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Artist
Taraful Din Clejani
12+ albums
romania
about
Taraf de Haïdouks (Taraful din clejani) are a troupe of Romanian Roma musicians, from the town of Clejani, the most prominent such group in Romania in the post-Communist Era. They are known in their native Romania as "Taraful Haiducilor". Roughly, this means "band of outlaws", but "taraf" is also the traditional name for a group of lăutari (traditional Romanian Gypsy musicians). "Haidut" or "haydut" is a word of Turkish origin which means "outlaw"; in Romanian it has a rustic or archaic connotation. Most of those who know the band in the Western world know them by way of French-speaking areas, where they are known as "Taraf de Haïdouks". The group formed in 1989, shortly before the death of dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, but actually they discovered Romanian ethnomusicologist Speranta Radulescu, who first recorded them in 1983 for the archive of "The Institute for Ethnography and Folklore". The original group encompassed about a dozen musicians; later configurations were to include as many as thirty. Early contacts in the West included Swiss ethnomusicologist Laurent Aubert and Belgian musicians Stéphane Karo and Michel Winter, two fans who were so taken by the band's music that they turned into managers, brought the Taraf de Haïdouks to Western Europe and helped launch their international career. Ever since the release of their first album back in 1991, Taraf de Haïdouks have been considered as the epitome of Gypsy music’s fabulous vitality. They've relentlessly toured all arou
