TONY HANNA & THE YUGOSLAVIAN GYPSY BRASS BAND (LEBANON, JORDAN, SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO)

Performers:

Tony Hanna (vocals)

Rami Shehade Qassar (oud)

Farid Shehade Qassar (buzuk)

Fadi Abi Saad (keyboard)

Bassem Said (tabla)

Michel Labaki (bass)

Rama Demirovic, Sebastijan Mislic, Demiran Cerimovic (trumpets)

Danijel Demirovic, Nenad Becirovic (tenor tubas)

Cerim Becirovic (bass tuba)

My village is lost somewhere between Belgrade and Baghdad. At times, it stays still for a few hours - or a few centuries, but then always ends up moving elsewhere. Our mayor is a tuba bass player and our priest a chicken thief imam. In our village lives a crazy singer. His name is Tony Hanna.

Tony was born and raised in a small village in the Lebanese mountains where people still ride donkeys and horses, raise goats and chicken. Then, after spending 5 years in London, he went to live in Detroit where he stayed for 20 years. But when he heard about the joyful fanfare of our beautiful village, he came back and settled here, leaving his family behind in the sadness of civilization. His voice is powerful like the mountain springs that carry rocks into the Lebanese "jord" (Lebanese mountains' rocky deserts) and his muscles are shaped like the roots of a cedar tree.

Tony was the biggest Arabic youth star back in the early seventies. He sold thousands, earned millions and spent even more, distributing tips of hundreds of dollars to waiters, parking valets? Beggars took holidays after his passage, Elvis Presley's tailor fashioned his suits, palaces were his houses, and the latest sports cars were pushed to their limit by his crazy driving. He changed cars as often as one changes socks. He was -and still is- very handsome. His moustache was a trademark insured for an incredible amount; "an eagle can rest on it" once said the "Lebanese Dali" as a British journalist called Tony. The professional "dabke" dancers in his band (dabke is traditional mid eastern dance) looked amateurish when he was dancing, girls were screaming like crazy at his appearances, in world tours that took him to all the capitals of the Arab world, US cities, as well as to Paris, London, Australia, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentine?

But overnight, at the height of his career, Tony Hanna stopped. It was one of the biggest mysteries of showbiz. When asked about the reasons behind this professional suicide, Tony never answered. When I offered for him to play with the Yugoslavian Gypsy Brass Band, he said, after watching one of their filmed performances: "I agree", and added: "they sound so much fun, so unpretentious, so? so true?" The lack of truth had made him leave this business. When I got to know him, I discovered that his life was guided by truth and trust: he wants to be trusted just like he trusts. He is the only established artist who signed a management and production contract without reading it. The other party begged him to read the fine print but he refused. I know this story is true: the second party is me!

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