Recorded in Bucharest during three special concerts and additional studio recordings in december 2000, “Band Of Gypsies” is the fourth album by Romanian band Taraf de Haïdouks. Always eager to expand the scope of their music, the “best Gypsy band in the world” (as recently described by UK daily The Independent) decided to confront their styles to those of other Balkan countries by inviting Gypsy virtuoso musicians from Macedonia (the Koçani Orkestar brass band), Bulgaria (clarinet player Filip Simeonov) and Turkey (percussionist Tarik Tuysuzoglu) to join them on stage. The result is a series of exciting mixtures in which magical moments abound.
Along with these ambitious compositions one will rediscover with great pleasure the fantastic atmosphere of a Taraf de Haïdouks live performance in a collection of previously-unrecorded pieces featuring the various singers and soloists in top form and particularly galvanized by the importance of the event. These were indeed the band’s first ever concerts in the Romanian capital; after ten years of international success the Taraf were still not recognized in their own country (maybe because they were perceived as Gypsies rather than as musicians). The event was documented in a film by young French/Gypsy director Elsa Gatlif (Tony Gatlif’s daughter), which is to be found in Taraf de Haïdouks’ DVD.