Chris Rose

Partial Transcript: "My dad was born in Braddock PA, and he like marriedmy mom and my mom is from new york, and me and my brothers and sisters we all grew up in detroit."

Was your mom part of a gypsy community?

"Yeah, sure, her dad played violin too on that side. Both sides of my family...they both came, like my grandfather actually on my moms side was born in Braddock also... but then they moved to NY after so my mom was born in NY and her sisters and brothers and their family lived over there. It's like a melting pot, I don't know...they didn't work in mills or anything in steel mills in Pittsburg or Braddock. This was like turn of the century, I guess because the culture and music cause Hungarian people are really close and like we eat the same food like stuffed cabbage, chicken paprikash and all that stuff we are from Slovakia.... all the european things are related so close the culture, music, food, weddings. We're all musicians, all the men at least. It's something to see you know now theres not that many left...only my dad, Georgie, and a couple others but it used to be like 20 or 30 people, when someone passes away you know you cry, and they play one of those slow and really soulful, you have to hear it to understand, it goes through you.

Segment Synopsis: Chris Rose discusses both his parents growing up in gypsy communities (father in Braddock, PA and mother in NY), history of immigration to the U.S. within his family, and family traditions (including cooking) and the aspects of Romani/ Hungarian life that bonds people of those origins.

Keywords: Braddock; Eastern Europe; Hungarian; Hungary; New York; Pennsylvania; Roma; cooking; cuisine; family; gypsy; immigration

Subjects: Cooking,Hungarian; Music--Romani influences; Musicians (employment); Romanies--Social life and customs

Partial Transcript: First we'll just say that we are at Oberlin College and it is Oct 30. We're interviewing:
"Chris Slepsky, but we use a stage name Rose."

Segment Synopsis: In this segment we give metadata for the interview including time, place, and names of people involved

Keywords: Gypsy; Oberlin; Oberlin College; Romani

Subjects: Oberlin College; Oral History

Partial Transcript: My Moms family were also, you know played music, and did the same thing. Her brothers and sisters, she had one brother actually that played the bass...with Carmen Miranda. They were from Chicago, but they were living, my grandmother, they were living in California like in the 40s and my uncle, his name was Max he played the base with Carmen Miranda. He was in a lot of those old movies. My daughter just did this ancestry.com, she tried to put our family trees together and it's so interesting she found out my grandfather on dads side he lived in New York also and my daughter just found out my moms family and dads family lived like a few blocks from each other and they weren't married yet just in New York. And I asked my mom ya know your grandmother was out in California. My mom had an older sister and her husband when he was working as an electrician they were in California. All sides of my family played music.

Segment Synopsis: Chris Rose discusses that his mom's family is also of gypsy origin. He discusses his mom's family, the prevalence of music on that side of his family, and where they were located throughout the United States. He talks about the accomplishments of his family members, for example his uncle max who performed base with Carmen Miranda in California. He also talks about the coincidence of his parents at one point living mere blocks from each other in New York.

Keywords: Bass; Braddock, PA; California; Carmen Miranda; Chicago; Diaspora, Immigration; Family; Family Music; Gypsy; Gypsy Music; Gypsy Tradition; Hungary; Migration; Movies; Music; New York; Roma; Tradition

Subjects: Double bassists; Miranda,Carmen,1909-1955; Romanies--Music

Partial Transcript: Could you talk a little bit about your life growing up and how you were as a kid, when you started playing music?

Yeah I was a normal kid, playing baseball, doing everything you could think of, I had two brothers. Like I said my dad was constantly playing music, we had all these instruments in the house, and my brother was playing piano at that time and I remember he brought my brother a bass guitar for his birthday- my other brother Anthony. When I was 5 or 6 he brought me home a little drum set, because really that’s my instrument and we would just go down to the basement and practice and then we got older and we started playing you know like Santana and all that Chicago and just had fun and my mom used to be like that’s enough! And flick the light, we drove my mom crazy, like the brady bunch. But we just ya know and I got a little bit older and my dad was like you guys are learning the wrong songs, we need to learn standard music he said, like Sinatra. When we were coming up restaurants had a lot of bands so we had to learn the right music to play and make a living there which we were lucky enough at the time like in the 80s, like late 70s and ya know my dad started showing the songs he could play and it always came in handy throughout all the years learning music...but none of us really played.

Segment Synopsis: Chris is asked to discuss his childhood, he gives an overview of a "normal" childhood with his siblings and playing baseball etc but then dives into the influence of music in his household from a very young age and his father giving instruments to Chris and his brothers and teaching them what they had to do to be successful in the restaurant music industry.

Keywords: Gypsy Home; bass; childhood; drums; gypsy child; gypsy performer; mentorship; music; practice; restaurant music; roma household; roma kids; santana; standard music; teaching

Subjects: Childhood; Guitar; Romanies--Music; Sinatra, Frank, 1915-1998

Partial Transcript: My older brother did play...and you’re gonna see later at the concert, it’s called a cimbalom, now that’s a history in itself, goes back a hundred years. I don’t know how they made it, how they thought of it, just like amazing, and uh so it’s unbelievable. My brother played it for a while but then he got older and wanted to play guitar, but it’s such a beautiful instrument.

I’m excited to just see what it looks like

It looks like a square box, but it has piano strings on it and you play it with these little sticks, look like mallets and then theres cotton on the ends, you tie it with string, it’s real melodic.

Interlude about a santoor player from Pakistan who Patrick performed with, and comparing the Cimbalom to similar instruments like a dulcimer.

Segment Synopsis: In this segment Chris attempts to describe the Cimbalom, a traditional Romani instrument that his brother used to play. He explains that it is a big box with strings which are played with mallets, it is compared to a santoor or dulcimer. The interviewers will see the instrument being played at a concert given on the night of the interview.

Keywords: Cimbalom; beautiful; china; cross-cultural; dulcimer; education; gypsy; hungarian; hungarian music; hungary; india; mallets; music history; musical experiments; pakistan; rare instruments; romani; santoor; traditions

Subjects: Cimbalom; Folk music--Hungary; Pakistan; Romanies-Hungary--Music; Santur

Partial Transcript: My childhood was normal, I just grew up in a musical family, my dad taught us how to play music me and my brothers, my sister didn’t play.

Oh your sister didn’t play, was that because of her gender?

Oh no it wasn’t like you can’t play because you’re a girl. My mother was a beautician so she started working in that field, started working for my mom. She was cutting hair, you know when she was younger. My nephew’s a drummer out in Las Vegas he plays in this ? show, he played with Suzanne Summers, plays with a lot of different people. And I taught him when he was a kid! So we just kind of passed it, whoever had the talent had the talent to start with, something. We just grew up in a musical family, and this music [gypsy music], like my dad I just feel sorry that I didn’t learn it sooner, I was playing percussion I was playing drums and I love the music, I would go with him all over. I was a kid and I’d sit in the chair next to him and they’d go to a party or wedding or something and they’d just be playing all this music. So lately I’ve been playing gigs with him, I play bass, I play a little piano, I’ve been playing some jobs with my dad, it’s great to get into it. You know I asked George, I’m like how do you remember all of it? Hundreds of songs...

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks more about the role of music in his childhood and in his whole family and community. He discusses the musical careers both of his father and nephew and the way in which music is passed down generationally. He laments that he didn't learn to play gypsy music until later in life.

Keywords: bass; beautician; childhood; dad; drummer; drums; family; fatherson; gender; generational; gypsy; hair; hungary; las vegas; lost traditions; memory; music; party; piano; roma; romani; siblings; suzanne summers; tradition; wedding

Subjects: Drummers; Musicians; Musicians, Romani; Somers,Suzanne,1946-

Partial Transcript: What was the community like- did you guys have a Romani community outside of your immediate family growing up?

Oh yeah, we had lots of friends and say there’d be a Romani wedding in say Chicago or Cleveland and people would invite their families and everybody would go and it’d just be a big party it really would. No tents or wagon wheels or anything hahaha

Because you were in a romani community did your communities culture was different from others?

When you go to school you see the kids I lived in a small town in Detroit. But it was a whole Hungarian community they had bars they had junk stores, they had restaurants.

Segment Synopsis: Chris tells us about the Romani community in his life growing up. He explains the prevalence of Hungarian culture in his childhood and neighborhood growing up. This culture extended to weddings and parties, but also just everyday food and activity.

Keywords: chicago; childhood; cleveland; community; detroit; gypsy; party; romai; school; town; tradition; wedding

Subjects: Chicago; Cleveland; Cooking,Romani; Detroit; Hungarians; Romanies; Wedding

Partial Transcript: Growing up was there pressure to stay within your community as far as marriage?

No...I married a Romani girl, but I dated a lot of girls, I got divorced a long time ago but I have two kids, I have two granddaughters. But like I lived in Florida, I dated a girl from Brazil. You know it’s not like...maybe years and years and years ago ‘cause I think everybody was closer then, ya know like my dad met my mom at some wedding. It was actually in Cleveland….but no there was no kind of people who would like kill their kids if you don’t marry this guy...if you love somebody yeah, you know my daughter she just got married in July.

Segment Synopsis: We ask Chris if there was any pressure from his family or community to maintain Romani traditions through marrying other Romani people. He insists that there was no pressure, and although he married a Romani woman (since divorced) he's dated a wide variety of women of different ethnicities and there has not been any conflict in his experience.

Keywords: community; divorce; exclusive; family; intimacy; marriage; pressure; purity; tradition; wedding

Subjects: Children; Dating; Interracial dating; Marriage; Romanies -- United States -- Social life and customs; Romanies--Social life and customs

Partial Transcript: Are your children involved in a Romani community or your music scene?

Oh yeah- my daughter sings with us on the weekends! She’s been singing since 3 years old, she’s so talented. So she sings with me and my dad we work like a weekend gig, and I’ve been practicing with her since she was a little girl...my son plays guitar but he works a day job...my dad never worked a day job, he’s been performing for all these years.

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about his children and their involvement in the music scene. He discusses how passionate his entire family is about music, and the way it touches him in his soul, he attributes this to being Romani.

Keywords: career; children; day job; family; father; finances; gigs; gypsy; love; music; passion; picnic; romani; singing; work

Subjects: Children; Romanies--Music; Singing

Partial Transcript: I don’t know if Cleveland might have some good restaurant, but it’s uh excellent, stuffed cabbage they call it, chicken paprikash they call it, it’s chicken like boneless chicken and they cook it in this sauce and they have dumplings, homemade dumplings. Oh my god...it’s very rich though but it’s very good, lot of noodle dishes.

Segment Synopsis: We all get very hungry discussing Romani and Hungarian foods that Chris has grown up with and still loves to eat. He mentions and describes chicken paprikash, stuffed cabbage and some other traditional foods that are part of his tradition and identity.

Keywords: cabbage; chicken paprikash; delicious; food; hungarian; hungary; hungry; noodles; paprikash; recipe; slavic; stuffed cabbage; tradition; yummy

Subjects: Cooking, Hungarian; Cooking, Romani; Food; Romanies--Social life and customs

Partial Transcript: "Do you know what made your daughter want to go on ancestry.com?[...]"

"[...] She's been interested in this probably about 10 years now we found a lot a lot of stuff, my Grandmother, my mom's Mother, she lived to almost 100, she was 98. And all her family lived in Ohio[...]"

Segment Synopsis: Chis's Daughter became interested in family heritage and was able to trace back family history through Ancestry.com. This has enabled the family to find out more about their heritage and even find family graves and a death certificate of his father's brother who died in childhood.

Keywords: Grandmother; ancestry; heritage

Subjects: Ancestry; Ancestry.com (Firm); Genealogy; Heritage

Partial Transcript: "The traditional style of music is, you know, in decline. And there are fewer people. What is your perspective on that. Do your children have interest in traditional Romani music?[...}"

Segment Synopsis: The traditional style of music is in decline, what is Chris's perspective on this. His children's interest in traditional music. Hopes that he can learn more from his dad and older musicians.

Keywords: Children; Traditional music

Subjects: Folk music; Music--Romani influences; Romanies--Hungary--Music

Partial Transcript: Daughter's early introduction to music and musical culture.
"Not a closed in kind of thing [the culture], its very open with a lot of wind blowing through it."

Segment Synopsis: Daughter has been singing since she was very young. Took his daughter to see her favorite singer, Barbra Streisand, when she was young.

Keywords: Children; Daughter; musical introduction

Subjects: Daughters; Rock concerts; Streisand, Barbra

Partial Transcript: "They did all the traditional stuff. And then at weddings we have a traditional bridal dance. they call it the bride dance, and they play a specific couple songs and everybody dances with the bride [...]"

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about Romani wedding music, wedding dances, and the traditional bridal dance.

Keywords: Bridal dance; dance; wedding music

Subjects: Marriage service; Romanies--Music; Wedding dances; Wedding family; Wedding music

Partial Transcript: "Are they old enough to start playing music?"
"Not yet, my Granddaughter is going to be four, the oldest one."

Segment Synopsis: ages of Chris's grandchildren and their connection to music. Chris talks about family life through generations and shows pictures of his two granddaughters; Demi and Mila

Keywords: family; grandchildren

Subjects: Grandchildren; Music

Partial Transcript: "Where are you based now, where are you living?"
"In Detroit, I live in Dearborn actually [...]"

Segment Synopsis: Chris currently lives in Dearborn, Michigan. A suburb outside Detroit. His father also is currently living in Dearborn.

Keywords: Dearborn; Detroit; current home

Subjects: Dearborn (Mich.); home; michigan

Partial Transcript: "whats your relationship like with your dad?"
"Im with my dad more like a beast friend."

Segment Synopsis: Chris sees his father more like a best friend. Has worked with his father from many years. Although he moved away from his father/ home for 6-7 years he moved back and sees his father as one of his closest friends. They currently work together and see each other almost everyday. Takes care of his dad since his sisters and brothers have moved west.

Keywords: Father; family relationship.

Subjects: best friend; father; work

Partial Transcript: "Our first gig was like a Sunday gig. In this place my dad used to work at [...]"

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about his first gig playing music with his brothers at around 10 years old. In the 80's and 90's. Never wanted to be stars just enjoyed playing with his family.

Keywords: Brothers; Music; first gig

Subjects: band; brothers; dad's work; first gig; music

Partial Transcript: "Nothing really crazy. And even back then, everyone lived close together."

Segment Synopsis: Chris's daughter and her family live in Dearborn as well as his son and father. Family all goes to church together and live nearby. Also talks about the support he gets from your family.

Keywords: Dearborn; church; daughter; family; son

Subjects: church; daughter; dearborn; family; michigan; nearby; son

Partial Transcript: "Ive been to Brazil and South America. Because I way playing, I was living in Florida for a while, like in 2000[...] And we did this, like a Brazilian CD [...]."

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about traveling to Brazil to play/ record music while living in Florida in the 2000's.

Keywords: Brazil; travel

Subjects: CD; brazil; florida; music; record; travel

Partial Transcript: "My sons's wife, she came here when she was 10."
"So she speaks fluent Slovak and Romani."

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about wanting to travel to Europe. His son's wife immigrated to America as a child and speaks fluent Slovak and Romani.

Keywords: Europe; Hungary; Wife; family connections

Subjects: europe; family; hungary; language; romani; slovak; son's wife

Partial Transcript: "Its hard too, you know, you lose the language. My grandmother would talk Gypsy and Hungarian all day [...]"

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about losing the Romani language. His grandmother often spoke Romani but the language died in his family during his parents generation. Today he knows only a few Romani words. Today his daughter in law still speaks the language and hopes his grandchildren will also learn.

Keywords: Language; Romani; loss of language

Subjects: grandmother; gypsie; hungarian; language; roman

Partial Transcript: "She's the perfect daughter in law [...]"

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about his son's wife Rinkia and her (Rinkia's) extended family.

Keywords: Daughter in law; Extended family

Subjects: daughter in law; family; perfect

Partial Transcript: " The culture there, they teach kids from young [...] Little kids playing, and they've got so much talent [...]"

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about Romani music culture in Europe as being more alive and vibrant. He hopes that the traditions he grew up with will also continue in America's Romani communities.

Keywords: American Romani culture; Music in Europe; culture

Subjects: american romani culture; europe; music in europe; tradition

Partial Transcript: "Things change, there wasn't really a call for it. They used to do concerts every year or twice a year. They knew a lot of different people that loved the music. There was a big base of people in Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago."

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks briefly about how the culture of playing concerts in the major cities has changed over the years. Roma musicians used to have many more opportunities to play concerts in the past, with the frequency of these concerts declining in recent years.

Keywords: Chicago; Cleveland; Concerts; Detroit; Hungarian; Jewish

Subjects: chicago; cleveland; concerts; detroit; hungarian; jewish; less oppurtunity; roma music

Partial Transcript: "If a lot of the younger people would start learning the music..."

Segment Synopsis: Chris mentions that if the tradition of Romani music is to survive, it is going to be up to the younger generations to pick it up and learn it from the few remaining players before it is too late.

Keywords: Generations; Younger; music; teaching; tradition

Subjects: learn; music; romani music; tradition; younger generations

Partial Transcript: "He's from Homestead and he started coming to Detroit because his uncle lived in Detroit that played viola. He was like 14 years old when he came and they would all play music together..."

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about how him and his father met George. They originally met in Detroit when George was 14 and there visiting an uncle that played Viola.

Keywords: Detroit; Homestead; Michigan; Musicians; Pennsylvania; Viola; Violin

Subjects: detroit; homestead, pennsylvania; music; musician; viola

Partial Transcript: "How do you feel about the fact that people outside of your ethnic community want to collect these histories?"

Keywords: Peri asks how Chris feels about there being an outside push to collect Romani music traditions. Chris's response is that it is wonderful and he talks about some of the other things happening with research and the Romani community.

Subjects: Collecting; Community; Ethnic; Interest; Michigan State; Outside; Preservation; Research; Romani

Partial Transcript: "I never even heard that stuff until I was older. We weren't like 'you gotta stay with your people and stay at home and associate with those people.' We were outside playing baseball everyday and going to school like everyone."

Segment Synopsis: Chris mentions that he was not aware of any negative stereotypes related to the Gypsy communities when he was growing up. In his eyes, they were just like everyone else that they grew up with.

Keywords: Gypsy; negative; stereotypes

Subjects: community; gypsy; negative; stereotypes

Partial Transcript: "Did your mom or your dad's families have any different traditions?"
"They came from the same country. My dad's father came form Czechoslovakia. My mother's father came from Austria Hungary area."

Keywords: Austria; Czechoslovakia; Europe; Gypsy; Hungary; Immigration; Roma; Romani; Traditions

Subjects: austria; czechslovakia; europe; family; gypsy; hungary; traditions

Partial Transcript: "My daughter found out that my dad's mother had a perfume store in New York! She found an add. My daughter's like Sherlock Holmes."

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about some of the findings that his daughter made when she was trying to research the family history.

Keywords: Business; Daughter; Family; History; New York; Owner; Perfume; Research; Store

Subjects: Retail Trade; Retail Trade -- New York (State) -- History -- 20th Century

Partial Transcript: "I found a lot about Pittsburgh too about Kennywood Park. They did this big hungarian Gypsy festivals from way back in the 20s."

Segment Synopsis: Kennywood park used to be one of the important places they used to go to play shows in the Pittsburgh area.

Keywords: Concerts; Gypsy; Kennywood; Musicians; Park; Pittsburgh; Roma; Romani; Shows

Subjects: Amusement Parks; Romanies -- United States

Partial Transcript: "Some of them had businesses. One friend had a candy store. Theres another cousin of mine now, he's an eye doctor in Las Vegas. But he used to play bass too so that music thing is always there. If the music thing didn't work out then..."

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about other jobs that some of the people in his community have. Not everyone is a musician anymore and he mentioned things as varied as owning a candy store to being an optometrist. He also refutes the negative stereotype that Gypsy people are lazy and against doing work. Both him and his father also ran hot dog carts at one point.

Keywords: Gypsy; Hot Dog Cart; Jobs; Las Vegas; Occupation; Optometrist; Owner; Roma; Romani; Small Business

Subjects: romanies -- music; romanies -- social life and customs; romanies -- united states

Partial Transcript: "What's your favorite type of music to play other than..."
"I like Jazz, I like Brazilian music, I like R&B music too, all kinds. Everything's fun to play!"

Segment Synopsis: Chris briefly mentions some of the other styles of music that he enjoys playing, outside of Gypsy music.

Keywords: Brazilian; Genres; Gypsy; Jazz; Music; Rhythm and Blues; Styles

Subjects: Jazz -- United States; Romanies -- music

Partial Transcript: "When you were learning music was it like a structured learning or did you just kinda like..."
"I picked it up, but I went for lessons. My dad used to teach guitar years ago at this music store in downtown Detroit called.... I was five or six years old and my dad goes 'I'm taking you for lessons'. He bought me my little set for my birthday or whatever..."

Segment Synopsis: Chris talks about how he began learning music as a young kid around the age of 5. His dad taught guitar at a music school and took him there for drum lessons. He also mentions that a lot of the learning that he did was by ear from listening to recordings. He learned primarily by listening.

Keywords: Bass; Detroit; Drums; Guitar; Learning; Learning from ear; Music; Piano; Private lessons

Subjects: 20th century music; Musicians -- Education

Partial Transcript: "It's nothing I'm ashamed of because it's all about music and life."
"What about some of the more negative stereotypes of Romani people or like stuff that's been in the media?"

Segment Synopsis: Again Chris talks about how he doesn't agree with the negative stereotypes of the Gypsy people. He mentions that there are people that fit these stereotypes however and that his culture generally tends to try and distance themselves from these people because they do not view them as real Romani.

Keywords: Culture; Dialect; Europe; Gypsy; Language; Roma; Romani; Stereotypes; Travelers

Subjects: Ethnic identity; Romanies -- united states -- family, religion, and culture; Romanies--Social life and customs

Partial Transcript: "You guys are performing at the Cat tonight?"

Segment Synopsis: We talk briefly about what our majors. Patrick mentions that he is in the conservatory and we tell Chris that the conservatory and the jazz department are very good. Chris then gives Patrick some suggestions of some Gypsy jazz musicians to check out.

Keywords: Conservatory; Gypsy; Jazz; Music

Subjects: Oberlin College; Oberlin Conservatory