Cafe Sevdah

Biography

BBC - WORLD REVIEW MUSIC/Album 08 January 2008 ...Throughout, the musicianship of the group's veteran performers is impeccable - wonderfully fluent, sinuous and brimming with passion. While the overall feeling may be melancholy, it's a beautiful kind of sadness that leaves the listener inspired rather than depressed. This reviewer is not the first to label Mostar Sevdah Reunion as the Balkans' answer to Buena Vista Social Club, but lazy journalism or not, the comparison is apposite and well ea...

BBC - WORLD REVIEW MUSIC/Album 08 January 2008 ...Throughout, the musicianship of the group's veteran performers is impeccable - wonderfully fluent, sinuous and brimming with passion. While the overall feeling may be melancholy, it's a beautiful kind of sadness that leaves the listener inspired rather than depressed. This reviewer is not the first to label Mostar Sevdah Reunion as the Balkans' answer to Buena Vista Social Club, but lazy journalism or not, the comparison is apposite and well earned.... Froots - january 2008 ...New vocalists Nermin Alukic, Elmedin Balalic and Suad Golic handeling things superbly while the arrangements vary from jazz piano flavours on two tracks to the elemental Ottoman voice, hands and feet of Ali-Pasha in Herzegovina... Songlines january - 2008 ...It is a beautifully package album, with translated lyrics - very important with these poetic, usually melancholy songs - and images from beautriful old postcards of Mostar in the early 20th century... The Guardian - december 2007 “Sevdah is the ancient, often pained and passionate music of Bosnia, but in the hands of its best-known exponents, the Mostar Sevdah Reunion, this Balkan answer to the blues is transformed and updated by being matched against contemporary blues and jazz influences. In the process, what at times may be an often solemn, sadly soulful style suddenly becomes far more varied and unpredictable. The band consists of local musicians who first recorded eight years ago and have developed a sophisticated approach to their music by matching sturdy vocal work against unexpectedly inventive playing. So a traditional song like the witty “The Beautiful Hajrija Fell Ill” matches straightforward, declamatory singing against a flurry of rapid-fire, gently stomping fiddle and ragtime guitar, while on “Who's Girl Is That?”, the 70-year-old veteran Fevzija Sarajlic-Fevzo is backed by a female chorus and piano work that veers between eastern Europe and Latin America. Then there are the bleak and bitter laments, from “This Red Rose”, transformed by an inventive accordion solo, to “Old Jusuf Sits By the Window”, a tragic story of old age with delicate guitar and piano work. A subtle and intriguing band.” Clive Davis, the Sunday Times, November 2007 “What would happen if you parachuted Van Morrison into deepest Bosnia? It might seem a silly question, but the collision of cultures on this latest release from one of the great Balkan institutions really does conjure up fleeting thoughts of the gloomy one in full swing. It's not hard to detect a melancholic hint of the blues in the Bosnian folk style of sevdah, and the unabashedly jazzy flavour of some of these pieces underscores the connection. The band is on a roll at the moment, and this roughhewn recording is every bit as varied and full-blooded as previous collaborations with the likes of Ljiljana Buttler.“ Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.