma music from the Yuri Yunakov Ensemble and guests

When: 7:30 p.m. Monday

Where: Soreng Theatre, Hult Center, Seventh Avenue and Willamette Street

Tickets: $15 to $20 general; $3 off for students and youths

Also: UO professor Carol Silverman and the Yuri Yunakov Ensemble will present a free lecture at 4 p.m. Monday in the Ben Linder Room, Erb Memorial Union, 1222 E. 13th Ave.; the ensemble also will have a post-performance "meet and greet" in the Hult Center lobby

Guardline: To hear music by Yuri Yunakov, call Guardline at 485-2000 from a touch-tone phone and request category 3475

CAPTION(S):

Ivan Papazov (left) and Yuri Yunakov are among the Bulgarian musicians who will reunite for the Balkan Gypsy Music program on Monday at the Hult.