Damian Drăghici (born 31 March 1970,

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

) is a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

musician of

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

origin. He is a musician, best known as the leader of the Damian and Brothers band and a

nai Nai or NAI may refer to: Music * ''Nai'' (album), an album by singer Anna Vissi * Nai (pan flute), a wind instrument, also known as a pan flute (Romania and Moldova) * "Nai" (song), a 2007 CD single by Irini Merkouri Organizations * NASA Astro ...

player and is a noted exponent of this instrument in the world of jazz.

Early life

Drăghici was born in Bucharest to a family of ''

lăutari The Romanian language, Romanian word lăutar (; plural: ''lăutari'') denotes a class of musicians. The term was adopted by members of a professional clan of Romani musicians in the late 18th century. The term is derived from ''lăută'', the ...

'' whose distinguished musical heritage dates back at least seven generations. He started to play ''lăutărească'' music in the family and tried an array of instruments before settling on the ''nai'' at the age of eleven. Drăghici was already playing panpipes in nightclubs when he was 15. Some fellow musicians gave him a copy of The Real Book, which led to him learning jazz standards and becoming obsessed with jazz.

Musical career

USA Berklee College of Music

In 1996, Drăghici auditioned for faculty members visiting

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

from the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. The school offered him a full scholarship, which Drăghici accepted. While there, he studied with

George Garzone George Garzone (born September 23, 1950) is a saxophonist and jazz educator from Boston, Massachusetts. Biography Garzone is a member of the Fringe, a jazz trio founded in 1972 that includes bassist John Lockwood and drummer Francisco Mela, wh ...

Jerry Bergonzi Jerry Bergonzi (born October 21, 1947) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and educator. Early life and education Bergonzi received a B.A. in Music Education from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1971 and is the founder ...

and

Hal Crook Hal Crook (born 28 July 1950 in Providence, Rhode Island) is a jazz trombonist. He has a degree from the Berklee College of Music and is considered to be a leading teacher and author in the field of jazz improvisation. Hal was a professor at Berk ...

Los Angeles

After spending 3 years at Berklee and graduating summa cum laude he relocated to Los Angeles. While there, he became friends with many of the top session musicians in the area. He was eventually introduced to a producer for PBS, which would lead to Drăghici being featured in a large concert backed by a 150-piece orchestra. The concert and its DVD were successful enough for PBS to arrange a tour of the United States, after which Drăghici was offered a recording contract with EMI.

Tours

In 2004, Drăghici joined

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

Joe Cocker John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances featuring expressive body movements. Most of his best-known singles, such as "Feelin' Alright ...

, reggae star

Shaggy Shaggy may refer to: People *Shaggy (musician) (born 1968), Jamaican American reggae rapper and singer *Shaggy 2 Dope, half of the hip hop, horrorcore band Insane Clown Posse *Shaggy Flores (born 1973), Nuyorican poet, writer and African diaspora ...

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper ( ; born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her distinctive image, featuring a variety of hair colors and eccentric clothing, and for her powerful four-octave vocal range;Jerome, ...

Zucchero Adelmo Fornaciari (; born 25 September 1955), known professionally as Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero (), is an Italian singer, musician and songwriter. His stage name is the Italian word for "sugar", as his primary school teacher used to ...

Gipsy Kings Gipsy Kings (originally Los Reyes) are a musical group founded in 1979 in Arles, France. The band, whose members have Catalans, Catalan heritage, play a blend of Catalan rumba, flamenco, Salsa music, salsa, and Pop music, pop. They perform mos ...

Roger Hodgson Charles Roger Pomfret Hodgson (born 21 March 1950) is an English singer, musician and songwriter, best known as the former co-frontman and founding member of the progressive rock band Supertramp. Hodgson composed and sang the majority of the ba ...

(

Supertramp Supertramp were a British rock band formed in London in 1970. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards and guitars) and Rick Davies (vocals and keyboards), the group were distinguished for blending p ...

) and

The Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters are an American female vocal group from Oakland, California, who achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. They have had a repertoire with many genres, they have sold around 50 million records throughout their ...

for one of Europe's most esteemed musical events, the

Night of the Proms Night of the Proms is a series of concerts held annually in Belgium (since 1985), the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. Regularly there are also shows in France, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, the United States and Sweden. The c ...

tour. On 12 November 2010, he showcased his ability to perform some of the most challenging jazz tunes on pan-flute live on stage in a Bucharest concert together with

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

player

Eddie Daniels Eddie Daniels (born October 19, 1941) is an American musician and composer. Although he is best known as a jazz clarinetist, he has also played saxophone and flute as well as classical music on clarinet. Early life, family and education Daniel ...

and vocalist

Diane Schuur Diane Joan Schuur (born December 10, 1953), nicknamed "Deedles", is an American jazz singer and pianist. As of 2015, Schuur had released 23 albums, and had extended her jazz repertoire to include essences of Latin, gospel, pop and country musi ...

. At the 8 May 2011 ''Classical Meets Jazz'' event Drăghici and violinist

Nigel Kennedy Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is an English violinist and viola, violist. His early career was primarily spent performing classical music, and has since expanded into jazz music, jazz, klezmer, and other music genres. Early life and ...

performed together in the Palace Square. The repertoire included classical, jazz and Romanian folk music. This was his last public performance as he announced his withdrawal from the music scene.

Damian & Brothers project

In 2006 Drăghici decided to come back to his roots with a new concept and a new group, “his gypsy brothers” as he called them. One of the purposes of “Damian & Brothers, was to change the negative perception and stereotypes of the

minority through their music. The impact and the huge popularity achieved during the three-year period of the project are a legacy of their common effort.

Member of the European Parliament

In the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...

, he was one of two Roma candidates elected, along with

Soraya Post Soraya Viola Heléna Post (born 15 October 1956) is a Swedish politician who was a member of European Parliament from Sweden. She is a member of the Feminist Initiative, part of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. Career Pos ...

. Drăghici was an MEP for the Romanian

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

during his tenure as an MEP.

References

External links

Damian Draghici Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More