Saban Bajramovic
The king of the gypsy world music
Saban Bajramovic is the most prolific and the most celebrated Roma singer, composer and poet in the Balkans.
Saban Bajramovic was born on April 16, 1936 in Nis (Serbia). He almost did not attend the school while picking up musical education, alike many of his people, on street.
When he was nineteen, he deserted the army because of love, and later was sentenced to three years imprisonment .
However, while serving his sentence Šaban Bajramovic founded a prison band which played, among other music, jazz, Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra songs, as well as Spanish and Mexican melodies. He made his first record in 1964, and nowadays, his discography consists of some twenty albums and more then fifty singles. He wrote and composed about seven hundred songs. For more than twenty years, he has led “Crna Mamba” (Black Mamba), touring half of the world with the band. Upon invitation of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, he visited India, where he was named for the king of the gypsy world music.
Saban made films with Goran Paskaljevic "Guardian Angel" (1987), with Milan Jelic "Sunday Lunch"(1982), as well as with Stole Popov "Gipsy Magic" (1997). Many artists have been inspired by him and his works, among them Goran Bregovic, who has often taken over themes and melodies from Saban Bajramovic.
His greatest songs Djelem Djelem i Prokleta je Amerika will stay wih us forever.
For some fans he was king of soul music - Serbian James Brown.
