Alison Brockhouse and Bryan Chang’s documentary film Brasslands was shot at an annual brass band festival in the Serbian village of Guca. As anyone even marginally interested in “world music” knows, Balkan brass bands have proliferated in the former Yugoslavia and their often-manic sound has found favor among some American musicians, especially in polyglot, multi-ethnic New York.
The Brasslands Motion Picture Soundtrack (released by Evergreene Music) is a superb buffet of this music, including popular Serbian bandleaders such as Dejan Petrovic and Demiran Cerimovic along with Brooklyn contenders such as Slavic Soul Party and the Raya Brass Band. The music has many parallels to the New Orleans brass band tradition from which jazz sprang; in some cases, the Crescent City may have been a direct influence, along with the fiery soloing of post-bop jazz. But as the fascinating liner notes in the booklet point out, Balkan brass probably originated during the 19th century in a confluence of military marching bands and local folk traditions—just as in New Orleans. The tones heard on Brasslands are often Eastern and the arrangements can have an orchestral sweep and dynamism.
The Brasslands Motion Picture Soundtrack is among the best introductions available to this flourishing genre.
