Show #88: Ivo Papasov and His Wedding Band

October 2nd, 2006

The artist this week is the first to be featured here whose music was so rebellious, that he was locked up and beaten. The Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, and many others have been labeled “dangerous”, had their albums smashed, and suffered attempts to have their concerts banned. However they were never thrown into a labor camp like those in Alexandr Solzhenitsyn novels as was Ivo Papasov.

(Picture found here.)

Papasov was born in 1952 and left school to pursue a career in music as a clarinet player. He formed his first band in 1974 and became the most popular wedding musician in all of Bulgaria and one of the country’s most well-known acts. In 1982 the Soviet authorities decided that his music didn’t conform to state dogma and so he was arrested and suffered the tribulations I described above.
Strings were pulled on his behalf and he was eventually freed. Because of this, he gained something of a cult status as a renegade which helped him land a recording contract with Hannibal Records in the late 80s. This resulted in a couple albums, Orpheus Ascending and Balkanology, both of which were produced by the legendary producer Joe Boyd (Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, early Pink Floyd).

Ivo Papasov & His Bulgarian Wedding Band mix Gypsy music with jazz. Some songs feature this combination in all its glory while others steer closer to the music of Papasov’s homeland. Either way, you can bet there will be crazy-fast tempos and odd time signatures.

While I don’t have any song titles or band credits, I can say that the show this week features songs from a variety of radio shows from different dates. The first track is very lengthy and rival most Grateful Dead performances of “Dark Star”.

1) Recorded 16 March 1992 in Bremen, Germany
2+3) Recorded November 1990 in Zurich Switzerland.
4) Recorded 2 June 1990 in Moers, Germany.

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Ivo Papasov

Here’s a video from YouTube of a Papasov performance.

Related posts:

1. Show #57: Warsaw Village Band
2. Show #45: Rush: The Fear Trilogy (Mini)