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 connotat...
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 around the globe, have released acclaimed albums and a DVD (see below), and their countless fans include people like the late Yehudi Menuhin, Kronos Quartet (with whom they've recorded and performed), actor Johnny Depp (alongside whom they appeared in the film "The Man Who Cried"), fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto (who invited them to be models-cum-musicians for his Paris and Tokyo shows) and many more. Meanwhile, the band members seem to have been relatively unaffected by all humdrum, they’ve retained their sense of humour, and their way of life (they still reside in their modest village of Clejani, in the Valachian countryside). The band's latest release is the Maskarada album, in which they re-interpret and "re-gypsyfy" pieces by classical composers from the 20th century (such as Bartok, Khachaturian and others), who had drawn inspiration from national folklore and often borrowed from Roma styles. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
