From the Center in the Middle: Working Tambura Bands and the Construction of the In Between in Croatia and its Intimates

Abstract

Prelude: Miroslav Skoro's Twentieth Anniversary Concert In November 2009, Croatian pop singer Miroslav Skoro performed in front of some twenty thousand fans at Arena Zagreb, the capital city's much lauded new sports hall. This was the second largest audience drawn by Croatian act since the hall's opening the previous December, (1) testament to Skoro's continuing status as one of Croatia's most popular patriotic performers (as well as television star and, in recent years, politician and record mogul). Aside from the notably large attendance, the concert in Zagreb was of particular significance to Skoro for its timing: held on the twentieth day of November, his performance celebrated twenty years' work in the music industry as professional singer and songwriter. Accompanied by his band (on backup vocals, tenor saxophone, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboard, drums, and electric bass) and number of guest musicians from past projects and from his family, Skoro performed repertoire from throughout his career and thereby commemorated his twenty years of hit songs and his many musical collaborations with these and other musicians. Skoro spoke to those of us in the audience about the significance of several of these individuals to his life and career, drawing particular attention to one who, although unable to attend, loomed large over the event: legendary Pittsburgh-born player of traditional tambura chordophones, Jerry Grcevich. This longtime musical collaborator of Skoro's had arranged most of the singer's early hits and had singly performed the accompaniment (of overdubbed melody and rhythm tamburas) to each of the songs on Skoro's first and third albums. Skoro singled out for us song (Ne Dirajte Mi Ravnicu--Don't Touch My Plain) that he had written and recorded with Grcevich twenty years earlier while studying in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (where the singer had joined his newly wedded Croatian-American wife Kim Ann Skoro, nee Luzaich). Upon their release in the early 1990s, Skoro's original 1989 recording of Ne Dirajte Mi Ravnicu, as well as an immensely successful cover version by tambura band Zlatni Dukati, had resonated strongly with his newly independent but heavily war-torn country. Skoro acknowledged the song's widespread popularity, announcing that it had become a song that is no longer mine, but all of yours, and crediting it with inaugurating his musical career. (2) Skoro also credited Grcevich as the other person responsible for writing the song and told us that the famed tamburas (tambura player (3)) unfortunately could not be there to play it himself because of illness in his family. In lieu of personal appearance, Skoro then had video that Grcevich had recorded projected onto large screen that was suspended above and behind the stage and flanked by two enormous installations of LED light-panels in the shape of the roman numeral X (identifying the twentieth [XX] anniversary concert). High above the musicians, Grcevich's face appeared on the screen, expressing his regrets in English and sending his best wishes for the concert, all to loud cheers from the audience. As Skoro then sang the song that they had written twenty years prior to the November twentieth concert, twenty thousand fans sang along through each of several verses, choruses, and even instrumental breaks. Skoro, however, had planned yet another iteration of the number 20: although Grcevich could not be there, he announced, twenty local tamburasi would accompany his singing. Skoro had invited semiprofessional tambura bands Slavonski Becari, Ravnica, and Lyra, all from his city of birth, Osijek, to perform with him. In the middle of the concert, they assembled on stage in long row, relieving the regular band for short set of songs from this early period of Skoro's career when he sang almost exclusively to the accompaniment of tambura groups. (4) Tambura fans generally consider these the three best ensembles in Osijek, and two of them share long history of performance and mutual influence with Skoro. …