FRONTCOVER-
The Roma or Gypsy musicians of Eastern Europe often carried music across boundaries. Brooklyn-based vocalist Eva Salina explores the songs of Serbian-Roma singer Vida Pavlović, a prominent recording artist in the former Yugoslavia, on her new album. Working with accordionist Peter Stan, she interprets Pavlović’s recordings as if holding forth in a Belgrade café sometime in the last century. Sudbina is unvarnished and unprocessed; you can hear the click-clank of Stan’s accordion keys and the powerful intimacy of Salina’s singing. All that’s missing are the clinking slivovitz glasses. Pavlović was a Balkan Édith Piaf, and those able to translate the lyrics will hear a woman’s perspective on anger, sadness and hope.
