Watch and listen to Elaine and Susan

The Philadelphia Folklore Project premieres a new documentary on these amazing women, third and fourth generation klezmorim. After the screening, enjoy a concert and party with the musicians and special guests. The Hoffman family has had a major impact on Philadelphia musical culture for a century. Elaine and Susan continue to break new ground. The documentary tells the story of these women and this family tradition.

Elaine Hoffman Watts and her daughter Susan Watts Lankin are part of the legendary Hoffman family of klezmorim, leaders of a Philadelphia style rooted in Ukranian and Romanian traditions that differ from — and have long been obscured by — Lithuanian and Polish Jewish ritual and celebratory musical styles. In the early years of the 20th century, the Hoffman family and other Philadelphia Jewish musicians shaped a Jewish American music reflecting the influences of their homeland and the musical culture of Philadelphia. Played at certain points during Jewish weddings — and in the parties that followed — this music became part of a distinctly Philadelphian repertoire.

The Hoffman dynasty began with Joseph Hoffman, a bandleader, composer, and cornet player who came to Philadelphia about 1904 and passed on to his family the klezmer music he learned as a child in 19th century Eastern Europe. His handwritten music books contain his own arrangements of horas, Russian shers, polkas, mazurkas, Russian kamaratskies and kazatskies, a czardas, waltzes, freilachs, bulgars, and many other tunes named after towns with which the music was associated. His percussionist son, Jacob, was a versatile musician who made many influential klezmer recordings with Philadelphia’s Kandel Orchestra and also played with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Born in 1932, Elaine Watts is a third-generation klezmer and a critically important, feisty, and enduring link to a particular Philadelphia-style Jewish klezmer sound. The first woman percussionist to be accepted at Curtis Institute, from which she graduated in 1954, Watts has performed and taught for more than forty years, working in symphonies, theaters, and schools. Despite her skills and family heritage, when she was young Ms. Watts was seldom given opportunities to perform by klezmer bands who didn’t want to employ a girl, even Jacob Hoffman’s daughter.

Ms. Watts began performing klezmer actively again in the late 90s, with the group KlezMs, an all-female ensemble which included her daughter Susan Watts on trumpet; in 2003, the two recorded the CD, “I Remember Klezmer,” which draws on and documents her amazing family musical tradition. She also appears on on the klezmer CD, “Fidl,” with Alicia Svigals of the Klezmatics, has performed at KlezCamps and has been accepting invitations to play regionally. In June 2000, she was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. In 2007, she was awarded the nation’s most prestigious award in the folk arts, a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship.

Susan Lankin Watts represents the fourth generation of the Hoffman dynasty. Susan is the sole living purveyor of the family’s traditional klezmer-style trumpet sounds which electrified Jewish American audiences in our region for decades. She began playing professionally with her mother at 14 and studied at the St Louis Conservatory of Music. In addition to playing with a variety of noted klezmer musicians from around the world, Watts has recorded and performed with Hankus Netsky, Mikveh, London’s Klezmer All-Star Brass Band, and others. Susan has taught at klezmer festivals and privately, and performs in a diverse range of trumpet styles. She was a featured artist in the Philadelphia Folklore Project’s Women’s Music Project for 2001- 2003 and was awarded a grant from the American Composer’s Forum to create new arrangements of music from the family repertoire for a Crossroads concert in 2005.

More information

http://folkloreproject.org/folkarts/artists/watts_e/index.php

Listen to Brian McNeill

This year Brian McNeill celebrates the 40th year of a career that has established him as one of the most acclaimed forces in Scottish music. Brian has been described as ‘Scotland’s most meaningful contemporary songwriter’ (The Scotsman); add to that his work and influence as performer, composer, producer, teacher, musical director, band leader, novelist and interpreter of Scotland’s past, present and future and you have a man who has never stood still. He has performed around the globe, both as a soloist and with some of the era’s most influential bands, including Battlefield Band, which he founded in 1969, and Clan Alba.

Brian was born in 1950 in Falkirk and began his musical training in his early teens with violin lessons, but soon forsook that for the electric guitar. There followed a comprehensive musical education and mildly misspent youth – until his student years brought him to Celtic music. As a direct consequence, in 1969 he formed the Battlefield Band, which became one of Scotland’s best known ensembles.

Brian plays fiddle, octave fiddle, guitar, mandocello, bouzouki,viola, mandolin, cittern, concertina, bass and hurdy gurdy. The importance of his songwriting, mostly about Scotland’s past and future, has long been recognised. Songs including The Yew Tree, The Lads O’ The Fair, The Snows of France and Holland, Strong Women Rule Us All With Their Tears, Any Mick’ll Do and No Gods and Precious Few Heroes have established him as one of Scotland’s leading songwriters.

Brian has two published novels, the first of which,The Busker came out in 1989 and a year later he left Battlefield Band to concentrate more on writing and solo projects. Since then he has also toured with Dick Gaughan, Clan Alba, Kavana, McNeill, Lynch and Lupari, Martin Hayes, Natalie MacMaster and Feast of Fiddles.

His audio visual shows, The Back O’ The North Wind, about Scottish emigration to America, and the sequel, The Baltic Tae Byzantium, which explores the influence of the Scots in Europe, have won wide critical acclaim. The Baltic tae Byzantium is also Brian’s latest album. For six years he was Head of Scottish Music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

More information

http://www.brianmcneill.co.uk

Listen to Lúnasa

Since 1997, Lúnasa has become one of the most sought-after bands on the international Irish music scene. The band’s inventive arrangements and bass-driven grooves are steering Irish acoustic music into surprising new territory. Like the younger generation of Nashville musicians such as Bela Fleck or Edgar Meyer, pushing the boundaries of bluegrass into jazz and beyond, Lúnasa are redefining Irish music by going right to the heart of its rhythms. With its distinctive use of the upright acoustic bass — brought front and center by Hutchinson’s remarkable playing — teamed with Hennessey’s percussive guitar, the group seeks out the essential heartbeat of a tune. “There are lots of great melodies in Irish music but often people don’t hear the rhythms underneath,” says founding member Sean Smyth. “We try to relate the swing or energy out of the music, using new rhythms, letting each instrument add its own unique layer. We’ll play the same tune over and over searching for the groove, exploring it. We let the music find its pulse.” The result is a sound that, though distinctly Irish in flavor, touches on jazz and other improvisational music forms.

Inspired by Ireland’s great 1970s group The Bothy Band, Lúnasa use melodic interweaving of wind and string instruments, pairing flutes, fiddle, whistle and pipes in often breathtaking arrangements. “I had a vision of the type of music I wanted to create,” says Sean. “In my books, the most influential band was the Bothy Band, who were flute, pipes and fiddle based.” Seeds for Lúnasa were planted when Sean hooked up with Trevor and Donogh for a short tour of Scandinavia in late 1996. The trio clicked so well that back in Ireland, they brought in John McSherry and Michael McGoldrick to record some concerts. A tour of Australia in January 1997 brought Kevin on board, and the band began to take off. “The response when we started playing at home was just great,” adds Sean. Within several months, they were filling venues with spellbound audiences in Ireland, and began to expand their tours to other parts of the world. After a particularly memorable concert at Matt Molloy’s — a renowned music pub in the West of Ireland, owned by the former-Bothy Band and current-Chieftains flutist — Molloy himself gave the new band his blessing, remarking “they remind me of a band I used to play with!”

Named for an ancient Celtic harvest festival in honor of the Irish god Lugh, patron of the arts, Lúnasa is indeed a gathering of some of the top musical talents in Ireland. Its members have helped formed the backbone of some of the greatest Irish groups of the decade – Bassist Trevor Hutchinson was a key member of The Waterboys, and later he, with guitarist Donogh Hennessy, would form the dynamic rhythm section of The Sharon Shannon Band. Fiddler Sean Smyth is an All-Ireland champion who has played with Donal Lunny’s Coolfin; Kevin Crawford, considered to be among the finest flutists in Ireland played with the acclaimed traditional group Moving Cloud; and, piper Cillian Vallely (of the same talented musical family as brother Niall Vallely of Nomos).

Biographies
Seán Smyth: Born in Straide, County Mayo, and now living in Galway, Sean is an All-Ireland champion on both fiddle and whistle. His 1993 solo debut, “The Blue Fiddle,” was named one of the ten best albums of that year by the Irish Echo. Other recordings on which Sean appears include “Ceol Tigh Neachtain,” “Music at Matt Molloy’s,” Brendan O’Regan’s “A Wind of Change,” Alan Kelly’s “Out of the Blue” and “Mosaic,” and Dónal Lunny’s “Coolfin.”

Kevin Crawford: An exceptional flute, whistle, and bodhran player, Kevin is a member of another all-instrumental, all-star Irish band, Moving Cloud, with whom he’s made two albums on Green Linnet Records: 1995′s “Moving Cloud” and 1998′s “Foxglove.” Born in Birmingham, England, and living in Ennis, County Clare, he has also recorded with Grianin, Raise the Rafters, Joe Derrane, and Sean Tyrrell, and appears on the 1994 recording The Sanctuary Sessions. In 1994, Kevin made his first solo album, “‘D’ Flute Album,” available on Green Linnet Records.

Trevor Hutchinson: From Cookstown, County Tyrone, and living in Dublin, Trevor played bass with the Waterboys from 1986 to 1991. With that rock band, he recorded “Fisherman’s Blues” (1988) and “Room to Roam” (1990), the latter featuring Sharon Shannon. After that, he made three albums as a member of the Sharon Shannon Band: 1991′s “Sharon Shannon,” 1994′s “Out the Gap,” and 1997′s “Each Little Thing,” the last two available on Green Linnet Records. A much-in-demand musician, Trevor has also recorded with Moving Cloud, Altan’s Dermot Byrne, Máire Breatnach, and Eileen Ivers of Riverdance fame.

Cillian Vallely: A gifted Armagh-born uilleann pipes and low whistle player, Cillian comes from the same talented musical family as his brother Niall Vallely, concertina player with the group Nomos. Cillian has spent most of the recent past touring in the US, performing with bands such as New York-based ‘Whirligig’, Paddy O’Brien’s ‘Chulrua’ and with Clare fiddler Seamus Connolly. He was featured as uilleann pipes soloist in the Broadway production of ‘Riverdance’ and toured with Tim O’Brien in “The Crossing.” Cillian and Niall have recently released their album “Callan Bridge” on Compass Records.
Paul Meehan: From Middletown, County Armagh, Paul was guitarist with the Karan Casey Band. He is also an outstanding banjo player and has recorded on two albums as member of North Cregg. He performs regularly on T.V with different artists.

More information

http://www.lunasa.ie/

Listen to Joan Soriano

If modern pop bachata were R&B, traditional Dominican bachata would be the Delta blues. Originating in the countryside of the Dominican Republic in the early 1900s, the style combines intricate acoustic guitar with lyrics about the hardships of life and love, often including risqué wordplay. Banned as backwards and vulgar under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, bachata began to emerge into the public sphere in the 1960s and especially the 80s and 90s, when a merengue-influenced commercial bachata style swept dance halls all over Latin America.

Born in the countryside near Santo Domingo, Joan Soriano infuses traditional acoustic bachata with equal parts romance and grit. He is the star of Adam Taub’s film “The Duke of Bachata,” was featured in Alex Wolfe’s critically acclaimed documentary “Santo Domingo Blues,” and is on The Rough Guide’s Bachata compilation. Joan has performed throughout North America and Europe and will tour the USA in September 2010 with a five-piece band following the release of his iASO album “El Duque de la Bachata.”

Joan is the seventh of fifteen siblings. As a boy he received little formal education, instead helping his father to work the family’s land. But Joan’s destiny was for music not agriculture. Fashioning his first guitar from fishing line and a discarded metal box, he joined his young brothers and sisters to form a family band. Nicknamed “Los Candes” (after their father Candelario) it became a neighborhood sensation. At age 13 Joan hitched a ride to Santo Domingo and went on to nurture his talent working with some of the island’s greatest bachata stars.

Bachata is essential to Dominican culture and draws upon a variety of influences from Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. A practitioner of palo and gaga, Joan blends Afro-Dominican sacred traditions with bachata, imparting his music with down to earth spirit and dance-ability. Joan preserves bachata’s roots and expands on them. He is a rare combination of new and authentic.

As a leading member of The Bachata Roja Legends, Joan Soriano has been received with acclaim at venues throughout North America and Europe. Highlights are: Chicago’s Millennium Stage, The Santa Monica Pier Twilight Dance Series, The New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas, The Swedish Bachata Festival, The National Council for the Traditional Arts Lowell Folk Festival, Houston International Festival, The National Hispanic Cultural Center, The Lensic Performing Arts Center, and Meany Hall for the Performing Arts at the University of Washington.

More information

http://www.iasorecords.com/index.cfm?subsecid=171

Listen to Debo Band and Fendika

Two seasons ago, Boston’s Debo Band first brought their interpretations of classic 1960s and 70s Ethiopian music to Crossroads. Shortly afterwards, they travelled to Addis Ababa to perform at the 8th Ethiopian Music Festival and several other locations throughout the Horn and East Africa. These performances affected Debo Band’s creative and professional development in significant ways, particularly in the collaboration they began with several traditional musicians – vocalist Selamnesh Zemene, drummer Asrat Ayalew, and dancers Zinash Tsegaye and Melaku Belay. When working with these four musicians Debo Band grows into a forceful, energetic, and authoritative fourteen-piece ensemble capable of delightful, one-of-a-kind performances.

Ethiopian-American jazz saxophonist Danny Mekonnen, a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at Harvard University, founded Debo Band in 2006 as a way of exploring the unique sounds that filled the dance clubs of “Swinging Addis” in the 1960s and 70s. Danny was mesmerized by the unlikely confluence of contemporary American soul and funk music, traditional East African polyrhythms and pentatonic scales, and the instrumentation of Eastern European brass bands. Ethiopian audiences instantly recognize this sound as the soundtrack of their youth, carried from party to kitchen on the ubiquitous cassette tapes of the time. And increasingly, erudite American and European audiences are also getting hip to the Ethiopian groove, largely through CD reissues of Ethiopian classics on the Ethiopiques series – not so coincidentally, some of the same people who are behind the Ethiopian Music Festival in Addis.

Debo Band draws audiences from both mainstream America and Ethiopian American communities. They have opened for legendary Ethiopian greats such as Tilahun Gessesse and Getatchew Mekuria, who has lately been collaborating with Dutch punk veterans The Ex. Debo’s unique instrumentation, including horns, strings, and accordion, is a nod to the big bands of Haile Selassie’s Imperial Bodyguard Band and Police Orchestra. Their lead vocalist, Bruck Tesfaye, has the kind of pipes that reverberate with the sound of beloved Ethiopian vocalists like Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayehu Eshete. Although Debo Band is steeped in the classic big band sound of the 1960s and 70s, they also perform original compositions and new arrangements along with more contemporary sounds such as Roha Band and Teddy Afro.

With a powerful female vocalist, an exciting male and female dance duo, and a propulsive traditional goat-skin drummer, Debo’s Ethiopia-based collaborators Fendika add the vibrancy of Addis Ababa’s nightlife to Debo Band’s distinctive take on Ethiopian dance music. All accomplished musicians in their own right, these musicians work together at Fendika, a leading azmari bet, or traditional music house, operated in Addis Ababa by Melaku Belay, Ethipia’s top dancer with more than 40 international concerts in the last three years, including performances at Chicago’s Millennium Park and New York City’s Lincoln Center. One of the most active artists on the Addis Ababa scene today, Melaku is an ardent supporter of Ethiopia’s diverse musical traditions and a savvy cultural entrepreneur who manages his own nightclub and is developing his own institute for the arts.

More information

http://deboband.com

Listen to Bruce Molsky Ale Möller

One of the most influential old-time fiddlers of his generation, Bruce Molsky is also a remarkable guitarist, banjoist and singer. His high-spirited music melds the archaic mountain sounds of Appalachia, the power of blues and the rhythmic intricacies of traditional African music. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune calls him “old-time music’s answer to Ry Cooder – a commanding musician with a voracious appetite for traditional music styles.” Darol Anger has dubbed him “The Rembrandt of Appalachian Fiddling.”

Bruce grew up in the Bronx listening to rock and blues and played bluegrass guitar in college, but after going to an old-time fiddle festival with a friend, he discovered his true vocation. In the early 70s, he moved to Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to learn from renowned musicians like Tommy Jarrell and Albert Hash. Thanks in part to his time spent with these old masters, he has earned numerous awards at fiddle and banjo contests around the south, including Galax, Virginia; Mount Airy, North Carolina; and the Appalachian String Band Festival in West Virginia and his albums have won “Indie” awards for Best Traditional Folk Recording, received great praise from the Washington Post, Washington Times, Bluegrass Unlimited and others, and become staples for traditional music enthusiasts everywhere.

While Bruce approaches southern roots and blues with great depth of spirit, intimacy, and huge respect for the past, he is also known for his collaborations with musicians from many other traditions, including Irish, Scottish, Cajun, and Swedish and his wide-angled approach to traditional folk music has influenced a generation of players.

Ale Möller‘s first musical passions were jazz, swing and be-bop. After several years playing trumpet and guitar, he became seriously interested in Greek music, but soon realized that the verve of that music springs from the players’ sense of identity and ethnic history. This awareness brought him back to his own background in Sweden and the surviving Swedish folk music.

Ale spent 10 years in Darlarna, a region that has preserved the Swedish fiddling tradition. He studied the tunes in depth, but instead of playing them on a fiddle, he translated them into bouzouki. To reconcile the traditional Swedish music with his Greek instrument Ale had to alter the bouzouki. He had a number of instruments crafted until he obtained the appropriate scales and sound and became a key figure in the overall recreation of Swedish music tradition that took place in the 80s.

Ale’s innovative approach found expression in his following projects, such as “The Fiddling People” and “Bouzoukispelman.” Ale not only combined music traditions from the various regions of Sweden, but he merged them with Brazilian and African tunes.

Ale Moller Band follows the above line of musical search. It features musicians with expertise in Swedish, Greek, West African, Norwegian, Afro-Cuban, Indian and Latin traditionsm as well as jazz. This colorful group uses a variety of instruments to communicate with its audience. Reflecting their diverse background, Ale Moller Band searches for the right notes to tell the stories it has learned – and plays them.

More information

On Bruce Molsky: http://www.brucemolsky.com/
On Ale Möller: http://www.alemoller.se
http://www.rootsworld.com/rw/feature/moller2.html

11:00 Robert Kenyatta (kids show)
Robert Kenyatta has been drumming and studying the percussion traditions of the African Diaspora for close to 57 years. He has performed at the Festival of American Folklife and in the Montrose Pop Festival in Switzerland, worked with the dancer Arthur Hall, traveled with Wilson Pickett to Rio de Janeiro, London, and Germany, toured with the Beach Boys, performed with Sonny Rollins in Japan, and played on the Black Star ship out of Ghana, West Africa, and numerous venues across the United States. As a studio musician, he has worked with Wilson Pickett, the Intruders, the Stylistics, and the O’Jays. He is currently master drummer for Le Peristyle Haitian Sanctuary in Philadelphia, where he drums for service every Sunday and for special services that can last all weekend.

12:00 Unidos da Filadelfia
Unidos da Filadelfia (Philadelphia United) is a community-based samba school modeled after the Carnaval parade organizations of Rio de Janeiro andSalvador da Bahia in Brazil. Founded in 2005, the school’s mission is to spread the joy and excitement of Brazilian percussion through music education and performance. Members of the school have the opportunity to play the traditional percussion instruments and learn the rhythmic styles of Brazilian Carnaval, and to perform at various community events.

http://www.unidosphilly.org

1:00 West Philadelphia Orchestra
The West Philadelphia Orchestra plays poignant melodies and frenetic, propulsive rhythms from Eastern Europe at dance parties, rock shows, concerts, celebrations, and neighborhood potlucks. Guided by drummer Gregg Mervine’s dream of creating a wild, obstreperous village band in step with West Philly’s DIY culture, co-ops, underground music networks, and proactive anarchist legacy, WPO originated as a weekly front-porch potluck and jam session, but with the participation of accomplished musicians from many backgrounds, it soon developed a regular repertoire for public performances and spun off a number of more specialized subgroups. WPO is an ensemble for both children and adults, one that sounds fantastic in darkness and sunshine, and which represents inspiring standards of excellence – which, like an orchestra, can express the entire gamut of human experience.

2:00 The Setting Sons
The Setting Sons play bluegrass originals and standards, fiddle tunes, and jazz standards. Andy Davis, the group’s banjo player and main songwriter, came to Philadelphia from the Bay area, where he played with The Spikedrivers the jug rock band 86. Bass player Topher Horner is a music teacher and UArts graduate who plays both classical and jazz. John Koutsouros comes from a family of musicians and has played bluegrass mandolin with bands including Lemon Hill, Smokehouse, and Birch Valley Crossing. Dan Thut, the co-owner of West Philly’s Green Line Cafeplayed bluegrass guitar with his aunt and cousin in high school in Indiana and has played in bands including DC-based Jeremiahs Run.

3:15 Cobalt Blues Band
Since 1984, the Cobalt Blues Band has mixed blues, rock, jazz and funk to make a pumped up Chicago and Delta blues popular with music lovers everywhere and of every age. The group started out playing the South Street clubs like Zachary’s, J.C. Dobbs, and Bachannal, and now play shows all over the Philadelphia area They have opened for Sonny Rhodes,the Nighthawks, Johnny Copeland, Charles Honeyboy Otis and Joan Osborne. They were regulars at the Clark Park Festival in the late 80’s and appeared this march as part of the Philadelphia Crossroads series at the Calvary Center for Culture and Community.

MC: Chuck Elliott of WXPN’s Sleepy Hollow

Listen to Anne Evan Roy

In honor of International Workers Day, Crossroads presents veteran labor singer Anne Feeney and rising young songwriter Evan Greer of the Riot-Folk! Collective – joined by special guest Roy Zimmerman – celebrating multiple generations of community resistance through high-energy radical folk music on their fourth tour together.

Based in Pittsburgh, PA, Anne Feeney is the granddaughter of an intrepid mineworkers’ organizer, who also used music to carry the message of solidarity to working people. After two decades of community activism and regional performances at rallies, Anne took her message on the road. Since 1991 Anne has traveled to the frontlines in 42 states, as well as Canada, Mexico, Denmark, Ireland and Sweden.

Her anthem “Have You Been to Jail for Justice?” is being performed by activists everywhere, including Peter, Paul and Mary. Dubbed the “minister of culture” to the movements for economic and social justice and human rights, Anne is “the best labor singer in North America” according to Utah Phillips. In 2005, Anne received the Joe Hill Award from the Labor Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC. Past recipients include Cesar Chavez, Pete Seeger, Faith Petric and Hazel Dickens. Her critcally acclaimed recordings are widely available.

Evan Greer is a radical queer singer/songwriter, community organizer and popular educator based in Boston. He writes and performs high energy acoustic songs that inspire hope, build community, and incite resistance! At 24 years old, he tours internationally as a musician and facilitates interactive workshops to support movements for justice and liberation. With his fiercely radical songs that vary in style from punk-folk to foot-stompin bluegrass, Evan has shared stages with artists as diverse as folk legend Pete Seeger, underground hip-hop star Boots Riley, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, and rapper Immortal Technique.

Roy Zimmerman has been writing and performing satirical songs with a decidedly Lefty slant for twenty years. (“We used to have a name for right wing satire,” he says. “We called it ‘cruelty.’”). He has played clubs across the country, sharing the stage with George Carlin, Bill Maher, Kate Clinton, Dennis Miller, Sandra Tsing Loh, kd lang, Andy Borowitz and Paul Krassner. He’s done several shows with The Pixies’ Frank Black, swapping songs in a solo acoustic setting. His up-to-the-moment topical songs are featured on American Public Media’s syndicated broadcast “Weekend America” and Sirius Radio’s “West Coast Live.”

More information

On Anne Feeney: http://www.annefeeney.com/
On Evan Greer: http://www.riotfolk.org/?m=evangreer
On Roy Zimmerman: http://www.royzimmerman.com/

Listen to Alash

New – children’s program at 4:00 pm!

The Alash Ensemble is a quartet of master throat singers (xöömeizhi) from Tuva, a tiny republic in the heart of Central Asia. The ancient art of throat singing (xöömei) developed among the nomadic herdsmen of this region. Alash, who take their name from a river that runs through northwestern Tuva and is the subject of several songs, remains grounded in this tradition while expanding its musical vocabulary with new ideas from the West.

Alash first astonished Philadelphia audiences at a Crossroads concert in 2006; in the spring of 2008, we reconnected them with Philadelphia avant-jazz legends from the Sun Ra Arkestra (whom they had first met in Switzerland several years before). While a few members of the Arkestra may be sitting in for part of the second set, this year’s performance will have a more Tuvan focus. We are also hoping to have a throat singing lesson before the concert if the band’s travel schedule permits and will post more information about that soon.

Alash’s members were trained in traditional Tuvan music since childhood, first learning from their families, and later becoming students of master throat singers. In 1999, as students at Kyzyl Arts College, they formed a group called Changy-Xaya. They practiced in the damp college basement on Kochetovo Street, and soon became the resident traditional ensemble on campus. At the same time they learned about western music, practiced on hybrid Tuvan-European instruments, and listened to new trends coming out of America.

Under the guidance of Kongar-ool Ondar (best known to western audiences for his role in the film Genghis Blues), they began to forge a new musical identity. The musicians are inspired by the music of their grandparents, great-grandparents, and the great musicians of Tuva and Central Asia, but at the same time they are influenced by such western artists as Sun Ra and Jimi Hendrix. Still, they never sacrifice the integrity of their heritage in an effort to make their music more hip for an American audience. Rather they look for contemporary ideas that mesh well with the sound and feel of traditional Tuvan music.

Both the Alash ensemble and individual members have consistently won top honors in throat singing competitions. The ensemble was awarded first prize in Tuva’s International Xöömei Symposium competition in 2004. At the Fifth International Xöömei Symposium in 2008, three Alash musicians swept the top prizes for individual throat singing, and the fourth took top honors for his duet performance with his wife. In 2007, Alash member Bady-Dorzhu Ondar was named People’s Xöömeizhi of the Republic of Tuva, the youngest person ever to receive this prestigious award. In 2009, Alash member Ayan Shirizhik was named a Merited Artist of Tuva. Even Alash’s American manager, Sean Quirk, was named a Merited Artist of Tuva for his contribution to Tuvan culture. In addition, Quirk and all Alash members play in the Tuvan National Orchestra, which has won both first prize and grand prize in the All-Russia National Orchestra and Ensemble Competition.

More information

http://www.alashensemble.com/

Listen to Alash

Please note – children must be accompanied by a parent or other caregiver; other adults should come to the evening concert.

The Alash Ensemble is a quartet of master throat singers (xöömeizhi) from Tuva, a tiny republic in the heart of Central Asia. The ancient art of throat singing (xöömei) developed among the nomadic herdsmen of this region. Alash, who take their name from a river that runs through northwestern Tuva and is the subject of several songs, remains grounded in this tradition while expanding its musical vocabulary with new ideas from the West.

Alash first astonished Philadelphia audiences at a Crossroads concert in 2006; in the spring of 2008, we reconnected them with Philadelphia avant-jazz legends from the Sun Ra Arkestra (whom they had first met in Switzerland several years before). While a few members of the Arkestra may be sitting in for part of the second set, this year’s performance will have a more Tuvan focus. We are also hoping to have a throat singing lesson before the concert if the band’s travel schedule permits and will post more information about that soon.

Alash’s members were trained in traditional Tuvan music since childhood, first learning from their families, and later becoming students of master throat singers. In 1999, as students at Kyzyl Arts College, they formed a group called Changy-Xaya. They practiced in the damp college basement on Kochetovo Street, and soon became the resident traditional ensemble on campus. At the same time they learned about western music, practiced on hybrid Tuvan-European instruments, and listened to new trends coming out of America.

Under the guidance of Kongar-ool Ondar (best known to western audiences for his role in the film Genghis Blues), they began to forge a new musical identity. The musicians are inspired by the music of their grandparents, great-grandparents, and the great musicians of Tuva and Central Asia, but at the same time they are influenced by such western artists as Sun Ra and Jimi Hendrix. Still, they never sacrifice the integrity of their heritage in an effort to make their music more hip for an American audience. Rather they look for contemporary ideas that mesh well with the sound and feel of traditional Tuvan music.

Both the Alash ensemble and individual members have consistently won top honors in throat singing competitions. The ensemble was awarded first prize in Tuva’s International Xöömei Symposium competition in 2004. At the Fifth International Xöömei Symposium in 2008, three Alash musicians swept the top prizes for individual throat singing, and the fourth took top honors for his duet performance with his wife. In 2007, Alash member Bady-Dorzhu Ondar was named People’s Xöömeizhi of the Republic of Tuva, the youngest person ever to receive this prestigious award. In 2009, Alash member Ayan Shirizhik was named a Merited Artist of Tuva. Even Alash’s American manager, Sean Quirk, was named a Merited Artist of Tuva for his contribution to Tuvan culture. In addition, Quirk and all Alash members play in the Tuvan National Orchestra, which has won both first prize and grand prize in the All-Russia National Orchestra and Ensemble Competition.

More information

http://www.alashensemble.com/

7:00 pm, 2nd floor classroom at Calvary Church

Free but please rsvp to info [at] crossroadsconcerts.org if possible so we know how many people to expect.

On Thursday, April 22nd from 7-10 PM, Crossroads will sponsor a special klezmer workshop and jam with West Philly’s own Daniel Blacksberg.  Here you can learn to play the instrumental Jewish music of the Old World and New with one of the best trombonists in the business.  The event will be about half workshop, where the group will delve into a small number of tunes to learn the style and the ornamentation and half jam where the people can play the tunes they already know and let all the work settle in.  This is a great opportunity for those who have been playing klezmer for a long time or those who just have a passing interest in Eastern European folk music. 

Daniel Blacksberg has played trombone with just about every klezmer band on the East coast that’s had one, as well as many in Europe, all while residing in the city of brotherly love.  He’s a regular with Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All Stars and is a member of Alan Bern’s Klezmer/Gypsy music supergroup The Other Europeans.  He’s been a featured performer and teacher at festivals and workshops everywhere from Toronto to Charlottesville to Weimar, Germany to Krakow, Poland.

Listen to Jayateerth Mevundi

Jayateerth Mevundi is a Hindustani classical vocalist and celebrated younger representative of the Kirana gharana style of vocal music. He grew up in a musical family in Hubli, Karnataka, and began his formal study of music in the Gwalior gharana. In 1994, he became a student in the lineage of great vocalist Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, and is now widely known for his sonorous voice and virtuoso taankari (rapid melodies improvised on a single sound).

Mevundi sings khyal, a relatively modern style of North Indian classical vocal music. Khyal developed, some say, from music sung in the small, private rooms in the womens’ quarters of royal courts, where delicate ornamentation and fast tempos could be appreciated – subtleties that would have been lost in the large, reverberant halls where the older, more austere dhrupad was performed.

With the collapse of the Mogul Empire in the 18th century, men began to sing khyal as well as women, and many different gharanas – lineages of teachers and disciples with a distinctive musical style and philosophy – developed. Mevundi’s Kirana Gharana, known for sweetness, emotionality, and intricate improvised ornament, originated in Uttar Pradesh about 100 years ago and was heavily influenced by Carnatic (South Indian) music.

A khyal song (bandish), consists of a short poetic text and a raga, one of the musical modes on which all Indian classical music is based and is accompanied by a melodic instrument like sarangi or harmonium, tabla (tuned hand drums), and a drone. In order to extend the length of the song, the singer will repeat the words improvising different melodies or improvise on individual syllables or even sounds, periodically returning to the first line or full text as a reference point. Performances often consist of a long piece in a slower rhythm followed by a shorter piece in the same raga but with a different, faster rhythm. The short poetic texts are often about romantic and devotional love, and touch on seasonal or other themes.

More information

http://www.jayateerthmevundi.com/

Listen to Michael Winograd

New – klezmer workshop with Dan Blacksberg on Thursday, April 22!

A leader in the second generation of the klezmer revival, clarinetist and composer Michael Winograd is considered a modern master of the klezmer clarinet style and has also developed his unique voice in the area of free-jazz with his group Infection. He performs or has performed with SoCalled, Budowitz, Frank London, Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Kenny Wollesen, Michael Alpert, Alicia Svigals, the Xylopholks and many more. Since graduating with distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Hankus Netsky, Joseph Maneri, Dominique Eade, Joe Morris, Bob Labaree and Ran Blake, Michael has taught and performed all over the world, including at KlezKamp, KlezKanada, the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow Poland, the Klezmer Workshop in Paris, Winnipeg and Calgary Folk Festivals, and the Dawson City Music Festival.

Benjy Fox-Rosen is a Brooklyn based bassist, singer, and composer. He has performed internationally as a member of Luminescent Orchestrii, a Balkan inspired string band, and is also a founding member of PLAY! ensemble, a microtonal improvisation group. In 2007 Benjy was a recipient of the Bronfman Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Student Artists for “Minutn fun Bitokhn” his suite composed around four Yiddish songs. Benjy performs regularly with Transylvanian folk band Metrofolk, Jake Shulman-Ment, Michael Winograd, The Amazing Frozen String Quartet and with his own band, Minutn fun Bitokhn, focusing on the songs of, and original setting of poems by Mordechai Gebirtig.

Patrick Farrell is a Brooklyn, NY based accordionist, brass fanatic, composer and bandleader who has been described as a “wizard” by Feast of Music and as a player of “mordant wit and blistering speed” by Lucid Culture. An open-eared approach and consistent curiosity about music have led him to study and perform in an ever-expanding variety of musical fields, including collaborations in theater, dance and spoken word. He has travelled extensively in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, where he regularly studies with his primary accordion teacher, Goran Alachki of Skopje, Macedonia. In New York, the klezmer community has graciously welcomed him and he regularly shares the stage with luminaries such as Frank London, Margot Leverett, Alicia Svigals and Eve Sicular. He is also leader of the circus/new-music/comedy group Stagger Back Brass Band, and plays in a wide range of other groups, including Ljova, the Kontraband, Romashka, Veveritse, and in various improvisational and new music settings.

Philadelphia trombonist Dan Blacksberg will join the trio for this performance. Dan is one of the few trombonists playing klezmer music on the east coast. He has performed or recorded in the US and abroad with Frank London, Michael Winograd, Aaron Alexander, Susan Watts, Elaine Hoffman Watts, the Klez Dispensers, Hankus Netsky, Alan Bern, Adrienne Cooper, Alex Kontorovitch and the Shirim Klezmer Orchestra – musical associations have brought him to such far-flung locales as Hungary, Poland, Austria, Germany, Canada and some strange corners of Brooklyn.

More information

http://www.myspace.com/mwinfection

Listen to Archie Fisher

Master guitarist, singer and songwriter Archie Fisher is among Scotland’s foremost interpreters of traditional songs and is known throughout the country as the host of BBC Radio Scotland’s award-winning “Travelling Folk” show, which he has presented for over 25 years. For his contributions to Scottish folk music, he has been inducted into the Scots Traditional Music Hall of Fame and in 2007 was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth for services to traditional music.

Archie was born in Glasgow into a large singing family – his sisters Ray and Cilla also became professional singers. His father’s appreciation of many musical styles (opera, vaudeville, traditional ballads) and his mother’s Gaelic speaking family from the Outer Hebrides strongly influenced his musical development and the lyrical quality of his singing and songwriting. He first became interested in the folk revival during the Skiffle era of the late 1950’s and recordings of the Weavers later profoundly influenced approach to music and political outlook.

During the British TV folk boom of the 1960’s and 70’s he was part of an Edinburgh scene that also included Robin Williamson, Clive Palmer and Mike Heron, and the Incredible String Band and was an early guitar colleague of Bert Jansch. Archie’s first self-titled album was recorded in 1968 with the now sadly departed pairing of fiddle and mandolin player John McKinnon and the renowned whistle and piccolo player John Doonan.

During the mid 1970’s he formed a long-term partnership with Dundee musician Allan Barty worked as a backing musician and arranger/producer for Tommy Makem, Liam Clancy, and the dynamic Scottish band Silly Wizard. During the 1980’s he turned his attention to freelance radio work and originated several series of documentary programs with his local station Radio Tweed. He then returned to the recording studio during what he describes as one of his most creative songwriting periods and toured North America with Canadian songwriter Garnet Rogers, English guitarist John Renbourn, and Bert Jansch. Windward Away, his latest release, has already achieved widespread acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.

More information

http://www.myspace.com/archiefisher

Listen to Chulrua

Chulrua (pronounced cool-ROO-ah) is Irish for “red back,” the name and distinguishing feature of the ancient Irish hero Fionn MacCumhaill’s favorite wolfhound. It is also the name of an internationally acclaimed trio of some of the most respected and unique exponents of Irish traditional music.

County Offaly native Paddy O’Brien has collected more than 3,000 tunes, including many rare and unusual ones over the last 40 years and is regarded as one of the tradition’s most important repositories. A master of the two-row button accordion, he has been named Oireachtas champion four times, and was first named All-Ireland senior accordion champion in 1975. In Ireland, he played and recorded with the famed Castle Ceili Band and Ceoltoiri Laighean and since moving to the United states in 1978, he has been featured on many recordings on Shanachie and Green Linnet label. Paddy has taught at the prestigious Willie Clancy Summer School held in Milltown Malbay, County Clare, and three times served as a master artist in the Minnesota State Arts Board Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. The 500 pieces in the “Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection,” the product of a 1994 National Endowment for the Arts, have received accolades from players of Irish music around the world.

Pat Egan is becoming a recognized force on the contemporary folk scene. A native of Tipperary, Pat grew up singing and playing, and has been a professional musician since 1985. He served his apprenticeship with the Dublin groups Old Bawn and De Min, and has since been a member of Idle Wall and the Mayo-based traditional group Sheeaun. More recently, his performance on the internationally acclaimed recording “Music at Matt Molloy’s” brought his talent to much wider attention, and in 1994 he produced a highly regarded solo tape, “Songs for the Candle.” Now based in Baltimore, Maryland, Pat has made extensive tours of the United States, and has also performed in Sweden, Norway, Holland, Germany, and Scotland. He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, in the US, Ireland, and abroad.

Chulrua’s regular fiddler, Patrick Ourceau, is taking a break from touring after the birth of his twins last spring. On this tour, he will be replaced by Dale Russ, whose playing is known for its balance of power and elegance. Originally a bluegrass guitarist, Dale discovered Irish music shortly after buying his first fiddle in 1973 and has never looked back. He has since played in bands with such luminaries as Kevin Burke, Mike Saunders, Mark Graham, Colin Manahan and Nick Voreas and although self-taught (and 100% Slovak), he was invited to perform along with 16 of the finest Irish fiddle players living in the States at the first Boston College Irish Music Festival in 1990. The concert was recorded and released by Green Linnet Records and won an award from the Smithsonian Institute as “Traditional Recording of the Year.”

More information

http://www.chulrua.com