Šaban Bajramović, a jazz singer and the “King of Romani Music,” was born on April 16, 1936, in Niš.
Although the term “Gypsy” sometimes carries a pejorative meaning, Bajramović often referred to himself as a Gypsy. After his famous first concert at the Dom Sindikata in Belgrade in the late 1970s, he told a journalist: “I’ve been a Gypsy for over forty years, and only two or three years a Rom, so write – Gypsy.”
Life Writes Novels
At the age of nineteen, he escaped from the army for love and was sentenced to three years in prison on Goli Otok as a deserter. He was regarded as a good person in public, although some claim he was a better friend than husband and father. He was married to Milica, with whom he lived in Niš and had four daughters.
He recorded 20 albums and about fifty singles, and he wrote and composed over seven hundred songs. He was known as an exceptional singer of supreme quality and great vocal abilities, with people saying he sang “from the heart and soul.” His rendition of the song “Đelem, Đelem” was chosen as the anthem for all Roma worldwide.
He started singing during his prison sentence when he formed a jazz band in prison. After returning to Niš, he sang in the local cultural and artistic society named after the only Romani national hero. When the society was renamed to KUD “Rom,” he took it as a personal insult and left to sing in taverns in remote Bosnian mountainous places.
At that time, he couldn’t find a record label in Serbia to release his music, so he had his works published in Slovenia, by the Record production of RTV Ljubljana. However, the contract he signed with that label was extremely unfavorable, as he received very little money for the two albums that had a huge circulation. It was later revealed that Bajramović was actually illiterate, which was one of the main reasons why he signed such disadvantageous contracts.
At the personal invitation of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, he performed in India, where he was officially proclaimed as the King of Romani Music. He collaborated and performed with the musical group “Crna Mamba” for almost two decades. He mostly sang in Italy.
Genetic Bluesman
In the early 1980s, it was discovered that he had malignant polyps on his vocal cords. He underwent surgery, and doctors forbade him from singing in the future. Nevertheless, just ten days after a highly
complicated operation, he held a solo concert. “I can’t live without singing.” Despite his already serious illness, he performed at the Nišville International Jazz Festival in Niš in 2005.
Although no one ever managed to categorize him into a specific genre, he was considered a raw genetic bluesman, which fully reflected his life. The magazine Time even proclaimed him one of the ten greatest
blues singers in the world.
According to some stories, at the beginning of his career, he bought white shoes because it meant he would no longer walk in the mud, but he gained and lost fortunes in a circle. One week, he would order
diamond teeth instead of the standard gold ones that became his trademark, and the next week, he would sing at a wedding for half the price to pay off gambling debts. The popular prison gambling game –
barbut, as well as rakija, were his personal hell from which he couldn’t escape, and without them, his songs wouldn’t hurt as much, nor would his life be such a blues.
He passed away on June 8, 2008, at the age of 73, in the clinical center of Niš due to a heart attack.
