Styles
Style
The music is not the same in every country. A short story for each style. Named players. Open a style for the history and the key players in year order.
Alabanzas
Flamenco góspel gitano · Música espiritual gitana
Spain · Portugal · France
A Calé sacred genre. Gitano families entered Pentecostal churches from the late 1950s. Members call the songs alabanzas. The songs belong to church rooms, beside flamenco and apart from Vlax family song.
Balkan Romani brass & wedding
Čoček · Kyuchek · Truba · Chalga
Serbia · North Macedonia · Bulgaria · Kosovo · Albania · Greece
Asymmetric meters, zurna and tapan, and the brass wedding band. Čoček is the characteristic dance. From Guča to Kočani, Romani musicians have long held a professional monopoly on these ensembles.
Named players: Kočani Orkestar, Šaban Bajramović, Esma Redžepova, Ferus Mustafov, Ivo Papazov, Naat Veliov
Finnish Kaale song
Kaaleenlaulut · Kaale songs
Finland · Sweden
In-group oral song of the Finnish Kaale. Gender rules. Not restaurant music. About 10,000 in Finland, about 3,000 Finnish Roma in Sweden.
Flamenco
Cante jondo · Toque · Baile
Spain · southern France
Calé / Gitano families. Cante, toque, baile. A Spanish Romani art, with its own guitar and dance.
Named players: Ramón Montoya, La Niña de los Peines, Carmen Amaya, Pepe Habichuela, Camarón de la Isla, Gipsy Kings
German Sinti song
Sinti folkloric violin · Musik deutscher Zigeuner
Germany
German Sinti song and folkloric violin besides jazz. Folklore and swing in one violin. The Hub keeps the jazz circuit. This archive files the song side and the lament.
Named players: Franz “Schnuckenack” Reinhardt
Gypsy jazz / Jazz manouche
Jazz manouche · Sinti jazz · Hot club jazz · Django jazz
France · Belgium · Netherlands · Germany · United Kingdom
A Sinti and Manouche string music, built in 1930s Paris on older family playing. Django Reinhardt gave the world a name for it. The living circuit of jams and concerts sits on the sister site, Gypsy Jazz Hub.
Named players: Stéphane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, Franz “Schnuckenack” Reinhardt, Biréli Lagrène, Paulus Schäfer, Rosenberg Trio
Holland–Hungary restaurant violin
Zigeunermuziek · Hungarian Gypsy music · Romani café music · Restaurant gypsy
Netherlands · Hungary · Romania · Belgium
In the 1930s Hungarian Roma, Romanian Roma and Sinti violinists took the Central European restaurant repertoire into Dutch hotels and pavilions. The standing primás: csárdás, hora, Russian standards — still touring. Django’s pompe is another right hand.
Named players: The Lakatos families, Joseph Weiss (Tata Mirando), The Sárközi family, Gregor Serban, Lajos Veres (István Lajos Sárközi), Nello Mirando (Weiss)
Hungarian Romani music / Cigányzene
Hungarian Gypsy music · Romani café music · Gypsy violin music · Hungarian Romani music · Cigányzene
Hungary · Slovakia · Transylvania
The urban string-band tradition of the Romungro: a primás on violin, cimbalom, viola and bass. Verbunkos and csárdás became emblems of Hungary itself. The Lakatos families are among its most famous dynasties.
Named players: Czinka Panna, János Bihari, The Lakatos families, Magyari Imre, Sándor Déki Lakatos, Sándor Lakatos
Kalbelia
Kalbelia dance · UNESCO 00340
India
Kalbelia of Rajasthan. UNESCO 2010 element 00340. Linguistic origin of Romani in India is strong. A musical lineage from Kalbelia to flamenco, jazz or csárdás is not demonstrated.
Lăutărească
Muzică lăutărească · Tarafs · Doina
Romania · Moldova
The professional wedding and ritual music of the lăutari — musicians, typically of Romani origin, organised in tarafs. Doina, hora and sârba sit beside urban mahala styles and, later, manele.
Named players: Nicolae Neacșu (Culai), Gabi Luncă, Taraf de Haïdouks, Fanfare Ciocărlia, Romica Puceanu, Aurel Ioniță
Manele
Manea · Muzică orientală · Ethnopop
Romania
An urban Romanian song-dance genre, played largely by Romani musicians (lăutari and manelişti), loved at weddings and clubs, and argued over in public. It is not the village taraf. It grew from that professional world.
Reisende / romanifolket visor
Tater visor · Romanifolket visor · Visetradisjon
Norway · Sweden
Family visetradisjon of Norwegian and Swedish reisende / romanifolket. “Tater” is a contested word. Theatre “tatervise” is costume, not the family song.
Named players: Elias Akselsen
Romanichal and Traveller song
English Gypsy song · Mincéirí song · Scottish Traveller song
England · Ireland · Scotland
Oral family song of English Romanichal, Irish Travellers, and Scottish Travellers. Irish and some Scottish Travellers are indigenous nomadic groups, not Romani. They share sites and a song economy. This page keeps the names distinct.
Russian Romani romances
Romansy · Seven-string guitar · Tabor songs
Russia · Ukraine
Choirs, seven-string guitar, and the urban romance. Russian Romani theatre companies made this sound a national fashion in the nineteenth century. A guitar style with few remaining masters still carries it.
Named players: Kolpakov Trio, Loyko
Slovak and Czech traditional song
Phurikane giľa · Romane giľa
Slovakia · Czech Republic
Inward unaccompanied song, split from Rom-pop. Hired primáš families in Klenovec and Kokava are a different job in the same country.
Turkish Romani / Roman havası
Roman oyun havası · 9/8 · Uzun hava
Turkey · Thrace · Aegean
Dance music in 9/8, clarinet or zurna, darbuka, and the long listening form uzun hava. Romani musicians in Istanbul, Edirne and Izmir have supplied wedding and tavern music for generations.
Named players: Selim Sesler
Vlax song & Central European families
Loki djili · Loke gila · Khelimaske gila · Chachi vorba · Rom-pop
Hungary · Slovakia · Czech Republic · Poland · Serbia · Austria
The inward repertoire: slow songs and dance songs in Romani, often unaccompanied. Boyash song as a neighbouring tradition. Later, Rom-pop. Alabanzas sit on their own page.
Named players: Věra Bílá, Kalyi Jag, Ando Drom, Rományi Rota, Ternipe, Kanizsa Csillagai