GIPSY KINGS SING OF OLD, SAD HISTORY : It’s a Wander: Who’d Have Thought They’d Settle Into Being a Global Music Sensation?

It would be disappointing to actually get ahold of a Gipsy King on the first try. Though one attempts not to stereotype, Gypsies do have a certain time-honored reputation for intransigent wanderlust.

For example, when the still-fabulous French jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli reminisces about his legendary departed partner Django Reinhardt, it is usually with a mixture of love and exasperation. As much as the Gypsy guitarist could be depended on to be brilliant when he played, he couldn’t be counted on to actually show up for a gig. Sometimes, unannounced, he would even disappear for months to go off caravaning with his Gypsy brethren.

When we recently tried to reach Gipsy King lead singer Nicolas Reyes in France--the call was routed through manager-translator Pascal Imbert’s New York office--Reyes was nowhere to be found at the appointed time. (The group generally sings in Spanish, but converses in French.) After several more tries, Imbert reasoned: “There is a big soccer game between France and Italy. He must be at that.” We rescheduled for the next day.

When Reyes again couldn’t be found at two different numbers, Imbert deduced, “Well, France won the match last night, so maybe he is out celebrating.” A third day was scheduled, and after several hours a connection was made, though Reyes did wander away from the phone for a time, understandably to look after his young son.

Reyes may choose to act like he has a private life when he’s not touring with the brothers and cousins that comprise the Gipsy Kings, but he says they take no liberties when it comes to punctuality and professionalism in their performances.

“We have a great respect for our audience and wouldn’t do such a thing because we understand it would hurt us at the end of the day,” Reyes says.

Not that the Gipsy Kings’ music wouldn’t be worth enduring any number of inconveniences. Though you can scarcely step into a restaurant or dentist’s office today without hearing their music, it still reaches out with the same passion that made the flamenco guitar-strumming Gypsies the globe’s most unexpected music sensation of the past decade.

As evidenced on their breakthrough 1987 hit, “Bamboleo,” and at all points following, Reyes has a breathtakingly emotive voice, a gruff pepper mill of a throat from which he grinds pealing, melismatic phrases that rise and swirl like campfire smoke. His cousin and lead guitarist Tonino Baliardo is no less expressive on his nylon-stringed instrument, playing with a wind-whipped fire and a poetic intricacy.

Their sound is ringed by the other Gipsy Kings--Patchai, Paul and Francois Reyes and Diego and Jacques Baliardo--on guitar and voice. Except for the modern drum, bass and synthesizer backing they add to their shows and records, their music is like what they would sing in a Gypsy camp, though not entirely so.

“In the camp, its more like a fun time in the sense that people joke, interrupt songs, talk, drink and have fun. Life is simpler, while onstage we are rigorous and go through the catalogue,” Reyes said. Despite the relative formality of their U.S. performances, Reyes said the same strong emotions still course through them when they sing.

“It is something that we learn very young. When we sing we give all our hearts and all we have inside. When people hear that, they usually feel that the expression is very powerful. It’s because we give everything. (With the language differences) people maybe don’t understand what we talk about exactly, but they do, I think, understand the expression of what we want to make go across. They understand that it is things from the heart,” he said.

Historians say the Gypsy peoples originated in northern India, and Reyes says the Gypsies concur with that belief. “From India, some went south, some east and some west. Many came through northern Africa, and our way of singing and the rhythm on the guitar is very similar to those territories,” he said.

In many societies, Gypsies have been ostracized or actively persecuted, and there is no shortage of tragedy in their history. That, too, has become a part of their sound. No matter what subject Reyes sings on, his vocals always seem touched by sadness.

“That’s the way we see life,” Reyes said. “We take something that is sad, and we will turn it into something we can make better, something that comes out like a ceremony at the end.”

Though he personally hasn’t had problems with it, Reyes said there is still discrimination against Gypsies.

“There is still a feeling of being scared of Gypsies, because we are dark. Some have big mustaches or curly hair, and people get scared of Gypsies when they are around. There is a ‘mysterious’ thing about us. But the fact that we are getting accepted around the world and our faces are published in magazines, it does help against the discrimination.”

The Gipsy Kings’ international acclaim, Reyes said, “Didn’t change our lives at all, besides the fact that we have houses and good cars. Life is mostly the same thing because we have this relationship between families that is so strong it would be hard to change. One would have to get out of that circle to have a different life.

“The Gypsy way of life is very structured around the family, and everybody stays together basically from childhood on. Because even when you get married you still stay with the family in the caravans or around the camps: Mother, father, sisters, brothers, kids, aunts, uncles, et cetera--they are always around. If they move, everybody moves together. Life is very much concentrated around that family thing, much more than in any other family arrangement I’ve seen. It’s really a way of life.”

Some sibling performers, such as the Everly Brothers for several years, become fed up with having to see the same faces they grew up with every day. “They are different from Gypsies,” Reyes said, “because Gypsies, when they are born together, they are brothers for life.” Reyes said he would have little interest in touring the world if it were not in the company of his brothers and cousins.

Though the band members now have fixed abodes--the Reyes family is centered in Arles, near Marseilles, while the Baliardos live in Montpellier, in southern France--all grew up in traveling caravans in the region. They still go on caravan when they can--including a brief outing just before kicking off the U.S. tour that brings them to Irvine Meadows on Sunday--though Reyes missed the big annual Gypsy gathering in May due to a death in the family.

Reyes, 34, said the times he is able to spend rolling in a Gypsy wagon “are great because they give me all the souvenirs of my childhood, when we were on the road all the time.”

Music runs in his family; his father was famed flamenco singer Jose Reyes, who sang with guitarist Manitas de la Platas. He also maintains that in the Gypsy culture “without music there would be no life. Our stories and traditions are carried on through the music.”

He cites his father as his main influence, though these days the spectrum of singers he enjoys includes Aaron Neville, Pakistani Sufi singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Whitney Houston.

The group has taken some criticism for abandoning the pure acoustic sound of their pre-”Bamboleo” recordings (issued in Europe and more recently compiled on the U.S. album “Allegria”) to popularize their sound with synths and drums.

The band has just completed its first new studio album in two years. “The Soul of Today” should be out on Elektra Records in September. Reyes says to expect a few changes.

“The songs on the album will still be arranged with drums and synthesizer, but very soft, mostly with the guitars and voices out in front. It’s going to be new things, new arrangements. There is a little bit of influence from South America. Tonino has one instrumental with some Brazilian influence, and also there will be a reggae-type song.”

Reyes, the group’s principal songwriter, asserted: “The main influence on the new album for me is it is very much related to the spirit of family, to kids. I just had a son, Yohan, so there is a song for him. I am also very moved by other children and unhappy children, so there are a lot of songs regarding children on this album.

“It talks about some sad situations, but we are hopefully making it to look for a better future. One of the songs, called ‘Navidad,’ is about children who are too poor to have toys for Christmas and things like that. It is a sad song, but basically at the end everything gets together, and they find someone who helps them out.”

Reyes writes songs on a variety of topics, but he says there is a central idea he hopes people get from the songs: “Most of all, it is that I think everybody on Earth should understand they are brothers and sisters, no matter the color of their skin or their origin, and hopefully people can get together and have a better life by dealing better with each other. That’s what I want people to feel.” At their concerts, he wants listeners to feel that, and a bit more.

“We love it when people are moved to dance. It’s a great feeling, because it makes you have a better confidence in what you do, getting that response right away. I want the concert to be a celebration, a real celebration like never before, as if we had known each other for a long time and it’s a real party,” he said.

* Who: The Gipsy Kings.

* When: Sunday, June 20, at 8 p.m.

* Where: Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine.

* Whereabouts: San Diego (405) Freeway to Irvine Center Drive exit. Turn left at the end of the ramp if you’re coming from the south, right if you’re coming from the north.

* Wherewithal: $27.25 to $37.25.

* Where to call: (714) 740-2000 (TicketMaster).

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