Macedonian Blues

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  • Soldier of Macedon
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2008
    • 13670

    Macedonian Blues

    Typical of the reviews, this “extraordinarily sensitive” recording received on its limited release in October 2001, Jazz critic Neil Tesser wrote “Ivanovic and Haque have forged a partnership that’d be impressive with or without an extra nudge from international politics.” And Howard Reich wrote of this disc in the Los Angeles Times: “There’s no resisting its mix of American Jazz, acoustic blues, flamenco rhythm and Macedonian Melody.”

    Fareed Haque, who ”possesses one of the great guitar techniques in modern music” (Tesser), here joins his younger colleague, Goran Ivanovic, classically trained musician from the former Yugoslavia, to forge “a musical alloy of classical music with the animated ethnic folk music of the Balkans…rife with improvisation, odd meters, virtuosity and incredible spirit.”
    Goran Ivanovic and Fareed Haque wanted to play more than the standard repertoire for classical guitar when they teamed up. The two virtuosos, who will perform next week at Harper College, play songs that reflect their their ethnic heritages. Their excellent 2001 compact disc “Macedonian Blues: Laments and Dances,” focuses on the folk music of the former Yugoslavia, where Ivanovic grew up, a child of Serbian and Bosnian Croat parents. But the album also features some touches of Haque’s musical background. The child of Pakistani and Chilean parents, he brings Spanish and Middle Eastern music to the mix, as well as his gift for fluid jazz improvisation.

    When Ivanovic played some music from Macedonia for Haque, “Immediately, both of us were excited about the music,” Ivanovic said. “Goran was searching and trying to find a repertoire,” Haque said. “The logical place to begin is your own back yard. ... It’s very beautiful music.” Before they became musical partners, Ivanovic took guitar lessons from Haque, even though he was already quite accomplished on the instrument. Now, Haque jokes that he is merely helping out Ivanovic as the Croatian immigrant makes his inevitable climb to “world domination” as a star guitarist.

    Ivanovic grew up listening to his father playing blues and rock on the guitar, but when he decided to learn the instrument, he studied classical guitar. Ivanovic was 12 years old in 1989, when he went with his mother from Croatia to Austria. His father feared that war might break out soon in Croatia, so he sent Ivanovic to study music at Universitaet Mozarteum Salzburg. “We went to Salzburg thinking he would stay six months or a year and move back,” Ivanovic said. “The war ended up being a terrible thing.” Ivanovic has never been back to his home country since then. “I felt that I grew up that summer,” he said. “I was at a big university with people 10 years older than me.”

    After completing his musical studies in Austria, Ivanovic and his parents moved to the Chicago area in the 1990s; he currently lives in Naperville. Like Ivanovic, Haque led an itinerant existence in his early years, with extended stays in Spain, France, Iran, Pakistan and Chile. His guitar playing shows the influences he picked up during his travels. Haque, a music professor at Northern Illinois University, is not only a talented jazz improviser, but also a fine classical guitarist. He has performed with Sting, Dave Holland, Joe Zawinul and Paquito D'Rivera. “I'm a musician who plays all kinds of music,” he said. “I haven’t been shy about exploring my own heritage — if nothing else, as a kind of art therapy for the confused, dislocated culture of America.” Haque said his multicultural background makes it difficult for him claim any particular ethnic music as his own, but that doesn’t stop him from exploring his roots. “For me, it’s always been about searching,” he said.

    Ivanovic said he concentrated on gathering songs from Macedonia rather than his native Croatia because “Macedonia is the richest part of Yugoslavia as far as the folklore.” Working from old recordings of village musicians in rural Macedonia, Ivanovic figured out how to play the folk songs. He and Haque created their own arrangements. “The songs were played for dance purposes,” Ivanovic said. “We wanted to keep the original meters and melodies the same, but we reworked the harmonies.” When they recorded the CD at Solid Sound Studios in Hoffman Estates, Ivanovic wasn’t yet comfortable with improvising, so he allowed Haque to handle most of the ad-libbing. “It was very new for me,” Ivanovic said.

    But in the two years since, Ivanovic said he has picked up some of Haque’s improvisation techniques. “I learned a lot of things just by playing with him,” he said. The two are half done recording a new album. And Ivanovic still hopes he will perform someday in the former Yugoslavia, the homeland he hasn’t seen for 14 years. “When the time is right, I hope I will,” he said.
    On their newly released CD, Macedonian Blues: Laments and Dances (Proteus), Chicago guitarists Goran Ivanovic and Fareed Haque concentrate on the music of a war-torn nation--Macedonia being one of the Balkan countries formerly part of Yugoslavia, Ivanovic's birthplace.
    Anybody heard of the CD? Sounds interesting. And of course Macedonian melody is excellent!
    In the name of the blood and the sun, the dagger and the gun, Christ protect this soldier, a lion and a Macedonian.
  • Risto the Great
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2008
    • 15658

    #2
    Sounds interesting!
    Risto the Great
    MACEDONIA:ANHEDONIA
    "Holding my breath for the revolution."

    Hey, I wrote a bestseller. Check it out: www.ren-shen.com

    Comment

    • George S.
      Senior Member
      • Aug 2009
      • 10116

      #3
      that's good news for macedonian music to know it's appreciated.
      "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
      GOTSE DELCEV

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