Brigada Retro Mishto

BRIGADA
RETRO MISHTO

MUZICA TZIGANA

THE BIOGRAPHY

At the beginning of the 20th century, Romania had a world-renowned musician, the violin player Grigoras Dinicu, most famous for his often played “Hora Staccato”. Jascha Heifetz once said that Grigoras Dinicu was the greatest violinist he had ever heard.

In 1945, Grigoras Dinicu took under his wing Cornel Bosoi (playing the violin) from the age of 14, as Cornel was considered a child prodigy.

Later on, Costel Trompetistu (playing the trumpet), Mieluta Surdu (playing the accordion), Fane Bobesteanu (playing the cimbalom) and Grigore Ciuciu (playing the double bass) joined Grigoras Dinicu’s orchestra.

By the time of Grigoras Dinicu’s death, in 1949, Cornel, at the time 20 years of age, became the Brigada leader with his other four lautari with whom he had been playing for almost five years.

The taraf was called BRIGADA from its beginning in the early 1950s, and was and is still considered the best band in the country for almost seven decades.

One could say that Brigada are the last ones of the old-school gypsies lautari; everyone in the taraf is not younger than 75 years old.

Last year, in 2008, Paula Rosenberg, a young musicologist who had been studying the music of the gypsies for over 20 years, decided to get them together again, record a new album and present them to the world, with a new name Brigada Retro Mishto ( The Amazing Retro Band), in gypsy language.

The Brigada Retro Mishto members are: Cornel Bosoi (playing the violin), Mieluta Surdu (playing the accordion), Fane Bobesteanu (playing the cimbalom) Grigore Ciuciu (playing the double bass) and Costel Trompetistu (playing the trumpet).

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun”. (Book of Ecclesiastes).

This is our motto and in the 21st century, in the contemporary world, where everything changes by the speed of light, Brigada Retro Mishto could bring us back to our core, to our true selves.