Gig review: Boban Markovic

Published on Friday 10 July 2009 19:00

BOBAN MARKOVIC ORKESTAR *** PICTURE HOUSE, EDINBURGH

THERE aren't many people who can say they've upstaged Oasis, but the Serbian brass maestro Boban Markovic ranks among them. Back in 2001, at a festival in Budapest, the headlining Mancunians had to delay their set by half an hour as almost the entire crowd was packed in front of the world music stage, agog at the musical firestorm unleashed by Markovic and his 11-man crew.

Nowadays co-led by Markovic on flugelhorn and his son Marko on trumpet, the Orkestar are among today's best-known exponents of the southern Serbian brass band tradition, souping up its original mix of Balkan, Roma and Turkish influences with diverse contemporary and international flavours. Besides the two frontmen, their line-up comprised three more flugelhorns, three tenor horns and a tuba, plus three percussionists, with Markovic snr and jnr sharing most of the vocal duties. An instrumental sound dominated by typically manic Balkan/gypsy tempos also took in elements of reggae, ska, Latin, jazz and mariachi music, while the songs' sinuous, highly ornamented melodies strikingly highlighted their Ottoman heritage.

What came across clearest of all, however, was that this type of brass band is primarily designed to perform outdoors. Their prevailing fast-and-furious mode combined with overpowering volume to cumulatively punishing effect, with an indistinct sound mix obscuring not only the finer points of the intricate ensemble arrangements, but much of the Markovic's dazzling virtuosity at the helm.