Western Europe
The sophisticated music of the Romani orchestras that visited Western Europe became popular in the second half of the 19th century and had its heyday from the 1920s onwards to about 1960, although this music remains popular still today. The tours of rajkó-orchestras – featuring young Romani-musicians – added much to its popularity. The rajkó boys were both endearing and virtuoso, a combination that enchanted the public.
The cimbalom, unknown to the Western audience, added its characteristic sound to the violins played in a Romani style. Romani virtuoso like Bela Babai, Lajos Veres, the many members of the Lakatos family and others became famous. Nowadays the names of Roby Lakatos, Buffo Sandor and Sandor Jaroka still are household names for the Western connoisseurs of this type of music.
The Western public regarded this genre as a counterpart to the other Romani-related music: Gypsy jazz. They regarded it as a typical Gypsy style: a fine specimen of Romani culture. In their Western European languages they valued it as “Gypsy music”, “Musique tsigane”, “Zigeunermusik”, etc.
Read more about this topic: Romani Music
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