I first met Greg Harbar and Mary Ann Harbar (now Mary Ann Willis) at their overstuffed home on Peden. My best friend was babysitting their son Nick Harbar . They were known as the Gypsies, which as far back as the early 70’s or at that time around 1978, was fairly unique and unusual. The house’s walls were lined with special shelves made to hold Greg’s LP’s, which was probably one of the most extensive collections of what is now glibly referred to as world
music. The house also had instruments that defied description (unless you asked Greg) in every corner and mantel of every room, in addition to being wired as a multi-track studio. If you hung around long enough, people would filter through and begin playing the instruments, and should you stay any longer, you would be pressed into playing something yourself. To this day if you have a music requirement from a specific ethnicity, you might just want to start by booking either one of them, but with Greg you will also get the Gypsies or whoever is subbing that night.
More Gypsies ‘Czaras‘, “ Tchavalo Swing ” and “Kalomijka“
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