TARAF DE HAIDOUKS – Balkan Gypsy Folk Music (fvll concert) | German TV (1998)

The Taraf de Haïdouks is a group of Gypsy “Lautari” (traditional musicians) who come from the little Romanian village of Clejani. Their name means “Band of Haidouks”, in which the word Haidouk designates a freedom fighter, a kind of popular hero (similar to the Western character of Robin Hood) that was very common in Eastern European countries such as Romania and Bulgaria.

Considered as the epitome of Gypsy music’s fabulous vitality ever since the release of their debut album and their first visit to western Europe back in 1990. A dozen brilliant instrumentalists and singers, with ages ranging roughly from 20 to 80, they had never performed outside their region before they were “discovered” by Stéphane Karo and Michel Winter, two young Belgian music fans who fell in love with their music during a trip to Romania in 1990, and who decided to try to share this passion with the rest of the world.