GY on Music Theory Print

Gypsy jazz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Terminology#

The musical style was first named jazz tsigane in the French language, which translates to “gypsy jazz” in English. It is also known as sinti jazz, gypsy swing, jazz manouche or hot club-style jazz. Some scholars have noted that the name “manouche jazz” began to be used around the late 1990s as a replacement term. The term “gypsy jazz” may be considered offensive, as the word “gypsy” has historically been used as a slur against Romani people.

Gypsy punk

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The origin of the term “gypsy punk” may be disputable, but it is agreed that the Romani culture is how the style of it began. The Romani people, who are spread out throughout the world, have affected the music industry in the west as seen through bands such as Gogol Bordello. Eastern European and traditional instrumentation and multilingual lyrics are both common characteristics of Romani music. In the case of Gogol Bordello, the upbeat tempo and “punk scream-singing” along with these common “gypsy” characteristics create a concrete example of what is known as gypsy punk. “The word ‘gypsy’ coupled with the term ‘punk’ has interesting implications in that punk encapsulates a particular mode of rebellion, anarchy, and resistance in a Western context”, which is good to note since at the time Gogol Bordello and other bands were introducing this genre, “the punk movement became identified in mass culture as the definitive statement of the annihilation of musical and societal norms, collectively rejecting the rules of the past because of the bleak and hypocritical present and future they provided”. This is to say that the Roma that have settled down in the west have taken elements from “Romani music in a style that is indebted to Western punk”. Because gypsy punk is a mixture of traditional music and popular music to the western culture, the Romani are colonizing and seemingly settling into a loose identity of their own. The music itself “is considered to be a post-colonial movement”.

Gypsy style

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Music played in this style can easily be recognized among many other styles. Characteristic elements of the style include: * Instrumentation * The repertoire * The idiom Among these items the last one — the idiom — is decisive: it is mainly the way of playing that determines whether a tune is played in Roma people’s style or not. It is — just like in jazz – not the combination of instruments that determines the style, but its characteristic performance.