Sydney's iconic Steki Greek Taverna might have shut its doors after 39 years of operation in the Newtown precinct, but its spirit continues now at the Cyprus
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Eyes ablaze, gypsy singer Sarah Bedak stokes a fire
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★★★½
When it does catch fire, it blazes up in a sudden inferno. The two saxophones coil and snake around each other in a mad scramble of melody over tearaway rhythms punctuated by bucking syncopations and juddering stop-times. And then out the front there’s Sarah Bedak, with her eyes also ablaze and her voice by turns sultry or strident.
Sarah Bedak’s voice is by turns sultry and strident.
Credit:Sian Sandilands
That’s Lolo Lovina at their best, upholding the proud Romani musical tradition, which has been pervasive and influential on a scale to rival African-American music. It, too, has been steeled in persecution and suffering (the Roma, like the Jews, subjected to Nazism’s most brutish terror), spawning songs of lament, resilience, and, above all, celebration of this transient thing called life.