Gypsy music in KC

By TIMOTHY FINN
The Kansas City Star

The Gipsy Kings perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Uptown Theater, 3700 Broadway. Tickets cost $59.50 to $95. The music of Romany — gypsy music — has been influenced by so many cultures, it’s nearly impossible to declare any of it “genuine” or pure.

In an online essay, “The Never-Ending Roma Question,” Ivan Sever, an associate professor at Harvard University, wrote: “Ranging the whole gamut from painfully slow laments to incredibly carefree whirling dances, Romany music has always carried a clear and very emotional message. From classical musicians like Liszt, Bizet, Brahms, Dvorak, Verdi, Rachmaninov and Bartok to flamenco, klezmer and jazz, the influences of Romany music are undeniable.”

The next two evenings, Kansas City’s music menu includes two bands who have tapped into that rich, flamboyant heritage: the flamboyant and frenetic gypsy-punk band Gogol Bordello, who performs tonight at the Beaumont Club; and the more traditional seven-piece gypsy-flamenco troupe, the Gipsy Kings, who perform Friday night at the Uptown Theater.

The two are about as similar as “Monty Python” and “Masterpiece Theatre,” as different as the Pogues and Spyro Gyra; but they both incite similar responses from their audiences: lots of motion and glee. A look at each:

Gogol Bordello: This eight-piece band was founded by a Ukranian, Eugene Hutz, who coined the term (and the music) gypsy punk. (See related story on Hutz on Page 39.) His band is a melting pot — it includes an Ethiopian-born bass player, a Russian violinist, a Slavic accordionist, an Israeli guitarist and a South American percussionist — and so is its music.

Writers struggle to define their sound and their live shows, which are an orgy of sights and sound and a cauldron of rhythms and energy. Time Out New York called it “Transylvanian rural avant-hard” and “Ukranian punk cabaret.” Its latest album, “Super Taranta!” expresses the rich, fluent brew of music styles and theatrical twists and gimmicks. But check out the live show, which takes its transcendent music to another giddy level.

Gipsy Kings: The Kings are two sets of brothers: Nicolas, Canut, Paul, Patchaï and André Reyes; and Tonino, Paco and Diego Baliardos. They are from France; they sing in Gitane, a hybrid “gypsy dialect” that comprises French, Spanish and Catalan.

The Reyeses learned flamenco from their father, the famous singer Jose Reyes.

In the 1970s the Reyes brothers started performing with their cousins, the Baliardos (sons of Jose Reyes’ guitarist, Manitas de Plata). They would eventually call themselves the Gipsy Kings, and play the more pop-oriented flamenco rumba and gypsy rumba styles. In 1987, they released “The Gipsy Kings,” which included their first international hit, a rumba version of the Julio Iglesias hit “Bamboleo.”

Some of their other hits include covers: “Volare,” “A Mi Manera” (a cover of the Frank Sinatra hit “My Way”) and a cover of the Eagles’ “Hotel California.” On this tour, the band is going more acoustic and traditional, meaning no synthesizers and more organic percussion, like hand clapping.