Chapter 04
Romani Skopje, Esma Redžepova and Usnija Jašarova
4 min
Romani musicians are makers of the public sound
Romani musicians have worked across weddings, restaurants, radio, records, film and international touring. Their flexibility is professional knowledge, not proof that Romani music has no identity of its own. A player may perform Macedonian, Turkish, Albanian, Serbian and Romani repertories for different audiences while maintaining family and community traditions.
Skopje’s Šuto Orizari became an important Romani municipal and cultural centre after the 1963 earthquake and later urban development. The city’s Romani musical life cannot be reduced to one neighbourhood, but Šutka is essential to its institutions, weddings and public careers.
Esma’s voice enters before the arrangement settles
Esma Redžepova began performing with Stevo Teodosievski’s ensemble as a teenager. Her career crossed Yugoslav broadcasting, international touring, Romani-language song and Macedonian popular culture. The title “Queen of the Gypsies,” widely used in promotion, carries a historical industry frame; Romani singer and author is the more useful everyday description.
“Esma’s Song (Esma Kiri Gilli)” presents a youthful voice already capable of rapid ornament and direct attack. “Čaje Šukarije” makes those qualities unmistakable: she leans into repeated phrases, pushes above the ensemble and turns rhythmic flexibility into authority.
The band matters. Accordion or reed, percussion, bass and arranged responses create the space in which her voice can surge. Stevo Teodosievski’s role as arranger and manager should be named without letting his name absorb hers.
Usnija Jašarova offers another centre of gravity
Usnija Jašarova’s recorded work with Macedonian ensembles and later career in Belgrade theatre created a different route. Her voice can sound rounder and more inward than Redžepova’s, though repertory and recording date change the comparison. On “Džulo Džulo,” lyric line and ornament remain tightly balanced.
The Smithsonian release Songs of a Macedonian Gypsy placed Redžepova and Jašarova together, which makes comparison convenient but can also flatten separate careers. Hear one solo recording from each before the shared “Macedonian Horo (Soborsko Oro).” The dance track reveals ensemble energy rather than a contest between singers.
Language changes the shape of a public
Romani-language song addresses community and transnational Romani listeners; Macedonian or Serbian recordings can enter other markets. Artists often worked across all three. Translation helps with meaning, but vocal rhythm depends on the original syllables.
Do not describe a multilingual career as loss of authenticity. The more precise question is who wrote or arranged the song, which language this version uses and how the audience was reached.
Brass and wedding-band routes continued beyond famous singers
North Macedonian Romani bands include zurla-tapan specialists, brass players, clarinettists and contemporary keyboard-led wedding ensembles. Kočani Orkestar, associated with the town of Kočani and an international brass circuit, provides one prominent doorway. Its recordings join Romani wedding practice, brass-band arrangement and world-music production.
International marketing often asks Romani bands to sound permanently ecstatic and fast. A complete listening route also needs slow song, improvisation and the working transitions of an event. Virtuosity includes knowing when not to play at maximum intensity.
Esma’s public legacy contains care and controversy
Redžepova linked her career to humanitarian work and plans for a music museum and home of humanity. Later disputes around her estate and unfinished institutional legacy should not replace the music. They do, however, show that cultural memory depends on governance as well as applause.
Her collaboration with Toše Proeski on “Magija” connects generations and different pop publics. The duet is useful after the earlier Romani recordings because it reveals how her unmistakable timbre functions inside a polished twenty-first-century arrangement.
Brass records change when they enter the world-music circuit
International festival and label production gave Macedonian Romani brass new audiences, but it also favoured a recognisable package: rapid tempo, dramatic solos and the promise of an uninhibited Balkan party. Kočani Orkestar could deliver that intensity, yet its strongest recordings also depend on arrangement, low-brass balance and the ability to move between song and instrumental sections.
Hear the bass line before the trumpet. Tubas or low horns make the ground flexible, sometimes walking and sometimes striking the dance accents directly. Clarinet can cut above the brass with ornaments closer to voice. When a soloist accelerates, the ensemble must reshape its articulation underneath. The apparent wildness is coordinated work.
Studio production can separate instruments more cleanly than a wedding street, while festival amplification increases bass and drum impact. Kočani Orkestar’s “Romani Caj” places an articulated low-brass floor beneath a concise melodic line; the arrangement moves between songlike phrasing and ensemble propulsion without remaining at maximum volume. It is a record made for circulation, but the musicians’ balance and timing remain the source of its force.
Šuto Orizari has ordinary music as well as symbolic music
Šuto Orizari is frequently filmed as a uniquely Romani place, which can make every wedding or brass band carry the burden of representing an entire municipality. Residents also hear pop, rap, devotional music, television songs and international hits; local artists work with keyboards, home studios and online video as well as inherited ensembles. Music here is civic and professional life, not an attraction available on demand.
