In Central Serbia there is an annual event called the Guca Festival, three full days of partying that attracts some 300,000 revelers.  The festival climaxes with a competition among Serbian brass bands, about 50 in all, mainly from the south and many national treasures.  One band, however, is no longer permitted to compete.  It’s not that the Boban Markovic Orkestar has done anything wrong; it’s simply that the festival
organizers grew tired of them winning year after year.

Markovic is considered the best trumpet player Serbia has produced in at least two decades.  No less than Miles Davis is said to have commented, upon hearing Markovic, “I didn’t know you could play the trumpet that way.”  In Emir Kusturica’s otherwise annoying 1995 Balkan film Underground, it was Markovic and company who saved the day, and audiences in more than a dozen countries have been left with their collective jaws dangling after experience the Orkestar.

Boban I Marko—Balkan Brass Fest (Piranha), the latest album from Markoviæ and his horn-wielding posse (following up 2002’s equally winning Live In Belgrade), is a stunning blast of exuberance and virtuosity.  Delivering precision twists and turns that would be the envy of any marching band, Markovic and his Orkestar—which now includes the leader’s talented 15-year-old son Marko wailing on flugelhorn—respect the music’s centuries-old Gypsy roots without slaving to them.  The Orkestar’s melodies never fail to delightfully surprise, and the deceivingly complex arrangements remain accessible—what sounds like unfettered abandon is almost certainly carefully composed.

And there isn’t a soloist among them who isn’t masterful, although on suspects the younger Markovic will develop to take the music to another level all together—Marko and pop chase each other’s tails with remarkable telepathy on the title track, boding well. 

Balkan brass bans are, with their armies of flugelhorns, tenors, tubas and military-style percussion, an acquired taste.  But don’t mistake this for you father’s oompah band.  With nods to klezmer (Frank London and his band guest on a track), jazz, Latin and deep-fried funk injected into the mix, the Boban Markovic Orkestar know where their music’s been but they’re hell-bent on sling-shotting it straight into the future.