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Dance Your Brass Off!

Who doesn’t love a brass band? The horns, the drums, the crash of the cymbals. In most parts of the world brass bands are THE preferred party music for weddings, festivals, baptisms, and pretty much anything you’d want to throw a party for.

If you’re a fan of brass bands, you know that Balkan brass bands provide some of the best dance music out there. Balkan brass evolved out of the military bands of the Ottoman empire, formed during the First Serbian Uprising in the early part of the 19th century. Brass instruments were used as a way to gather soldiers for battle and when the war ended, the soldiers went home, the music entered everyday life and became the preferred soundtrack for celebrations. There has been a recent resurgence of interest in Balkan brass bands and you can hear elements of the music in modern-day indie rock bands like Beirut and world-dance bands like Balkan Beat Box.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxJ23XJD0D0]
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Portland – Celebrate the Old New Year with Chervona!

Yeah, we know, New Year’s is over but in Russia, January 14th marks The Old New Year, an informal traditional Slavic Orthodox holiday. The Russian Old New Year celebrates the start of the New Year by the Julian calendar which the Russian Orthodox Church continued to use despite the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic’s adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1918. As a result, Russians celebrate both the “New” New Year as dictated by the Gregorian calendar (January 1st) and then the “Old” New Year on January 14. Generally the Old New Year is a nostalgic family holiday marked by large traditional meals, singing and celebratory drinking. This tradition is also celebrated throughout Eastern Europe in Serbia, Armenia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOzKTTt0f0s&feature=player_embedded]
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