Fanfare Ciocarlia, the world's foremost Gypsy brass band, celebrate their 20th anniversary with another roots music album. 

25 years, 10 albums and more than 3000 shows later, Fanfare Ciocarlia are as vibrant as ever and their fairy tale continues. The legendary Gypsy brass band  from the tiny village of Zece Prajini in Romania is returning with a special 25th anniversary album "It Wasn'T Hard To Love you" to celebrate their intimate relationship with all fans around the world.

25 YEARS AGO: A seemingly endless and bumpy road meanders past rolling hills that do not want to be called mountains - somewhere in northeastern Romania near the Moldavian border. Past houses that Chagall has thrown into the landscape at random, standing crooked and audaciously colorful in the mud, their windows gazing wide-eyed at passersby. At some point, the traveler makes a last hard left turn and, after traversing another gravel road, finally reaches the birthplace of one of the most incredible recent phenomena in brass music: Zece Prăjini, the place where it all began for Fanfare Ciocărlia. Here, in 1997, 12 musicians set out to conquer the world with deep pressure blasts from tubas and tenor horns intermingled with wild cacophonies of trumpets and saxophones. To unleash the joyful power of Eastern European brass music into the world - that was the idea!
The seriousness of their mission was preserved back in 1998 on their first album release with a quote from senior trumpeter Radulescu: "... just wait and see - at some point we‘re going to play on Mars". Since this momentous statement, the band has traveled millions of kilometers on countless tours in their attempt to reach the red planet.

Nothing needs to be rewritten about their music either. Fanfare Ciocărlia's unparalleled talent for alloying their Balkan brass with dashes of jazz, pop and rock, all performed with mad precision at breakneck tempos, has given them cult status and made them a permanent fixture in the music scene ranging from punk to classical. Two and a half decades, thousands of shows and 9 studio albums later, Fanfare Ciocărlia were at the pinnacle of their career when a pandemic shocked the world. This unprecedented event has meant the same for them as it has for millions of other artists around the world: an abrupt stop to all work. And while the world seemed to be at a standstill, the band's many fans became active and helped them to complete their long-planned 25th anniversary album with financial support and words of encouragement. Now the results can be heard: "It Wasn't Hard To Love You" is a musical ode to Fanfare Ciocărlia's legions of fans. It is the latest chapter in the story of a big band from a small village, a band that wants to put smiles on people's faces, and a band that yearns for a long future of thrilling concerts extending deep into the night.

We say Thank You to more than 500 fans who have supported Fanfare Ciocarlia to make this album real! Special thanks goes to Tanja Cummings (D), Carsten Ernst (D), David Herzmann (CH), Andre Seidenberg (D), Alexei Turcan (RO), Charles M. Higson (UK), Tomas Drgon (USA), Tuva Kahrs (UK), Teppei Katori (UK), Stephen Simblet (UK), Manon Jütte (NL), Ivan Nikolaev (RUS)

It Wasn't Hard To Love You

remix, Fanfare Ciocarlia, electro, Croatia, Gypsy brass

James Bond Theme - Billogorz Remix

Balkanbeats, Balkan beat, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Jstar, Remix, remixed, Romania, , Dub, Reggae music, Gypsy brass, 

Escape From Baltimore - remixed by Jstar (UK). Original track released on Fanfare Ciocarlia album "It Wasn't Hard To Love You" (2021).

Escape From Baltimore - Jstar remix

Balkanbeats, Balkan beat, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Dunkelbunt, Remix, remixed, Romania, Vienna, Cumbia, Latin music, Gypsy brass, Jewish remix

Fanfare Ciocarlia and Dunkelbunt - musical friends for a long time ever since samples of the brass music legend from Romania found their way into the tracks 'Asfalt Tango' and 'Chocolate Butterfly' feat. RAF Camora - released in 2007. Now - Fanfare CIocarlia send a Jewish composition on a journey down to South America - wrapped in a groovy and shimmering cumbia dress designed by the Hamburg native living in Vienna. Also good to know: A double bill live on stage at Volkstheater Vienna (Austria) is scheduled for September 25th. Tickets are now on sale! Visit: https://www.fanfare-ciocarlia.com for further info and early bird tickets.

First Aid Klezmer [dunkelbunt] remix EP

Hailing from a tiny village in north east Romania, Fanfare have gone on to conquer the world's stages with their hugely exciting performances while each Ciocarlia album has topped the European World Music charts, driven DJs crazy and inspired countless imitators.

Now, with "Onwards To Mars!", Fanfare Ciocarlia take another giant leap forward: here the band both dig deep into their rural Romanian roots while demonstrating what they have learnt on their travels. Long standing fans will appreciate the band's earthy roots music with two traditional Romanian songs sung by senior member Radulescu Lazar (Un Tzigan Avea O Casa and Trenul Masina Mica) and the very slow Balkan Blues of Doina. Fans will also recognise a new arrangement of Mista Lobaloba, a longtime favourite. Things get intriguing when Fanfare cover Bunica Bate Toba by hugely popular Moldovian Rock band Zdob si Zdub.

And they go completely crazy when they invite Romanian Gypsy Blues singer Iulian Canaf to sing the classic Screamin' Jay Hawkins tune, I Put A Spell On You! Another collaboration is Fiesta de Negritos; Fanfare recorded this in Medellín together with Puerto Candelaria, one of Colombia's leading Cumbia bands. Dig the Latin-Balkan groove! There are also seven tunes here by celebrated composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Koby Israelite, four of which he composed specifically for Fanfare.

Onwards to Mars!

Double vinyl album set covering the legendary Brass music band - Fanfare Ciocarlia remarkable two decade career.

Double vinyl album set covering the Romanian band’s remarkable two decade career.

Double vinyl album set covering the Romanian brass band’s remarkable two decade career. First time on vinyl for these seminal Balkan brass recordings!

“20” is a double album release that gathers on vinyl for the very first time Fanfare Ciocarlia’s seminal recordings. This collection ranges from the band’s debut album Radio Pasçani onwards, gathering recordings that have broken Balkan brass through to a huge international audience and ensured that Fanfare are Romania’s foremost musical export.

Fanfare Ciocarlia’s recording career began at the height of the CD era and, at that time, vinyl was no longer being pressed in Romania. Their most recent albums on Berlin label Asphalt Tango have been issued on vinyl but fans have constantly requested the band's early albums also appear on vinyl. What to do?

The band decided they would celebrate twenty years of international success by compiling a double album collection that draws heavily on their first five albums and demonstrates their myriad musical strengths. Across four themed sides – ROOTS, ORIENT, JAMS, AMIGOS - “20” offers a reflection of the many musical faces of Fanfare.

ROOTS captures them as a village brass band. ORIENT gathers their most Eastern recordings. JAMS features their funkiest sides that make clubs jump. AMIGOS demonstrates Fanfare’s wide ranging collaborations, from backing Macedonia’s Gypsy Queen Esma Redzepova to rocking with Canadian guitarist Adrian Raso.

Pressed on 180g vinyl and beautifully packaged with illustrious photos covering Fanfare’s entire career, “20” is a double vinyl treat for both collector and the general music fan.

20 Years

The Eastern European force field of Balkan brass music meets Canadian Gypsy swing & jazz guitar.

Legend has it that the Devil likes to frequent crossroads, cutting deals for souls and spinning his cunning yarns. Yet not all crossroad pacts are diabolical; some are just damned brilliant. Take the crossroads encounter behind Devil’s Tale, where the eastern force field of Balkan brass meets Gypsy jazz guitar, as Romania's Fanfare Ciocarlia joins up with Canadian guitarist Adrian Raso. Fanfare Ciocarlia are a 24-legged brass beast whose eastern funk groove has torn up halls and festivals across the planet. Raso is a master guitarist, deeply versed in the French Manouche / Gypsy jazz stylings of Django Reinhardt. Could a string musician find a way into Fanfare's fierce Balkan brass blast? Could the legends of brass adapt their horns to the fluid eloquence of a jazz guitarist? The answer, as heard on this album, is one of brilliant defiance. Dig the rush: the Romanians and the Canadian have created a sound that rips and swings and roars.

Adrian Raso has dreamt of this project for years. The gifted guitarist possesses a vast musical vocabulary rooted in Gypsy jazz yet, in his fleet fingers, capable of referencing metal, Latin, funk and his family's Italian tarantella roots. Raso built his virtuoso reputation playing Toronto's toughest clubs as a teenager. More than two decades later he remains on a musical quest that demands he challenge himself. The quest lead to him reaching out to Fanfare Ciocarlia - the Romany Gypsy orchestra from the "invisible" village of Zece Prajini in north eastern Romania - who blast a fierce, very individual brand of Balkan brass. Both Raso and Fanfare share a love of Django Reinhardt and big band jazz but initial concerns surrounded whether their very different backgrounds would allow for a common musical dialogue to ensure.

"Meeting the band was a great experience," says Raso. "We bonded instantly. We joked about being separated brothers as it really did feel like that. Musically we understood each other from the get go."

Fanfare Ciocarlia are the world's greatest Balkan brass band. When a band is at the top, the undisputed heavyweight champion, they have two options: either get lazy and repeat themselves or seek out new challenges. Fanfare Ciocarlia are hungry men and, having seen too many Balkan brass bands descend into the farce of playing-standards-too-fast or allowing tone deaf DJs to exploit them as decoration over a lame electronic beat, they chose to broaden Balkan brass's vocabulary. Meeting Adrian Raso gave Fanfare the perfect musical foil.

Across several chilly Toronto days the Romanians and the Canadian came together. Raso called in several heavy friends to contribute to sessions. These included legendary guitarists John Jorgenson and Rodrigo (of Rodrigo & Gabriela) and rock drummer Kevin Figueiredo (of Extreme). This album - reaching down to New Orleans, across the Atlantic to Paris, deep into the Balkans and back through decaying Detroit to Toronto's grandeur - is the result. What wild beauty these men created! Raso's guitar sets off on a fluid journey, caressing and cajoling the horns who tell tales of a music that has ancestors in Africa and India, one shaped in old Europe and young America. Perhaps no one involved guessed such wild beauty would result from these sessions. Here it is: Adrian Raso and Fanfare Ciocarlia have created a music rooted in jazz and the Balkans, a sound full of history but looking towards the future. No clichés here - No gimmicks. Just obsessed musicians all determined to raise their game and chase sonic dreams. Spread the word - here is magic that might charm even jaded old Mephistopheles!

Devil's Tale

The two titans of East European Gypsy music Fanfare Ciocarlia & Boban Markovic Orchestra go head to head in brass battle of epic proportions.

The two titans of East European Gypsy music go head to head in brass battlee of epic proportions.

Finally, the two titans of East European Gypsy music go head to head in a Balkan brass encounter of epic proportions. Following the tradition of brass battles from Serbia's legendary Guca Brass Festival to New Orleans' mean streets, the Balkan Brass Battle showcases the wit, passion and musical genius of Europe's Romany Gypsy people.

In the left corner: Fanfare Ciocărlia, the Romanian rockers who rose from rural obscurity to international fame as one of the world's most explosive live bands. Their fierce groove helped fuel a global beats revolution: Fanfare Ciocărlia tearing the roof off the sucka night after night!

In the right corner: Serbian trumpet legend Boban Marković & Orkestar - survivors of the Yugoslav civil war, Guca Festival's greatest champions, immortalized in Emir Kusturica's maverick films, Boban's Orkestar now feature young gun Marko Marković, the fastest trumpet in town!

The Balkan Brass Battle CD was recorded across a feverish, sleepless forty-eight hours in a Transylvanian hotel right outside Graf Dracula, the castle of Vlad Tepes. Both bands laid down their hottest grooves then shaped up for a battle royal in the studio. Your ears won't believe these Gypsy mavericks turbo charged takes on Duke Ellington's 'Caravan' and John Barry's 'James Bond Theme'. Also recorded were Balkan folk tunes, original compositions and a surreal take on 'Gummy Bear' from the McDonalds' Kids Menu.

Balkan Brass Battle

The Romanian speed brass legends Fanfare Ciocarlia sum up thirteen years and five albums of musical history.

The Romanian speed brass legends sum up thirteen years and five albums of musical history.

Since being discovered on Womex 1997 in Marseilles the winner of the BBC World Music Award from Zece Prajini realeased five highly acclaimed CDs - "Radio Pascani" (1998), "Baro Biao" (1999) and "Iag Bari" (2001) were released on much respected Piranha Records, "Gili Garabdi" (2005) as well as "Queens & Kings" (2007) are two Asphalt Tango Records.

As soon as the 11 Allstars of Gypsy Brass enter a stage - be it in Tokyo, Moscow, Melbourne, Helsinki, London or Berlin - and set off their dazzling musical fireworks one can notice the audience going through astounding changes: entire rows of seats are spontaneously shifted aside, hats and skirts whirl through the air and even the stiffest guy finds himself dancing away to the most tricky Balkan rhythms so easily.

With their 6th CD-release the Gypsy brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia gives an exquisite taste of the incomparable experience of seeing Romania's musical export hit live on stage. The one-hour-long live recording of a concert in the "Kesselhaus der Kulturbrauerei" in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg will not only delight devoted fans.


Best Of Gypsy Brass

Traditional dances and Balkan tunes from Romania and rhythms from Turkey, Bulgaria and North Macedonia are played by Fanfare Ciocarlia on horns, trumpets and clarinets.

Traditional dances and Balkan tunes from Romania and rhythms from Turkey, Bulgaria and North Macedonia are played on horns, trumpets and clarinets.

“We are magicians of music and in Zece Prajini the ancient secrets of Gypsy magic live.” (Ioan Ivancea)

When the enslavement of Romania´s Gypsies officially ended in 1864 tens of thousands fled the nation for new horizons. Several thousand landed in the United States, often settling in the black ghettoes of the Southern US states, where they continued to make music. Ioan, Fanfare Ciocarlia´s oldest member and group historian, once answered when asked if jazz was a big influence on the Fanfare, "Who´s to say our cousins who went to the US didn´t help invent jazz?" On Ancient Secrets this matter and other mysteries of Gypsy magic are set forth...

Ioan, Fanfare Ciocărlia´s oldest member and group historian, once answered when asked if jazz was a big influence on the Fanfare, "Who´s to say our cousins who went to the US didn´t help invent jazz? " On the new CD "GILI GARABDI" this matter and other mysteries of Gypsy magic are set forth. The CD will be released by Asphalt Tango Records on March 7th 2005.

Zece Prajini (literally meaning 'ten fields') is a village of just four hundred souls, surrounded by gentle mountains and dusty tracks. Situated in the East of Romania, it is no more than a stone's throw from the border with the former Soviet republic of Moldavia. This area of Romania is known for its rugged seclusion and the stubborn poetry of its inhabitants. In the evenings, when the winds calm down, the sounds of the fanfare echo from the surrounding slopes. This is the home of the twelve Romany Gypsy musicians who make up the FANFARE CIOCARLIA brass ensemble.

The art of playing music has been handed down from generation to generation since time immemorial. There is no sheet music. The instruments, bearing the marks of the previous decades, have lost their shine and gained their own patina. On them FANFARE CIOCARLIA manage to set off a musical firework display, with an unbelievable talent for intricate rhythms and dizzy tempos. Traditional dances from Romania and rhythms from Turkey, Bulgaria and Macedonia are played on horns, trumpets, clarinets and timpani. For each different moment in life there is an appropriate piece: geamparale, sîrba, hora, and if the mood requires, a racy ruseasca at the end.



Gili Garabdi

Fanfare Ciocarlia 's 5th album. Recorded across Europe with musicians from the continent’s extended Gypsy community. 

Recorded across Europe with musicians from the continent’s extended Gypsy community.

Their 5th album. Overcoming borders and visas, foreign tongues and rhythms, more than two dozen musicians from France to Bulgaria came together to create “Queens and Kings”.

Casual observers may wonder how Fanfare Ciocarlia’s roaring Balkan funk could possibly fuse with the flamenco guitars of French Gitans Kaloomé or Macedonian legend Esma Redzepova’s accordion driven music? Zece Prajini’s musical magicians shrug off such concerns, noting that they share elements of language, experience, and an almost indescribable yet very Gypsy musical synergy with their guests.

Hungarian music has permeated northern Romania for centuries, while Yugoslav and Bulgarian music came from encounters with travelling Gypsy communities or on pirate cassettes. Spain and France existed in pre-war memories, lost yet not forgotten Latin connections; as did jazz and pop flavours long filtered through closed borders.

From these sources and their own ancient Gypsy roots, Zece Prajini’s musicians built Fanfare Ciocarlia. Here, accompanied by some of Europe's finest singers, Romania’s brass dervishes share tales of life, love and loss.

Queens & Kings

The Gypsy brass music legends of Fanfare Ciocarlia spreads spring fever and heaps of sunshine! Digital only. 

While straying through the nearby fields of Fanfare Ciocarlia's home village back in Romania, the giants of brass came up with a jolly tune that invites everyone to dance and welcome the new season.

Cruzando El Campo (single)

Full score and set of parts of Asfalt Tango released on the original Fanfare Ciocarlia album "Queens and Kings"

Full score and set of parts
(saxophone alto, trumpet 1 & 2 in C, tenor horn 1 & 2, tuba 1 & 2)


transcription by Alexei Turcan
song released on the original Fanfare Ciocarlia album "Baro Biao" 1999


Onwards to Mars!

Fanfare Ciocarlia

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