Tamburaški Sastav Takt - Palešnik

As a young man I heard stories about Bjelovarsko and about the area around .  They were three hundred year old stories.  The old men would tell these stories about long ago. Perhaps someday when I am old I will share some of those stories with you.

So, where is Bjelovarsko?  First find Croatia on the map above.  Then look to the right and you can see where in Croatia this "county" is located.  In ancient times Bjelovar was in the Kingdom of Slavonia, one of the Croatian Kingdoms.  The histories want to tell us the region is "new," that Bjelovar is first mentioned in 1413 and that there wasn't much here until Maria Theresa built a fort in 1756.  Ummm hmmmm, dobro.  So, ask the  question about how the Hungarian overlords came up with the name Bjelovar. 

A few entries past, in "U RAJ NIJE PIVO," we talked about Croatian Hussars in the service of the Austrian King of Mexico.  Here's a photo of Bjelovarski graničari – Husari 1756 at a celebration.

Hercegovac, not to be confused with Herzogovina, is a town of about 3000 souls very near Palešnik. Along side Omladinska Street near the middle of town is  the NK Hajduk nogomet field.  NK Hajduk proven themselves to be a solid team. Their supporters are proud of them.  Kavana Ilova is among those  supporters and Kavana Ilova is where the party is this weekend between Saturday at 8:00pm - Sunday at 2:00am.  TS Takt says:  "Ovaj put bez hostesa,  ali dođite i zabavite se uz Takt i Pan :) Vidimo se :)"  (this is without hostess but come and have fun with Takt and Pan, See you there!).  You know what?  As I'm writing this about 40 people have already said on Facebook that they are coming to the party and almost a hundred more are "maybe."  Party party party!! I do wish I could be there too.  Someday, someday I just might be there.

Slavko Kolar came from nearby Palešnik which has maybe 600 people all told unless there's a party there and the population surges. Kolar was a satirical and humorous writer of such works as "Boot," "Birch," and "Do Cows need tails?" Slavko Kolar is not the only accomplished person from Palešnik. As small as it is, through the years people have come and  gone from the community. I know of some families who emigrated from Palesnik to Amerika a long time ago. In fact, I may know several of their descendants here and there. Tamburaški Sastav Takt lives in Palešnik. 

Tamburaški Sastav Takt consist of five guys who have been performing together about  five years.  The band consists of:

Davor Bazijanec - harmonika

Domagoj Ćuk - prim

Matija Mikuleta - brač

Tomislav Poredski - bugarija

Andrija Mikuleta - bas

So now you are going to need a lesson in what these instruments are.  The harmonika is not a little thing you play with your mouth.  On english it is "accordian" because of a very popular manufacturer of these things a hundred years ago or so. The tamburica each have three parts: body, neck and head. It used to be that the body was carved from a block of wood, but now they are built in much the same way as a guitar or violin with a box. Various shapes have been popular at different times.  The neck has a fingerboard with frets and these days the 'snail" design is often seen for the head.  The prim has one double string, G, and three single strings E, A, D. This is the smallest tamburica (about 50 cm long), but is very loud. It is very often used as a lead instrument or harmonizing instrument. The brač has two double strings and two single strings. it is a somewhat  lower instrument than the prim but played in a similar fashion. The bugarija has one double  string D and three single strings, similar to a guitar.  The bas has four strings. It is the  largest instrument in the tamburica family,  and is similar to contrabass. You have to stand up to play the bas.

What can I tell you about TS Takt?  They are young, they are fresh.  As one of them told me "Sviramo narodno, tamburaško, zabavno. (We play folk, tamburasi music, fun music). He went on to tell me "Naše selo se zove Palešnik. Sviramo svakakve zabave I svakakve veselice. Sviramo najviše hrvatsku glazbu, a željeli bismo svirati posvuda..Nije bitno gdje se svira, bitno da je veselo!" (Our village is called Palešnik. We play all sorts of fun and all sorts  of gatherings. We play mostly Croatian music and would like to play everywhere .. It does not matter where we play, it is happy!)

TS Takt is a happy band who will go far as they mature. If you haven't heard them yet, here they are.  When you have to pay big money to get in the concert hall to hear them remember you heard them first here on their video:


Uffffff everytime I watch their video I want to eat!!! 

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac