Female Speaker: From the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Peggy Bulger: Welcome all of you here today. I am Peggy Bulger, director of the American Folklife Center, and I want to welcome you to our next entry in our -- what we call our Homegrown Concert Series. And on behalf of our entire staff, I want to say that we're very excited to be representing the state of Kansas today with a unique group and a group that will really add to our collections in terms of what we have to offer for researchers in the future, and for friends and families right now. We're here in the Coolidge -- the historic Coolidge Auditorium. And for those of you who are visitors and may never have been in the Coolidge before, I want to tell you that it has a long and illustrious history. This auditorium was used right from the beginning to record and to present not only fine art, music, with classical music and classical dance, but also with folk and roots music. This very auditorium was the scene of where Alan Lomack, the famous folklorist back in 1938, recorded the jazz great Jelly Roll Morton for the first time, and the rest is history as they say. There are other people like Josh White and the Golden Gate Quartet, Mississippi John Hurt, legendary figures, all of them, Lead Belly -- all of them legendary figures in the world of folk music, and they've played here right at the Library of Congress. And we have those recordings in our collections, so we're continuing that history and we're continuing that acquisition strategy into today, so this performance right today is being videotaped and it will be made into a Web cast that will go up on our Web site, so if any of you know of people who couldn't make it here today, and a lot of people are out there, I know, who would love to see this. Fairly soon it will be put up on the Web and you'll be able to access that from home. So with that said, this is a perfect time for me to remind you that this is being recorded for posterity, so if you have a cell phone, if you could please turn it off now, otherwise, you know, 100 years from now there'll be -- your ringtone will be immortalized at the Library of Congress. The Homegrown Series is really a series of concerts that we work collaboratively with the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center. They help us bring in groups from all over the country and tonight at six o'clock on the Millennium Stage the Bajich Brothers will be performing again. And all of the concerts, both here and on the Millennium Stage are for free. We also work with the many talented and dedicated state folk arts coordinators across the country. They help us identify who to bring to D.C. and who would be the best to represent their state, and it provides an opportunity for groups from around the country, traditional artists and folk masters to visit Congress, and so today after our concert the group will be visiting representative Dennis Moore of Kansas, for instance. So we're very happy to provide that opportunity. And today, as we present a Serbian American tambura group, the Bajich Brothers, we have a thriving Serbian American community in Kansas, many of you not have known that, but that's true. And that's where the Bajich Brothers hail from. And to introduce them I want to introduce Debra Bailey, who is a folklorist whose worked a lot, done extensive field work in Kansas, and she's now in Missouri working for the Missouri Arts Council. So please welcome Debra Bailey. [applause] Debra Bailey: Good afternoon, everybody. Can you hear me okay? It's good? As Peggy mentioned I do -- I'm presently -- my regular job so-to-speak, my day job as they call it, is with the Missouri Arts Council. I'm one of two people working for the Missouri Folk Arts Program, and we're located in Columbia, Missouri at the University of Missouri campus. I just wanted to mention, though, that I had done a lot of field work in Kansas before I actually started working full time with the program, and we in Missouri also do try and serve the Kansas side of sort of the Kansas City area when we can. And we can do that through our traditional arts apprenticeship program, which pairs master artists with an apprentice to carry on the tradition forward into the future. And if the master is from the Kansas side and the apprentice is from the Missouri side, who's getting, you know, the benefit, then we are able to fund those sorts of applications. I just wanted to give you some background information, and I hope you will enjoy it and then the Bajich Brothers are going to talk more about the music and their instruments. I'm really delighted and honored to have had the opportunity to represent Kansas today. When I did my field work on the Kansas side, I mean Kansas is as rich as any state in the Union. There -- you know, in terms of cultural diversity and wonderful artistic traditions that are out there. And it really was a great pleasure because one of the things about the Bajich brothers is that I realized that when you do what you call field work and you're documenting these traditions for future generations, I realized how much they had struck me. And I never ever forgot about them and sometimes I wished they moved to Missouri, but I don't want to steal them from Kansas. And it's just because they love what they do. The cultural and traditional ties are so strong within their community, and I will talk a little bit about that in a moment. So, I never forgot them. I knew they were, you know, I just -- they always struck me from the moment I met them. And so I'm honored, in fact, to be able to talk a little bit about their community today before we begin. I just wanted to say that Serbian Americans first came to this country in the 1890s, primarily with immigration lasting into the early 20th century. It's the first of several immigrant sort of movements. And they settled in an area -- actually sort of close to the Missouri River. There were meat-packing plants in that area and most of the immigrants when they first came, and I think they were mostly men from what I remember, came and worked in the meat-packing facilities in the area known as the West Bottoms, which is a really flat area. And, of course, we all know Kansas City is like a center beef industry, and that's what was going on at that time. They settled nearby and actually there is a neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas that's probably better known because it has a distinct name called Strawberry Hill, I think at one time it was called Croatian Hill. And Croatians and Serbians -- actually they didn't settle -- they sort of ended up very kind of close to one another. The Croatians were Catholics and centered around St. John's Catholic Church, and the Serbians of Serbian orthodox tradition, and they sort of gathered around that church. So they were sort of in the same general area. They both developed traditions of music out of their respect of communities. The people who immigrated from the Serbian Americans who came over were from a region where Tambura -- did I do that right, guys? They got me trained. Tambura music was part of the tradition when they came over. And -- I can't pronounce -- Vojvodina. Vojvodina. Vojvodina? Okay? Close enough? Okay. And they were very much from that region. And so the traditions sprung up in the Midwest. I've noticed in writings about this tradition because both Croatians and Serbians have a tradition of Tambura music depending on where you're from. It's just Kansas City is kind of mentioned but nobody says that much about it. So I'm hoping some intrepid folklorist like Rick March, who really knows this tradition very well, will come down and do some more work on it because it's a great, interesting tradition. In 1906, the St. George Orthodox Church was established by this community and it remains today just a really important center of cultural activity, festivals, dances, weddings. Every day -- this community is incredibly tight nit. How many people -- you have about 400 plus these days? [inaudible] Active. Male Speaker: Slightly less, probably closer to 200, 250. Debra Bailey: Okay, and they, like a lot of the old ethnic neighborhoods and cities, they've kind of dispersed out to the suburbs, but the church -- but they're right in the area, actually, where most everybody moved. And they actually have, you know -- still very active. I just wanted to say -- I have to mention something about their parents because they're so important in their lives. Their father, Milan Bajich [spelled phonetically], was also an immigrant. He came over in 1953 and he was in a dislocation camp in Europe before coming over, and that would have been after World War II, after the communist takeover of Yugoslavia, and then there were other sorts of various kind of conflicts going on, so he came to America, first went to Cleveland, where I just found out -- I think it was yesterday or the day before -- that actually he met his wife for the first time when she went and picked him up at the station. He was -- he is an orthodox -- was an orthodox priest. And he came to direct the choir in Cleveland and his wife-to-be, Mary Bajich, was the choir president. Which, if you know anything about the beautiful singing in the orthodox tradition, that's an important position. They were both excellent vocalists. I know that Father Bajich was known for his baritone voice, and especially in the area of a liturgical singing, which is very important in the Serbian tradition. I'll let the Bajich Brothers take over for now. And without further ado, please welcome the Bajich Brothers from Kansas City. Thank you. [applause] Male Speaker: Thank you. On behalf of the Bajich Brothers I applause you all for attending today. We were asked if we could also do one of our Serbian traditional pieces, a church piece. So we're actually going to sing the Lord's Prayer in Serbian for you. And most of the singers here are either our brother or sister or wives. So this is a family affair, and we'll sing the Lord's Prayer in Serbian for you. [Serbian singing] [pause] Thank you. Rather than any more talk, we're going to start playing now for you some songs from the many Serbian regions. And we'll interject a few things here a little bit. But for now, enjoy our concert. [music] [Serbian singing] [applause] Thank you. Thank you. As many songs go, many of them are written for lost love, found love, tragedies, happiness, so on and so forth. So we've chosen a selection of songs here today of which some are going to be happy sounding, some are going to be sad sounding. Some of them represent different parts of Serbia. So this next song was about a woman named Anna who is actually has -- kind of like Little Bo Peep as a sheep, she's guarding her sheep, and she's got a suitor that's looking for her. [music] [Serbian Singing] [applause] Thank you. Thank you. As Deb had mentioned to you, these are our Tambura instruments of which are traditionally all acoustical instruments. We've amplified them today so it's better for everybody to hear in the auditorium. But traditionally we play without any kind of amplification. Normally more in a circle, and people actually just circle around us. It's just like a big bull's-eye so-to-speak, and we're in the center. But the instruments here are -- our lead instrument is called a prima. And it's similar to like a mandolin, but it's very high pitched and one of the reasons it's done like that is so it can amplify sound. A higher pitched instrument will actually give you greater volume. The instrument on the far side is also known as what -- a cello. And it kind of plays a duet so to speak but it throws in some thrills, some runs, to make the song sound a little bit more interesting so-to-speak. And then myself and Boris, we play the rhythm for the group. I just -- this is just a standard bass fiddle of which I'm just plucking with my finger. And his instrument is called a bogadia [spelled phonetically]. And it actually has five strings that when you hit them open, it's a chord, it's a D chord. And there are also G-bogadias, and there are A-bogadias, so just depending on which one kind of sounds best with your group. Ours are all kind of in the key of D, traditionally. So that's our sound and we'll be a little bit different than maybe other Tamburas and groups that you may hear. But other than that we'll go on to our next song. [music] [Serbian Singing] [applause] Thank you. This next song is for many people who travel to a different country here in America or wherever you may go. If you're from another country, your heart is kind of always still there, so this song is about the city of Belgrade of Serbia. [music] [Serbian Singing] [applause] [music] [Serbian Singing] [applause] Thank you. We are called the Bajich Brothers and yes, we are actually all brothers. My oldest brother, Robert, is on the end. My twin brother, Paul, plays the prina. True, it is true. This is Boris, and I'm Peter. And we also have attending with us here, today: Three out of our four sisters, also. They came with us. One from Indiana: Tiana. [spelled phonetically] [applause] Our Lilliana Saya [spelled phonetically] from Kansas City. [applause] And also our youngest sister, Mediena [spelled phonetically]. [applause] And we all brought our wives, and most of our kids. So we made it a family affair. [applause] And one aunt and uncle. So this next song is called Dalequosee [Spelled phonetically] and we hope you enjoy it. [music] [Serbian Singing] [applause] Thank you. I think it's important that -- one way that people are able to keep their heritage and learn their heritage, and pass it on to their kids and future generations is not only by serving the ethnic foods but it's also with the Serbian music or whatever music that might be from your region, and we being very involved in our church try to do that with our youth. That's why it was so important that we brought our kids with us this weekend. We feel this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to be here and to perform for everyone that came here. We'll also be performing this evening at the Kennedy Center at six o'clock for those that might want to attend that concert as well. But this is hopefully been some taste of Serbia that you hadn't heard before. Coming up we're also going to bring some of our entourage that came with us to actually dance some of the Serbian songs that are called kolos, which means a circle. And they hold their hands and they dance kind of in a circle, so that will be upcoming here shortly. [music] [Serbian Singing] [applause] Thank you. [music] [Serbian Singing] [applause] [music] [Serbian Singing] [applause] [music] [applause] Okay, this next song we do is going to be a kol. So we're going to ask our dancers who want to come up to come on up. And anyone who's interested and might want to learn, it's not that hard, may come up as well. [music] [Serbian Singing] [applause] [music] All right, we need some volunteers up here. Come on up. [music] [applause] [music] [applause] Those were three different variations of kolos that you can do. And actually how you can line up, whether you hold hands down below -- you hold on to shoulders and whatever it may be, but the Serbian traditions are very rich and this next song we're going to sing, we're going to end the program with is called "Zoyarets" [spelled phonetically]. It's a very popular song for the Serbian people. [music] [Serbian Singing] [applause] Thank you. Thank you very much. [music] [applause] Thank you. Debra Bailey: Before we leave today I just did want to mention one thing. This is called the Homegrown Concert Series and one of the things that strikes me: If you probably talked to any Serbian American who was connected with the Orthodox Church, everybody knows these guys, I know, both through their family history, their father was a priest and everything. They grew up with this music. The St. George Tambaritsas preceded them and they were playing by, you know, well they're different ages but by 6th grade they were already on these instruments. So you're seeing something that not everybody gets a chance to hear and see. And I hope that you will treasure this because it was -- that's why I was so thrilled to meet them and I'm so glad they could come here today. So -- [applause] And I just going to put in something for Kansas and that is Kansas, you need a traditional arts program, because you can see how rich it is and right now they don't have one and we in Missouri can't serve all of Kansas, although we wished we could. And so I'm hoping that if there is anybody out there that can make that happen, that you would join the 39 other states that do have a Folk Arts program. And help the Bajich Brothers and other groups make sure these wonderful traditions carry on into the future. Thank you very much. [applause] Female Speaker: So another big hand for the Bajich Brothers! And Family! Thank you so much for coming today, and come and join us on October 2nd in here, we'll have the Bar J Wranglers: Cowboy chuckwagon music from the state of Wyoming. So thanks again for coming. [applause] Female Speaker: This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at LOC.gov. [end of transcript]