Roma folk music

     Just to satisfy my personal curiosity, I wanted to devote some attention to traditional Roma music. I wanted to connect dots with Django’s background and how he fused his traditional background with the jazz elements during his time period.

     One of the gypsy folk music that I listen was called ‘freylekh trio.’ The music was very amiable and happy. The melody does sound partially improvised, but the violin and flute were carrying the melody. The reason I say partially improvised is because the melody sounds somewhat predictable and there not was a sense of complete independence with respect to each musician.

           

     The reason I am inferring to this explanation is because I know that Roma (gypsy) is a nomadic culture and the emphasis of a group is strong emphasized in their lifestyle. Surely, this mentality will greatly influence in the way they express musically. Also, I would not be surprised if a powerful story is being told through their music. If this is so, I am very certain that everyone is interdependently involved to express this story. Interestingly enough, some of their words seemed very similar to French, but not quite French. The bass carried to pulse of the music by its rich, heavy pizzicato. The pulse played similarly resembled a crude, rudimentary version of our modern style of swing. The beat progression is very similar to the beats of the popular music we hear today. The connections between traditional folk music and modern music was a joy to discover because I am able to understand why and how an artist is able contribute his/her ideas along with an other idea.