Gig review: The Legendary Gypsy Queens and Kings

Published on Friday 22 January 2010 18:10

THE LEGENDARY GYPSY QUEENS & KINGS *** GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL

THE lineage of the great Macedonian singer Esma Redzepova – the foremost "Gypsy Queen" among an array of almost 20 performers – neatly exemplifies the borderless nature of Roma culture and music, as celebrated in this international hit show. The daughter of a Serbian father and Turkish mother, she's virtually a one-woman Roma diaspora, having been born in Skopje into a mixed Muslim and Jewish family – a hybridity vibrantly reflected in the myriad musical influences seething away here.

With a combined house-band line-up comprising the brass-led Romanian nine-piece Mahala Ra Banda and the Spanish Gitano trio Kaloome – three singers, playing two guitars and cajon, in the rumba-flamenco vein popularised by the original Gipsy Kings – the core sound fluently and dynamically interwove Balkan, Mediterranean and Arabic strands, further embroidered with tinges of reggae, ska, rock, pop and vaudeville.

Redzepova featured alongside two guest singers, Florentina Sandu, also from Romania, and Bulgaria's Joni Iliev. Sandu's clear, curvaceous, forthright tones lent the most contemporary gloss to her material, though she struggled somewhat to be heard above the mighty accompanying wall of brass, while Iliev combined resonant earthy gravitas with roguish braggadocio.

The 66-year-old Redzepova, however, indisputably reigned supreme: a short, rotund vision swathed from head to foot firstly in apricot chiffon, then in sequined scarlet, she variously conjured the otherworldly magic of Balkan women's choirs, the grandeur of opera and the visceral drama of classic blues.