Fejat Sejdić

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Fejat Sejdić was a Serbian Roma trumpeter and leader of a brass band from Bojnik in southern Serbia. He was born on 20 January 1941 and died on 22 August 2017. His father and grandfather also played the trumpet. Fejat learned it as a child by ear, on the family's only trumpet, and at ten he already played like an adult. He never learned to read music.

Music and breakthrough

He became known at the Guča Trumpet Festival, the largest trumpet festival in the world. His orchestra won the prize for best orchestra there a record six times, between 1976 and 1994, and he also received the prize for best trumpeter and the Golden Trumpet. After that he played only as a guest. He performed in major cities in Europe and beyond, contributed to film music by Goran Bregović and Živojin Pavlović and played with the Gipsy Kings. His discography numbers some sixty records. A stroke in 2001 meant he could no longer play. His grandson Nebojša later continued the orchestra.

Influence

His sound was so recognisable that people said you could pick him out among twenty orchestras. He set a high standard in the Balkan brass world, and after his breakthrough the number of orchestras in Bojnik grew from one to fifteen. Fejat Sejdić belongs to the Roma tradition that also returns in School of Rock as a source of Balkan music.

Listening

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  Kondorov let · Fejat Sejdić, 1971