he grande dame of the "cantece de mahala", Romica Puceanu, was born in Bucharest in 1926 and at the tender age of 14 had already begun to sing in local cafés in the Floreasca and Herestrau quarters on the outskirts of Bucharest. "Romica Puceanu had an inexhaustible repertoire of these songs", the accordion player and singer Victor Gore recalls in the summer of 2005. The singer recorded her first album in 1964 with the Taraful Fratii Gore - Aurel and Victor Gore's band in Electrecord's Tomis Studio. And it was the Gore Brothers who discovered the the young lady with the powerful voice in their own family and helped her on. They arranged gigs for their cousin at weddings in the quarter where the Gore and Puceanu families lived. There Romica Puceanu sang melodies with stirring words, in which she described the everyday life, longings and sufferings of the simple folk. Above all however she was a soulful performer of the songs from the poor suburbs, which merged Turkish "cifte-telli" rhythms with Romanian melodies and lyrics. In a short time she had risen to be the most popular and best paid singer and became the incarnation of Romanian Lautari music. The recordings with the Gore Brothers still represent the traditional "raw" withdrawn sound of the old taraf. The arrangements are clear and minimalist, creating space befitting Puceanu's sparkling voice. Romica Puceanu meant to many Gypsies as much as the legendary chanson singer Maria Tanase meant to the Romanians. And it wasn't only Bucharest intellectuals who saw in Romica Puceanu the "Billy Holliday of the East".

Musicians
Romica Puceanu - vocals
Aurel Gore - violin
Victor Gore - accordion and vocals (6 & 11)
Marin Marangros - cymbalom
Grigore Ciuciu - double bass
nn - violin
Maslina Vetoi - cobzy
Costel Vasilescu - trumpet

he grande dame of the "cantece de mahala", Romica Puceanu, was born in Bucharest in 1926 and at the tender age of 14 had already begun to sing in local cafés in the Floreasca and Herestrau quarters on the outskirts of Bucharest. "Romica Puceanu had an inexhaustible repertoire of these songs", the accordion player and singer Victor Gore recalls in the summer of 2005. The singer recorded her first album in 1964 with the Taraful Fratii Gore - Aurel and Victor Gore's band in Electrecord's Tomis Studio. And it was the Gore Brothers who discovered the the young lady with the powerful voice in their own family and helped her on. They arranged gigs for their cousin at weddings in the quarter where the Gore and Puceanu families lived. There Romica Puceanu sang melodies with stirring words, in which she described the everyday life, longings and sufferings of the simple folk. Above all however she was a soulful performer of the songs from the poor suburbs, which merged Turkish "cifte-telli" rhythms with Romanian melodies and lyrics. In a short time she had risen to be the most popular and best paid singer and became the incarnation of Romanian Lautari music. The recordings with the Gore Brothers still represent the traditional "raw" withdrawn sound of the old taraf. The arrangements are clear and minimalist, creating space befitting Puceanu's sparkling voice. Romica Puceanu meant to many Gypsies as much as the legendary chanson singer Maria Tanase meant to the Romanians. And it wasn't only Bucharest intellectuals who saw in Romica Puceanu the "Billy Holliday of the East".

Musicians
Romica Puceanu - vocals
Aurel Gore - violin
Victor Gore - accordion and vocals (6 & 11)
Marin Marangros - cymbalom
Grigore Ciuciu - double bass
nn - violin
Maslina Vetoi - cobzy
Costel Vasilescu - trumpet