Boban and Marko Markovic, father and son, are recognised as two of the leading trumpeters in Serbia. Their big band, the Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar, has carried the mantle of the leading band in Serbia since the 80s. I interviewed them about their festival experiences and the trumpet, among other things.
I was very excited to hear that the Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar is coming to the Ilosaarirock music festival this summer. What is the orchestra currently up to?
Marko and Boban
Marko: The orchestra is living one of the busiest moments ever. We would like to continue working with Shantel (we’ll play with him and his Bukovina Orchestra on the 17th of August in Guca), Calexico and Paolo Fresu. As well as with the project Il terrone, l’ebreo e lo zingaro with Roy Paci and Frank London. I recently played a concert with Hüsnü Şenlendirici in Istanbul and I would really appreciate having some time in the studio with him.
We have many plans. I am a volcano of ideas and I am supported by the whole crew. We are in search for new collaborations because we think they are a huge enrichment for an artist. I just recorded with the band DelaDap from Vienna and in the near future we’ll present an important project which involves us and another very famous band. It is a competition. I can’t say more than this for the moment.
Have you played in Finland before? Did you enjoy your stay?
Boban: Yes, we did. We already played in Helsinki in 2003 at the Savoy Theatre. We enjoyed it very much because it was the first time we came to your country. The audience was very warm and the sound simply perfect.
What is one of your best moments from a music festival? As a performer and as a member of the audience.
Marko and Boban
Boban: Oh! There are many things I could tell you! At the Pepsi Sziget festival, we were told by a friend of us who was assisting at the Faith No More concert that their band leader Mike Patton said in front of everybody that he had to finish his concert in 15 minutes because he wanted to go to listen to Markovic at the near stage! We never found out whether he came or not, but it was a big satisfaction anyway. As a member of the audience I very much enjoy the young and talented musicians take part in the Guca Festival, that is for me and every each a big discovery.
What are your feelings on coming to play in a festival mostly concentrating on rock music? Do you think you will fit in? Looking at how Oasis had to postpone their gig because of your performance it is perhaps the rock bands that should be worried.
Marko: It is not the first time this happens to us. We have already played in several rock festivals, and also this year on July the 2nd we’ll be a guest at the Roskilde Festival.
When it comes to Oasis, this was what the newspapers published the day after the concert. It happened in 2001, when our international career started to improve, so it was a great pleasure for us to hear that. I am afraid that Oasis doesn’t even know who we are, so they were probably more surprised than us. The rock bands shouldn’t be worried, we are going to party together.
Finnish audiences are sometimes accused of being passive. Is this true? Do you think a Serbian big band will make us dance and shout?
Marko: In my experience Finnish audiences are everything but passive. I am pretty sure that people will dance and shout with us.
Is there a specific reason the trumpet is your instrument of choice? What is it about brass?
Boban: I chose the trumpet because my father played the tenor horn and both my grandfathers were trumpeters and then it is the traditional instrument from my area, Southern Serbia. It is more correct to say that the trumpet chose me, in the sense that my late father Dragutin put me out of the football fields and obliged me to sit and learn how to play. I would rather have played soccer! So my passion for the trumpet developed with time, in a slower and more mature way and it became a real love. For Marko it was different, he has loved the trumpet since he was a child.
Marko: The trumpet is my breath. Without my trumpet I cannot breathe properly. When I go out or am doing something else, a part of my thoughts is still residing in the world of music. Moreover, the trumpet is not a mere instrument for me. It’s just like a woman with a passionate and sensual personality mixed with some masculine elements which make her also my best friend. The perfect combination. I talk to her, go walking with her and even used to sleep with her. Life with my trumpet is not always easy. Sometimes she does not give me exactly what I ask from her and we start to quarrel. Then I tell her: “Stay there!” and maybe we don’t see each other for a couple of days. But then I die of nostalgia and I go back on my decision and I play her with more feelings than ever.
How does being a Serbian influence your music?
Boban: In my case, the tradition influenced my music very much, partly because at the beginning of my international career I was called abroad to play the traditional songs or those made popular by the movies of Emir Kusturica. After some years I started to move away from this a bit and to find my own balance between tradition and innovation.
Marko: My music is deeply rooted in my tradition and the sound that I love to produce expresses my roma origins. By the way, you may notice listening to my last two albums (Go Marko Go and Devla) that I am slowly moving away from pure tradition and combining several elements, among which jazz has become somehow predominant.
I will tell you a funny story. During one of our tours we were staying at one hotel near the seaside. There were tennis fields so I said to myself. “Ok, today I will leave the trumpet in my room and I will try to play tennis!” While playing I met someone very active who really impressed me: a frog. She was very small, but very alive, a real devil. That’s why guessed she must have been a “girl frog”.
She was continuously jumping, flying with the tennis balls, maybe trying to catch them. Playing without hitting her was really hard, but she did not mind that much. I was told she was often there. She made the tennis fields her reign. I felt admiration for that frog so I familiarized with her. She could have lived an easy life, in a garden near a swimming pool of an expensive resort…
But she tried her way. She wanted to live as the master of her own life. Not like a simple frog. Like her I decided to live my dream. My trumpet.
So I took all the teachings that my grandfather Dragutin and my father Boban gave me. I will always thank them for that. But I will also follow my own way, adding innovative elements to a consolidated tradition… And for the time being, the audience agrees with me.
What can the audience expect from your performance?
Marko: What can you expect? As we say in Serbia: it will be LUDILO (crazyness).
Boban: Of course, start to practise and dance from now! It is going to be a “hard day’s night”!
Interview by Jussi Valonen
An enormous thanks to Sara Gigante for translating from Serbian to English.
