The rising popularity of Romani (Gypsy) culture in the realm of commercial World Music and the appearance of recent fusion terms such as Gypsy Punk and Balkan Beats in the U.S. and Western Europe have coincided with increased xenophobia and anti-Roma violence in post-socialist Eastern Europe. In Romani Routes, Carol Silverman explores the historical, political, and socioeconomic contexts that allow Roma musicians to be “paradoxically revered as musicians and reviled as people” (3). This expansive multi-sited ethnography of Bulgarian and Macedonian Romani musicians is focused on the “interplay among economic necessity, marginalization, identity formation, and symbolic display via music” (4). Spanning over three decades and conducted primarily in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and New York, Silverman’s research documents a wide range of musical activity, from that of impoverished wedding musicians to key Balkan Romani luminaries such as Ivo Papazov, Esma Redžepova, and Yuri Yunakov.
Combining a transnational approach with an ethnography of community life in relation to music, Silverman elucidates several emergent contrasts within the ambit of Romani music. In particular, she juxtaposes the recent popularity of “Gypsy music” in the realm of commercial World Music with the persecution and westward flow of Eastern European Roma, contrasting the discrimination faced by the majority with the success of a privileged few. The experience of these groups is then compared to that of the New York Balkan Romani immigrant community. All of these cases, states Silverman, reveal music to be “the vehicle for enacting social relationships and enhancing status” as well as “a commodity to sell to non-Roma and other Roma" (4). In addition to these aspects, Romani Routes is concerned with the “cultural politics and the political economy of Balkan Romani music making” that are “embedded in changing historical inequalities” (5), and exposing the ways in which Romani musicians “negotiate the relationship between politics and music in the context of neoliberal privatization” (6).
Silverman divides her book into four parts. The first part, encompassing chapters 1-3, provides an introduction to the history of Balkan Roma, the musical styles and genres associated with them, and issues of Romani diaspora, transnationalism, hybridity, and identity. The first chapter introduces a performance-theory framework that Silverman uses to interpret issues of Romani identity construction as well as discourses surrounding musical authenticity. Citing the work of Kapchan and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, the author aims to expand the concept of performance beyond bounded events to “embrace identity construction and gender management” (5). Chapter 2 is an overview of the history of East European Romani music and the attributes of Romani music in the Balkans with particular attention paid to the ?o?ek/kyuchek, a dance music genre employing Turkish-derived scales and rhythmic variations in 2/4, 4/4, 7/8, and 9/8 meters. In chapter 3, the author explores and problematizes issues of diaspora, transnationalism, and hybridity in relation to Balkan Roma, global capitalism (in the form of the World Music market), and the Romani rights movement.
The book’s second part, entitled Music in Diasporic Homes, examines issues of migration, family life, marriage, gender roles, celebrations, and dance through narratives of transnational Romani families between Macedonia and the United States. It is here that we are first introduced to the rich interview materials that bring the book to life in fascinating detail. Silverman presents the voices of her collaborators in large block-quote segments, allowing their stories to emerge intact before being analyzed.
Part Three, Music, States, and Markets, provides case studies of Balkan Romani music within the changing political and economic climate of the 1990s and early 2000s. Chapter 7 looks at issues of censorship and control within the socialist state, including campaigns aimed at controlling or even outlawing “foreign” elements such as the ?o?ek and zurna (a double-reed wind instrument), dictating wedding music repertoires, and determining what repertoires wedding bands could perform and how much they could be paid. Here, Silverman profiles clarinetist and Bulgarian wedding music star Ivo Papazov, who attained unprecedented fame during the socialist era and, like many musicians, struggled to redefine his career after the end of socialism and the wedding music boom. Chapter 8 brings us into the postsocialist period beginning in the 1990s and looks at how wedding music has changed with the influx of capitalism, examining several new venues for Romani music, including televised “music idol” contests and Roma-organized festivals such as Romfest in Bulgaria and Šutkafest in Macedonia. In chapter 9, Silverman explores chalga, a Bulgarian “pop/folk” genre that combines Romani and Turkish elements, devoting special attention to Eurovision star Sofi Marinova and the controversial, gender-bending Azis.
In Part Four, Musicians in Transit, Silverman examines the global marketing of Romani music and issues of authenticity, exoticism, collaboration, and appropriation, beginning with biographies of two Balkan Romani superstars who have successfully flourished within the international World Music milieu. Chapter 10 is a biography of Macedonian-Romani singer Esma Redžepova, often dubbed the “Queen of Romani Music,” while chapter 11 traces transnational Bulgarian-Turkish-Romani-American saxophonist Yuri Yunakov’s complex relationship with his own Romani identity. Chapters 12 and 13 tie the previous chapters into a discussion of Romani music on the international World Music market, elucidating discourses of authenticity and exoticism that arise through collaboration with—and appropriation by—non-Roma producers and musicians.
Impressive in its scope, depth, and the sheer duration of Silverman’s research, Romani Routes is an important work that will undoubtedly prove indispensible to scholars exploring issues of Romani rights, music, culture, and identity, as well as those interested in the cultural politics of postsocialist Eastern Europe and issues of hybridity, transnationalism, globalization, and commodification. With its accessible, narrative-driven style, this book will be a valuable resource for musicians and listeners of Romani music alike. Its supplementary website includes hundreds of additional texts, photographs, and audio-visual examples that help to visually and sonically locate the narratives. Romani Routes is a monumental piece of scholarship that represents a significant and timely contribution to the disciplines of folklore and ethnomusicology.
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[Review length: 976 words • Review posted on April 9, 2014]