Dušan Jovanovič (5)

Tamburica player (b. 1890 – d. 1929) Probably born in the Banat region of Serbia, Dušan Jovanović, then 33, immigrated with his family (wife, Mara, and seven-year-old son, Nicolas) to the United States on November 2, 1923, previously having lived in Timișoara, Romania. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he founded the "Eagle" Tambura Ensemble (Tamburaško Društvo “Orao”). On August 22, 1924, he did his first test recordings with Victor in New York. Between 1924 and 1926, however, he recorded more than two dozen tracks exclusively for Columbia. In fall 1926 he returned to Victor, releasing almost two dozen records on that label between 1926 and 1929. On most of his releases, Jovanović played the prima, the smallest tamburica. He also accompanied many of the "Orao" ensemble's recordings with his rich baritone voice. In addition, he released sixteen comedy skits in Serbian, accompanied by music and singing, that made fun of the immigrant's experience. In several of these routines, recorded between 1927 and 1929, he played the straight man to his wife Mara. Recording Croatian, Serbian, and even Romanian songs (the latter under the name D. Joanovichu), Jovanović became extremely popular. In 1929, however, the car in which he and his "Orao" ensemble were traveling to a performance collided with a train, and all of them were killed. In 2000, Jovanović was inducted into the Tamburitza Association of America's Hall of Fame.