Goran Bregovic bringing his musical feast to Seattle's Moore Theatre

When civil war started inexorably ripping Yugoslavia apart at the seams in 1990, Goran Bregovic found himself out of the rock-star business.

As the founder of Bijelo Dugme (White Button), the guitarist brought a bracing jolt of rock 'n' roll to the Balkans in the mid-'70s, selling millions of albums across the region while giving voice to a generation stifled by communist conformity.

A multiethnic child of Sarajevo, born to a Serbian mother and a Croatian father, Bregovic fled to Paris, where he quickly gained attention for his vivid soundtrack work. His music seemed particularly well-suited for the films of fellow Sarajevan Emir Kusturica, such as "Time of the Gypsies," "Underground," and "Arizona Dream," which features Iggy Pop singing Bregovic songs.

Many Americans first experienced Bregovic's wild mélange of Balkan Gypsy/klezmer rock in Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (the fact that Kazakhstan is almost 3,000 miles from Belgrade didn't seem to hurt).

Despite his success, Bregovic never really saw himself as a film composer.

"I did my first movie because of friendship, because Kusturica is from Sarajevo as well," said Bregovic, 59, from his home in Paris. "At that time I was a big rock 'n' roll star, it wasn't really a job for me.

"Rock 'n' roll stars don't do the music for films. My music is too aggressive, too melodic. For the last 10 years I've done very few movies, but I can put in my biography that I did a few decent ones."

What rock stars do is launch a new band, and for Bregovic that meant creating an ambitious, sprawling ensemble that captures everything he loves about his homeland. At first he performed with a symphonic orchestra, but he quickly started replacing the sections, and ended up with the raucous Wedding and Funeral Orchestra, which plays the Moore Theatre on Tuesday as part of Bregovic's first U.S. tour.

"I threw out everything from the classical orchestra, everything that makes an orchestra too well-tuned," Bregovic said. "I threw out the timpani and replaced them with traditional percussion. I threw out all the brass and replaced then with a Gypsy brass band, and I left just the strings. It's always a bit out of tune, because I'm not comfortable with perfect tuning to tell you the truth."

While the orchestra slimmed down considerably for its American debut, Bregovic is still traveling with a 20-piece movable musical feast that includes a Gypsy brass band, string quartet, male vocal sextet and the stunning Bulgarian vocal duo of sisters Ludmila Radkova-Trajkova and Daniela Radkova-Aleksandrova. The tour marks the release of his first CD with North American distribution, "Alkohol," a beautifully constructed work that evokes the former Yugoslavia's multi-confessional mix of Catholics, Muslims, Orthodox and Jews.

Alcohol might have played a role in an incident that almost derailed Bregovic's first American tour, an accident that bespeaks his rock 'n' roll roots. Last June, a la Keith Richards, Bregovic injured his back falling out of a cherry tree.

"Now I'm the guy with the metal in the spine," Bregovic said. "I was really lucky. Afterwards it was a like a little rehearsal of my funeral. All my friends were there. I had telegrams from the ministry of culture from France and the Serbian king sent me flowers, and a Gypsy brass band came by and played for me. In a way it was nice."

Andrew Gilbert: jazzscribe@aol.com