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Gypsy Caravan on the Long and Bending Road - Spinner.com - Free MP3s, Interviews, Music News, Live Performances, Songs and Videos 09/19/2007 09:12 AM AOL Entertainment Guide powered by AOL Music AOL MY AOL MAIL MAKE AOL MY HOMEPAGE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS GAMES MOVIES MUSIC RADIO TELEVISION TMZ Spinner Web SEARCH Search for artists, news, MP3s and more RSS Feed Contact Us Send News Tips Features Gypsy Caravan on the Long and BEST OPENING Bending Road LYRICS ELVIS FACT OR Posted Jun 5th 2007 11:00AM by Steve Hochman FICTION Filed under: Around the World ICONIC ELVIS PHOTOS WORST LYRICS EVER BEST PROTEST SONGS CARTOON ROCKERS HOW DID THEY DIE? ICONIC ROCK PHOTOS SAD SONGS WOMEN BEHIND SONGS WORST BAND PHOTOS KILLER B-SIDES ADVERTISEMENT WORST ROCK JOBS GAY MOMENTS CONCERT ETIQUETTE Free Music! MONUMENTAL FLOPS Millions of songs -- from Akon to ROCK 'N' ROLL DOLLS Zero 7 -- await your ears. RANK THE ROCK Try Napster for Free READERS' LYRICS WOMEN WHO ROCK Halfway through the new film 'Gypsy Caravan: When the Road Bends,' which Hot Categories documents a 2001 North American tour that brought together musicians from across the Euro-Asian Gypsy world (or, to use the preferred term, Roma), one of ELVIS PRESLEY the participants makes a startling statement. A member of the band Fanfare Most Commented On (7 days) MP3 OF THE DAY Ciocarlia, known for its frenzied swirls of brass sounds, recalled the first time the Fire Injures Several at Austin City Limits Music Festival NEWS group played outside its native Romania in the early '90s following the downfall of New Music: Thrice, 'Fire Breather' & 'Digital Sea' VIDEO OF THE DAY dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. "We were happy they didn't hate us," he said of the I F'N LOVE THIS SONG European audiences. Tori Amos Sings an Ode to Britney Spears SPINNER INTERVIEW Terrorist Wants to Behead Pop Stars COUNT FIVE Now, he may have been talking merely about the reception of the music, which Worst Band Feuds: No. 20 AROUND THE WORLD would soon allow the band to bring electricity to its village thanks to proceeds from its first CD. But there's a broader context. For Roma, simply not being treated with White Stripes Cancel Fall Tour All Categories hatred and suspicion is often a relief. After all, the thousand-year journey of the Underworld Surfaces in New York City Spinner 3x3 (29) Roma, from Northern Indian origins across Europe and beyond, has been one of Worst Band Feuds: No. 2 great hardships, from banishments and exclusions to Nazi massacres -- leaving Album (122) Worst Band Feuds: No. 15 Around the World (22) them a people without a nation. Worst Band Feuds: No. 19 Bio-Terrorism (1) Bonnaroo (48) Even relatively innocent impressions have been saddled with bigotry. The latter Book Club (4) was the case when Jasmine Dellal was growing up in England. Gypsies seemed Break-Ups (3) almost as mythical as leprechauns, the subject of colorful stories and legend. She Canada (9) recalls a clapping game with a rhyme cautioning that the Gypsies "would steal you Recent Comments away" -- something she thought sounded like "great fun." Years later, living in Celebrity (77) soisso on New Music: Thrice, 'Fire Breather' & 'Digital Berkeley, California, in the '90s, the legends had a less romantic, dark tone. "It was Celebrity Sea' Doppleganger (5) the last bastion of political correctness: People would say, 'Excuse me' if they said perfect on IFLTS: 'She Doesn't Get It,' The Format Coachella (20) 'black' rather than 'African-American,'" she recalls. "But the same people would Concert (147) say, 'Don't get you camera stolen by the Gypsies!' " david on New Music: Thrice, 'Fire Breather' & 'Digital Contest (11) Sea' Count Five (24) Fortunately, the filmmaker ignored that bigotry and turned her cameras on the Brian on New Music: Thrice, 'Fire Breather' & 'Digital Country (16) Gypsies. The result is a revealing documentary centered on the one thing that has Sea' been the most publicly embraced part of Roma culture -- the music. The film DJ (49) Nick on New Music: Thrice, 'Fire Breather' & 'Digital Sea' DJ Mix (29) features colorful performances by Rajasthan music and dance ensemble Maharaja, DVD (6) Romanian village bands Fanfare Ciocarlia and the strings-centric Taraf de Nick on New Music: Thrice, 'Fire Breather' & 'Digital Sea' Electronic (113) Haidouks, Macedonian icon Esma Redzepova and the Andalusian flamenco troupe loon on New Music: Thrice, 'Fire Breather' & 'Digital Sea' headed by dancer Antonio El Pipa and featuring the emotive singing of his Exclusive (312) Chuck on The Chum Bucket: Barry Manilow Ditches formidable aunt Juana la del Pipa. It will have its U.S. premiere in New York on Favorite Band Ever 'The View' + More (For Now) (31) June 15 and Los Angeles on June 29, with other cities through North American in bill on New Music: Thrice, 'Fire Breather' & 'Digital Sea' Full CDs (42) following weeks (click here for schedule information). http://www.spinner.com/2007/06/05/gypsy-caravan-on-the-long-and-bending-road/ Page 1 of 4 Gypsy Caravan on the Long and Bending Road - Spinner.com - Free MP3s, Interviews, Music News, Live Performances, Songs and Videos 09/19/2007 09:12 AM Full CDs (42) Gadgets (5) Simon on Best Opening Lyrics: No. 25 Gettin' Paid (7) It recalls the 1993 film 'Latcho Drom,' which retraced the thousand-year journey of Holy Hell (111) Roma culture from North India to Spain, and helped raise long-overdue awareness of this misunderstood culture. But where that film was only music, with no dialogue Horrifying (8) Listen to Full CDs Humor (125) or narration, this production was beautifully shot by a team including American I Fought the Law (33) documentarian Albert Maysles (of 'Gimme Shelter' fame) and edited with a musical The Go! Team, 'Proof of Youth' I Freakin' Love This hand by Mary Myers. The film weaves the music with behind-the-scenes looks at Calvin Harris, 'I Created Disco' Song (134) the tour and illuminating, touching and at times heartbreaking visits to the Pinback, 'Autumn of the Seraphs' Live Earth (12) musicians' homes (not to mention a cameo by a certain prominent pirate actor who Ani DiFranco, 'Canon' Lollapalooza (34) became pals with the Taraf crew while starring in a small film with them a decade Hear all of this week's full CDs MILF (2) ago). Movies (1) MP3 (361) Dellal's initial goals in making the film were simple: "In lots of people's minds, the MP3 of the Day (94) idea of a Gypsy is a very fantastical, exotic image of somebody who isn't a real Spinner on MySpace New Music (335) person," she says. "Of course it's a real ethnicity, belonging to a group of people New York City (10) whose ancestors left India about a thousand years ago. So one of the main We're on MySpace. Send us a News (686) reasons I made this film was to show that Gypsies are real people." Certainly, friend request or we will cry. OMG! (55) music has been a major part of awareness, such as it is, about Gypsies, from Be Spinner's Friend on MySpace Other People's Parisian pioneer jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt to the ubiquitous Gipsy Kings of Posts (2) recent years. This has accomplished only so much, though. "I think a lot of people Interface Podcasts FEED Overdose Radio (6) thought they were magical people who appeared onstage, played music and disappeared into thin air," Dellal says. Photo (94) This Week: Voxtrot Austin five- PhotoSynthesis (58) piece Voxtrot introduces new tracks Podcast (36) The film in fact started as merely a document of the tour. Dellal was called in by the World Music Institute, which put the trek together, inspired by her previous film, from their first full-length release. Pop Culture (29) Download the podcast. Potent Quotables (44) 'American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody's Land,' a look at the Roma culture in America. But it turned out to be much more, as she herself learned more about the Premiere (31) Subscribe for a new download each R.I.P. (8) heterogeneity of Gypsies. That is the central theme of the first part of the film, as the differences between the various Roma cultures seem to emerge through the week, and catch up with shows you Rehab (20) missed below. Reunion (2) tentative interactions of the performers -- differences in music, in language, in Rock Hall (16) lifestyle. But as the tour progresses, it becomes more and more about the Editors RPM (2) commonalities and growing camaraderie among the musicians, with late-night chat John Vanderslice Shout It Out Loud (2) and jam sessions, good-natured pranks, the sharing of stories and, of course, Tegan and Sara Song (38) discoveries of ways to combine musical forces. All Interface Podcasts Spinner Interview (14) Spinner Radio (1) 'Gypsy Caravan' and its accompanying soundtrack album, released by the World 3x3 Still Awesome (39) Village label, have the potential of being for this music what the Buena Vista Social SXSW (36) Club project was for Cuban styles, at least aesthetically, if not commercially. But it The Chum also could be a key part of what has been a growing effort to address issues Bucket (101) around the Roma. The year 2005 inaugurated what has been declared as the The DL (394) Decade of Inclusion, a joint initiative by eight governments, the United Nations, The Hit List (518) financier and activist George Soros, and the World Bank to fight Roma poverty and The Interface (93) discrimination and address the place of this nationless people in the New Europe.