...Ljiljana Buttler is one of the great re-discovered voices of
Eastern Europe. Deep, dark and distinctive. Her recording with the Mostar
Sevdah Reunion band, "The Mother of Gypsy Soul (Snail Records)
is one of my CDs of the year and impresses everyone I've played in to.
(Simon Broughton ,Songlines, UK, September/October 2002)
LJilJANA BUTTLER was born in Belgrade, her father was an accordion
virtuoso and her mother a Croatian singer. But her father left soon
after she was born and her mother had to support herself and her child,
singing in bars. They settled in Bijeljina, a small town in Bosnia,
but one night her mother fell ill and Ljiljana went to the café
and said "My mother can't come tonight, she's sick. Please let
me sing." She was only 12 but had learned at her mother's side.
A year later her mother left and Ljiljana was on her own - she continued
singing in cafes to support herself through school. Then she headed
for Belgrade. "I started singing in bars in Skadalia (the famous
restaurant quarter, a sort of Balkan Montmartre)", she remembers.
"The atmosphere was fantastic. The people laughed and cried during
the music. That always inspired me - that and strong slivovice (plum
brandy), lots of sad loves and lots of emotion and romance. Sometimes
we made recordings for Radio Belgrade. They simply came to the cafes,
listened to the music and if they liked it, asked the musicians back
to the radio to record".
From 1980 Ljiljana started doing concerts and became well-known on
TV until the political and musical mood started changing with so-called
turbo-folk providing the soundtrack for the Milosevic era. "Even
before the war, I realised that somehow the joy had vanished and the
Balkan men were no longer interested in love stories. Suddenly it became
important to wear a short skirt and flash your cleavage. The shorter
the skirt, the better singer you were thought to be. I realised my time
was over. It was a time for weapons and hatred. It affected me terribly
and the war that followed has left scars that will last forever."
In 1987 she vanished from the Balkan music scene in which she played
such a dominant role, leaving music lovers wondering about her mysterious
disappearance. In 2002 she decided to return to her homeland and record
a new album on the Snail Records label. Her vocal abilities on "Mother
of Gypsy Soul" lead us to the depths of Gypsy and Balkan soul.
At the age of 60 she sings better then ever; what she is presenting
to us now is a pure handbook of Balkan Blues. The astonishing reappearance
of this lost legend is something to be more than grateful for.
Her performance on the album shows why, in the former Yugoslavia, she
was referred to as the 'Gypsy Ella Fitzgerald' and the 'Billie Holiday
of Gypsy Music', but mostly she was called lovingly the 'Mother of Gypsy
Soul'.
On this recording, the highly acclaimed Serbian Gypsy
trumpet player Boban Markovic performed as a special guest joining the
most famous Balkan band from Bosnia and Hercegovina, Mostar Sevdah Reunion.
Ljiljana released her second CD with Snail Records in the summer of
2006. On this album she is jointed by special guest and ‘King of
the Gypsies’, Saban Bajramovic.
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