Aljoša Buha | |
Birth Date: | 4 January 1962 |
Birth Place: | Ljubljana, PR Slovenia, FPR Yugoslavia |
Death Place: | Jablanica, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia |
Instrument: | bass |
Years Active: | 1979–1986 |
Past Member Of: | Kongres and Crvena jabuka |
Aljoša Buha (Serbian: Аљоша Буха; 4 January 1962 – 18 September 1986) was a Bosnian musician best known for having played in two bands: Kongres and Crvena Jabuka.
Aljoša Buha was born in Ljubljana to a Herzegovinian Serb father Krsto Buha from the village of Balabani near Gacko and Slovenian mother Vida Tribušon from Nova Gorica. His parents met and married in Ljubljana where his father had arrived for metallurgy studies at the University of Ljubljana. Shortly after Aljoša's birth, as his father landed a job at Zenica Ironworks, the family moved to Zenica.
Growing up in Zenica's Pišće neighbourhood, Buha was musically inclined from a young age. With his friend and neighbour from the same apartment building Darko "Cunja" Jelčić, Buha played in a band called Flota. Buha's mother died in March 1980 when Buha was eighteen. After graduating high school in Zenica and going off to serve his mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) military stint, Buha went to Sarajevo for university studies, enrolling at the University of Sarajevo's Faculty of Philosophy. His widowed father re-married in the meantime and Buha's half-sister Lidija was born in 1982.
While pursuing his studies at the University Sarajevo, Buha was roommates with, a student at the Academy of Performing Arts, who had also arrived in Sarajevo from Zenica.
In 1982, twenty-year-old Buha started playing bass in the newly-founded new wave / synth-pop band in Sarajevo. Formed and run by Adam Subašić, a twenty-four-year-old drummer from Sanski Most who had, much like Buha, arrived to Sarajevo for university studies, the band also featured vocalist and guitarist Mahir Purivatra, keyboardist Dado Džihan, and second vocalist Emir Cerić. Playing on the Sarajevo club scene during the 1982-1983 period, the band often crossed paths with Zabranjeno Pušenje and Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors, two more local young bands behind the nascent New Primitive club scene/movement in the city. However, since Kongres' sound and stylistic sensibility didn't overlap much with New Primitivism, the association always remained a cursory one.
By 1984, Džihan and Cerić left Kongres while Edo Gradinčić joined as Džihan's replacement. Throughout the summer of 1984, the band recorded their debut album Zarjavele trobente in RTV Sarajevo's studio. Produced by Mahmud "Paša" Ferović, the album was released by Diskoton in October 1984.
Aljoša Buha was recruited in Crvena Jabuka in 1986 as a bass player. He was also among the other members Darko Jelčić, Dražen Žerić, Dražen Ričl, and Zlatko Arslanagić. Aljosa played bass on the band's self-titled debut album.
On 18 September 1986 Crvena Jabuka went to the concert in Mostar that would put their skills to the test and prove their popularity. Near Jablanica Aljoša Buha died in a car accident, along with Dražen Ričl. He died immediately with severe wounds and Ričl was transported to Belgrade in a helicopter and died 13 days thereafter.
Buha was buried in his hometown of Zenica.