“Buzeqesh Goca” (1994) – Lavier Bariu * Trad. * Produced by Ben Mandelson and Kim Burton * CD: Songs from the City of Roses (1998) * Label: Globe Style
The late Albanian clarinetist Laver Bariu got first class treatment on this 1998 CD (recorded live to digital in 1994) called Songs from the City of Roses by Globestyle, back when that label actively bird-dogged music from all corners. UK musician and scholar Ben Mandelson, along with ethnomusicologist Kim Burton, recorded Bariu in Përmet, near the Greek border, capturing a bandleader with decades of hard work and discipline under his belt, rallying his men forward with his cascading melody lines. “Buzeqesh Goca” means “smile, Goca” (the name of a girl – rhymes with ‘boats-ah’), and will make you want to pick up any instrument nearby to try and play along. In 1978 Bariu appeared in a black and white Albanian film called Gjeneral Gramofoni, which is set in the 1930s.