Avsenik Ensemble
Begunje 21, SI-4275 Begunje na Gorenjskem
Phone386 (0) 4 530 7031 (music studio)
Managed byTradicija Avsenik d.o.o.
Marjan Legat
Phone386 (0) 41 358 060
The dynamic duo of the brothers Avsenik has recorded over 800 songs, with the self-taught Slavko responsible for the tunes and Vilko, being an academic (jazz) musician, handling the arrangements, texts and notations. The latter is also responsible for the original instrumental idea of joining up an accordion, a trumpet, a baritone, a clarinet and (since 1955) a guitar. This merging of a small brass orchestra with a traditional folk trio and the incorporation of respective musical styles was their primary innovation and the foundation this musical genre. However, with the added vocals, the sound of the Avsenik Ensemble was completed and, so to say, ready for take-off.
The band has had - mostly due to various promotional reasons - a wide variety of names. While in Slovenia they are usually know under the name Ansambel bratov Avsenik [Avsenik Brothers Ensemble], the German speaking audiences – for the reasons described bellow – most commonly remember them under the name Slavko Avsenik und seine Original Oberkrainer.
History
The Avsenik brothers, born in Begunje in the Gorenjska region of Northern Slovenia, started playing together as far back as in 1936. Then, a family quartet of the brothers and sisters Avsenik was established and played at the garden of their family inn (with Vilko on the accordion and Slavko – only seven years old at that time – on the button box). After the war, though they still occasionally played together, their courses parted and while Vilko started studying music, Slavko went for sports and was a memeber of the national ski-jumping team. Vilko got a job at the Dance Orchestra of Radio Ljubljana and after an injury prevented Slavko from further pursuing his ski-jumping career, Vinko suggested to his brother and knitter-by-necessity to join an audition by Radio Ljubljana. Slavko passed it and recorded his first few solo songs in 1953.
The early years - From Slavko Avsenik's Trio to the Oberkrainer quintett (1953 - 1955)
Slavko's first band, an accordion-guitar-bass trio was short lived, as in that same year of 1953 he and Vilko formed the Gorenjski kvartet with Vilko on clarinet, Slavko on accordion, Franc Kosir on a trumpet and Franc Ogrizek on a baritone. In 1955, with the addition of Lev Ponikvar on guitar, they became the Gorenjski kvintet and sometimes also The Brothers Avsenik Quintet.
The band had a few live gigs in at the Carinthian Radio in 1954, where they %ndash; in that same year %ndash; recorded their first few songs, among them their biggest hit, the powerful polka song Na Golici (dubbed in German Trompeten-Echo). Helmut Hartman, the editor at that radio, on his own accord translated the band's name and presented them as the Oberkrainer quintett (Oberkrein being the Austrian name for the Gorenjska region). This name has stayed as their international name (much to the displeasure of the nationalist sentiment in Slovenia) and as the band became big rather soon, the term Oberkrainer actually started denoting this particular music style. Due to the many bands (ranging from Germany to Serbia) that started to call themselves The Oberkrainer this or that, the band changed their name to the Original Oberkrainer Quintet in 1959.
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When on a vacation in Austria in 1955, editor of Bavarian radio in Munchen Fred Rauch heard the band, managed to get their tapes from Helmut at the Carinthian Radio and took them to Germany to play them on his radio. Soon after, the quintet recorded their first small album with four songs for the German publishing house Telefunken, with whom they stayed for the better part of their career. The band started getting very big very soon.
The golden decades of Slavko Avsenik and his Original Oberkrainers
In 1956, the band had their first tour in France and Slavko Avsenik, by himself, had performances with his accordion and German musicians in more then 60 different Bavarian towns. In 1957, the band, which occasionally included male and female vocals even back in the times of the quartet, was permanently enlarged with vocals, at that time the singing duet of Franc Koren and Danica Filiplic.
After that, things have sort of gotten out of hand and for the next few decades, the Avsenik Ensemble has %ndash; under one name or another and with a varying cast %ndash; toured with spectacular success around the whole of Europe (being popular especially in Germany) and also North America. Especially in the first few decades, they've had somewhere between 150 and 300 performances per year and played before the crowds that could number up to 80,000. They performed at the winter Olympic games in Innsbruck and appeared on numerous television emissions worldwide (one of them was supposedly seen by more then 80 million viewers all over Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden).
Their recording track is also prolific and is due not only to the demands from the label and the audiences but also to Slavko's seemingly unending flow of new tunes. In 1964, having sold more than a million albums, their first golden record was achieved and when they've disbanded in 1989, 33 of their records were golden and all together they've sold more then 31 million records and tapes. In Slovenia, around half a million of their recordings were sold.
Band members
While the accordion was exclusively played by Slavko Avsenik, the other members were for various reasons fluctuating a bit more and included: on trumpet Franc Košir, Pavel Oman, Miro Saje, Jože Balažic; on clarinet Vilko Ovsenik, Franc Tržan, Albin Rudan, Alojz Zupan, Zoran Komač, Miha Gunzek, Vito Muzenič; on baritone Miško Hočevar, Borut Finžgar, Franc Ogrizek, Jože Kelbl, Mik Soss, Igor Podpečan, Vinko Štrucl, Ludvik Kos, Marjan legat and Slavko Avsenik Junior; on guitar Mitja Butara, Leo Ponikvar, renata Verlič, gregor Avsenik, Miha Ramšak, Hervin Jakončič; and on vocals Franc Koren, Danica Filiplič, Eva Prodnik, Alfi Nipič, GFranc Košir, Marija Ahačič, Sonja Hočevar, Irena Svoišak, Stane Vidmar, Andreja Čamernik, Helena Blagne, Jožica Kališnik, Albin Rudan, Peter Care, Rudi Miložič, Jožica Širca Svete, jelka Cvetezar, Peter Ambrož and Marinka Grajzer.
Even though Vinko Ovsenik stopped playing the clarinet in 1959, he remained a crucial band member until the end, taking care not only of the arrangements but also finding the best text writers, with some of the being: Fery Souvan, Zvonko Čemažar, Elza Budau, Marjan Stare, Fran Milčinski, Ivan Sivec, etc...
Later years
After retiring from music, Slavko Avsenik has together with his wife started with a restaurant establishment Pri Joževcu in Begunje. As his wife acted as the bands manager for quite some time, her expertise was vital for them to also develop the Avsenik brand and legacy by way of a museum, a shop, a publishing house and a music school. Slavko Avsenik has also had a brief return to the stages as a solo accordionist in 1997 and after that for a time performed with the band Gašperji.
Until the end, he never stopped composing music. While during the nineties it was mostly played by other Slovenian bands, in his last couple of years he started focusing on his grandson's band, the Sašo Avsenik Ensemble. This band has also fast gotten notable international success. Of Slavko's offspring, one could also note Slavko Avsenik Jr, who was actively collaborating with Laibach during the eighties. His other son Gregor Avsenik is a guitar virtuoso and recently the head of the Avsenik Festival.
Until he retired in 1999, Vinko Ovsenik remained the artistic director at Helidon, a production and publishing house which was started on his initiative in the sixties and which was the main Slovenian publisher for the Avsenik Ensemble.
Awards and achievments
Besides having 29 gold, four platinum and one diamond record to their credit, they have countless other awards. For example and at one time or another, they won eight consecutive German television competitions, twelve times on the yearly German radio stations chart and eighteen times in the broadcasting emission Hit Parade mit Lustiger Musikanten at Radio Koln. They received the recording industry's European Music Oscar for the most original, quality and popular compositions from the European foundation of publishing houses and discography, the Golden Rose Award for the most requested ensemble on Austrian radio and, in 1979, the Linhart plaque in Slovenia and the "Hermann Löns" award from the German Minister of Culture. They have also been given the Golden Clog for being the most popular ensemble in the Netherlands and have been awarded the title of Polka Kings of the World in the USA.
In 1987, they were enlisted in the Guinness book of records as the most fruitful folk band in history. Nowadays, the song Na Golici/Trompeten-Echo is considered to be the most played instrumental tune in history. It has also been covered more than 600 times all over the world.
Slavko Avsenik was named as the honorary citizen of the Begunje Municipality and was honoured by George Voinovich, the governer of Cleveland. Together with his brother Vilko they were awarded The Silver Order of Freedom of the Republic of Slovenia and were also put on stamps by the postal services in Slovenia.
Cultural impact
Even today, the Avsenik Ensemble is still one of the most influential and popular polka and waltz music groups in the world. Over forty years, the Avsenik Ensamble's original "Oberkrainer" sound bhas strongly influenced the folk music scene in Slovenia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Benelux countries, spawning hundreds of Alpine orchestras in the process. In the USA, their style has profoundly informed the so called Cleveland-Style, as in 1958 Johnny Pecon's English lyrics transformed Slavko's "Tam kjer murke cveto" into a Greatest All-Time Cleveland-Style Hit, Little Fella. Since then, Cleveland-Style orchestras have recorded well over 200 Avsenik songs, which sort of makes sense also due to the fact that Cleveland holds the biggest Slovene diaspora in the world.
Their genre of music, accompanied by accordion, is popular at Slovene marriages, among older generations of Slovenes and also amongst expatriates and their descendants in the USA.
See also
External links
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The history of the Avsenik Ensemble … The history of the Avsenik Ensemble goes back to 1953, when the accordion player Slavko Avsenik (1929–2015) formed his first trio and later regrouped it into a quartet that also featured his older brother Vilko Ovsenik (who had changed his name to the pre-WWI spelling of the family's last name).e-WWI spelling of the family's last name). +
The history of the Avsenik Ensemble goes b … The history of the Avsenik Ensemble goes back to 1953, when the accordion player Slavko Avsenik (1929–2015) formed his first trio and later regrouped it into a quartet that also featured his older brother Vilko Ovsenik (who had changed his name to the pre-WWI spelling of the family's last name).e-WWI spelling of the family's last name). +
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