As the newest roving reporter for Tamburaland, my first assignment from the webmajstor, Mr. Delmar was to bring the premier of the gypsy-jazz orchestra Caravan to Tamburaland’s loyal followers.

The concert was held on Pittsburgh’s South Side at a club/bar called Club Café. Club Café was a comfortable, quaint place with a glass bar that changed colors and great martinis.

After a bit of travel, I arrived at Club Café around 7:35, a bit late, but nothing could set me back from covering this, my first assignment. When I arrived, I was welcomed to the club with the warm sounds of Krunoslav Spisic, a.k.a. Strabo, on lead/solo guitar:

Richard Balazs on rhythm guitar:

and Bark Belich on bass:

The first set started out with some Gypsy Jazz standards like Dark Eyes and Nuages. Once the gypsies warmed up, they started in to what are sure to be the newest standards; tunes like Ceausescu Swing that were a perfect mix of rich folk melodies and swinging rhythms and a great version of Kada Padne, both tunes accompanied by the world-renowned cimbalos, Alex Fedoriouk.

The music was fantastic all night, and everyone in the crowd had a blast. Club Cafe was packed with the gypsies’ friends and even Amerikanci, all tapping their feet, clapping and screaming. Let’s take a gander at some of the crowd:

Cure love gypsy jazz

Kruno tears it up on a solo while Zeljko ponders how he can make a Bunjevacko choreography to the song “Donna Lee”

A Cro, and American, a Greek, a Hungarian and a Jew…all cultures (and religions) love gypsy jazz.

The concert was a great time for everyone in attendance and was a huge success for Caravan. Caravan did a great job at proving that Pittsburgh did indeed have gypsies living in it, and they sure can play.

Ivek Huckle