The recordings were made from 1955-1984 by Deben Bhattacharya, a specialist in collecting, filming and recording traditional music, song and dance in Asia, Europe and North Africa. In 1965 he released a book of photos of Gypsies around the world, along with two LPs with recordings of their music. However, the present double CD, followed by another in the future, is not a re-release. The number of
… recordings is larger and more recent, although no more recent than 1984. The first CD is entitled: "Nomads from Asia to Europe" and contains recordings from India, China, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Israel, Mauritania, Turkey and Macedonia . The second CD is called: "Catholic gypsies of Spain & France" and contains recordings of classical flamenco music. Although the setup suggests otherwise, namely offering insight into the connections between the music of gypsies of different nationalities, the publication seems to be mainly a tribute to Deben Bhattacharya. In that sense, this CD is no more or less than all previous CDs that attempt to give an overview of gypsy music cultures. (GO)more
