Serbs pay respects to Roma music king

25/06/2008

"His death is a great loss for music, and I'm not sure that younger generations will sing as he did," said fellow musician Kresimir Tomec of the late Saban Bajramovic.

By Davor Konjikusic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade -- 25/06/08

Saban Bajramovic died earlier this month. [File]

The "king of Roma music", 72-year-old Saban Bajramovic, died of a heart attack on June 8th in Nis. Over the course of a career celebrated not just in the Balkans, but worldwide as well, Bajramovic recorded 20 albums, released around 50 singles and wrote and arranged more than 700 songs. For more than 20 years, he was the front man for the Black Mamba band. He also acted in several films.

His musical career started after he went to prison for deserting the Yugoslav Army, purportedly to romance a girl. In Bajramovic's telling, a court-martial originally sentenced him to three years' imprisonment. After he told the court that he could withstand any sentence, it increased his term to five and a half years.

Incarcerated on Goli Otok, an island in the Adriatic Sea that contained most of the Tito era's political prisoners, Bajramovic joined the inmate orchestra. It played songs made famous by Frank Sinatra and John Coltrane, among others. Bajramovic later called prison his "university of life", saying he learned to read and write there too. Upon leaving jail, he released his first record in 1964.

Despite his long and remarkable career, Bajramovic fell on hard times. When the public discovered that he was both ill and destitute in old age, Minister of Labour and Social Policy Rasim Ljajic ensured that he received governmental assistance. Bajramovic said to journalists at the beginning of June, "There is no one to come through my gate or to phone me and ask how I am." To the end, he lived in a Roma neighbourhood near Nis.

At his funeral on June 11th, the estimated 10,000 mourners included President Boris Tadic, former Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic and film director Goran Paskaljevic. Representatives of the Nisville Jazz Festival launched an initiative to have Nis name one of its streets for him.

Fellow musicians paid tribute to him. "Saban's death is another chance to contemplate the Roma problem in the Balkans, but at the same time, it is the death of a great man who stayed faithful to his unique way of life. ... This is a key moment to honour the Romas who have preserved their musical tradition," Bojan Djordjevic, director of the Ring Ring music festival and manager of the Boban Markovic Orchestra, told Southeast European Times.

Cubismo, a Croatian band, performed with him several times. "His death is a great loss for music, and I'm not sure that younger generations will sing as he did," band member Kresimir Tomec said.