Brass Menazeri’s heart-racing performance of “Opa Cupa” from last year’s shoulda-been-there Rickshaw Stop show.
By Todd Lavoie
They’re brassy! They’re sassy! Oakland’s ambassadors of Balkan bump ‘n’ grind, Brass Menazeri will be raising a mighty floorboard-clobbering ruckus at the Ashkenaz in Berkeley this Friday, Feb. 22, when they join Bay Area gamelan-fusion ensemble Gamelan X for an evening of sweat-soaked revelry. If you’ve never seen this ten-piece horn-and-clarinet-fueled firecracker of a band before – well, then, you need to. Personally, I can think of few better ways to let loose the demons of the workweek than to kick it up on a Friday night with some joyful noise from these folks.
Thanks in large part to the success of Eastern European-enthusiasts Gogol Bordello, Balkan Beat Box, and Beirut, there’s been a revived interest in the sounds of the Balkans and the Near-East, particularly in the songs of the Rom (also known somewhat pejoratively as the Gypsies) of that region. It’s been a wonderfully refreshing development, seeing so many artists bring a definite rock-informed attitude and viewpoint to traditional folk forms, thus breathing new life into a genre which, only a few years ago, seemed in peril of remaining forever compartmentalized into a tight little “for world-music-lovers only” corner.
Much as the Pogues – particularly early in their career – opened up the possibilities of Celtic music to the more rock-reared listener, the new wave of brass bands and Balkan barnstormers are doing the same for the sounds of Serbia, Macedonia, and beyond. Brass Menazeri, while quite traditional in their approach – don’t expect any of the electro-hip hop interpolations of Balkan Beat Box here – belong to this new wave, mainly because they seem to be diligent about courting a younger audience.