Esma Redzepova

This summer I read a very moving history of the Romani people called "Bury Me Standing". While even casual music fans are aware of the "Gypsy" influence on Western music, from Flamenco to Django to Liszt, very few are familiar with the sad and fascinating trajectory of Romani history. Their collective tongue is a fossil dialect of Hindi, and some two hundred years ago linguists were able to trace this mysterious people's homeland to northern India. No one knows why they began their wanderings, but in the middle ages they were employed as musicians by the Persians and Turks, and then as slaves by the ancient Romanian kings, including Vlad the Impaler. Despite their heavy concentration in the Balkans, and the tendency for many to confuse "Romani" with "Romanian", they continued to wander throughout Europe. Their closely guarded customs and darker appearance generally precluded assimilation with the "Gadjo" or non-Romani, and thus they have always occupied a much-maligned position in European society. (Their near annihilation during the Holocaust has been almost completely ignored until recent years.)
Esma Redzepova is a Macedonian Gypsy singer and was crowned "Queen of the Gypsies" in India some thirty years ago. Many will be familiar with her from the film "Gypsy Caravan" and I was particularly moved by brief clips of her from Macedonian tv in the sixties or seventies. I can't seem to find any better quality videos than this but it's still fascinating. If anyone knows how to get a hold of her older recordings I would love to know.