Alula Records

The Gypsy Road is a wide-ranging collection of Gypsy music, presenting sounds and instrumentation that change as a perpetual migration continues. Beginning with the motherland of India, The Gypsy Road includes songs by the finest artists from Spain, Turkey and Russia, as well as Eastern and Central Europe. Thierry Robin, Kalyi Jag, Loyko, Kolpakov Trio, Musafir, Yuri Yunakov and Taraf de Haidouks are just a few of the groups represented.

Gypsy music and culture is celebrating a recent vitality. It is easy to be drawn to music featuring such a variety of instrumentation. In Spain, for example, the violin, favored stringed instrument of eastern and central European Gypsies, is replaced by the guitar. The Gypsy Road displays this diverse, contemporary music with pride.

From Central Asia to Eastern Europe, the Roma (common term for Gypsy people) have endured discrimination and social rejection. Even the name "Gypsy" is sometimes considered derogatory. (Hence the slang word "gipped.") Throughout their journeys, the Roma preserved elements of their language and music, mingling these with local traditions. Although they are usually thought of as an exclusively nomadic people, the Roma have in fact permanently settled in communities throughout Europe over the past two centuries. Romania has one of the world's largest Roma populations, numbering approximately three million.

The Gypsy Road producer Dan Rosenberg comments, "This incorporation of Roma and local traditions has created a rich and varied musical repertoire, rooted in elements popular among the Roma: vocal improvisations, rapid tempo changes, universal stories of life on the road, tragedies of lost love, and the dream of an era without discrimination."

Track three, "Jelem" from the Russian trio Loyko, is a very old Gypsy song; a song about love, music and constant migration. "In just about every Gypsy community in the world, you can hear a version of Jelem. It is a Gypsy anthem," explains one of Loyko's violinists, Oleg Ponomarev. Loyko's version is unlike anything you'll hear, anywhere in the world. Their virtuosity, dazzling improvisation, dynamic pizzicatos and trademark "talking" violins magically transform a timeless tune.