A week after our last concert, we are at the Musical Instrument Museum to see Le Vent du Nord and listen to their flavor of Canadian folk music; they hail from Quebec. Another great show at The MIM.
The Punch Brothers
Sorry about the poor quality, but no photos were allowed, so I had to quickly grab this one with my phone. We are out in Mesa again just ten days after our last concert, this time to see the Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile.
My Polite Birthday
Today is my 52nd birthday, but that’s not me in the photo. Caroline has been delivered to the AZ Desert Weavers and Spinners Guild meeting that happens on the first Saturday of the month outside of summer. Today’s presentation is held by Gasali Adeyemo from Nigeria. He is a master indigo dyer and an expert in adire eleko, which is a type of tie-dye technique cultivated by the Yoruba in Nigeria. With her at the meeting and me not paying attention to work today, I’m free to head to a coffee shop and enjoy some John time.
Later in the day, but not too late, we are at Dominic’s Steakhouse in Scottsdale; as much for dinner as this birthday serving of butter cake, the all-important skillet of whipped cream is just behind it.
We are closing out the day in Mesa for a concert by Arlo Guthrie, performing the 50th anniversary of Alice’s Restaurant, which is being retired after this tour.
Amon Tobin in San Diego
Drove out to San Diego, California today. I was accompanied by Brinn Aaron who was also intrigued about seeing Amon Tobin tonight. First stop in town was to pick up my daughter Jessica – who’d never been to a performance of electronic music! And this wasn’t just any gig either, it was Amon’s ISAM 2.0 show, he’s been at the forefront of projection mapping adding a major new element to stage performance. Working with Vello Virkhaus of V Squared Labs and his team of evil geniuses, these guys have built a “screen” – if you can call it that, it’s more a 3D cubic form that stretches across the stage and towers high above, that acts as the video screen. Projected onto those cubes are mapped video images and special effects that quite often are in sync with the music, but are always a great compliment to the glitchy throb of Amon’s beats. Almost inconspicuously embedded within the cube structure is a ‘bigger’ cube – it’s the DJ booth where Amon’s working. At the mixing desk is Peter Sistrom, a member of V Squared, but he’s not working the audio mix, he’s operating midi panels that are triggering visual events that are pouring out of Derivative’s Touch Designer into some high powered projectors that are beaming a flow of visual beauty onto the stage.
The show was amazing with a lot of consideration given to the quality of the sound system that hammered away at the audience and vibrated more than a few of my internal organs. Somewhere after the end of the tour, the stage will likely be burned in a bonfire somewhere in the Mojave desert – I can only hope that the next tour is even more extravagant than this two hours of perfection I watched tonight.
Photo credit: Jessica Aldridge
Etran Finatawa at The MIM
Month after month the Musical Instrument Museum doesn’t fail to deliver a rich mix of music from around the globe. Tonight’s featured musicians from Niger are known as Etran Finatawa – click the link to watch them live. These five men perform what they call Nomad Blues. They are Tuareg and Wodaabe nomads playing traditional gourd instruments, a goatskin drum, flute along with guitar, and hand clapping. The magic of them coming to the United States and the generosity of The MIM bringing them to Phoenix was nothing less than amazing. It’s not very often that musicians emerge from one of the five poorest countries on earth to tour the world. This part of their tour primarily focused on the western U.S. with only Chicago and New York having scheduled dates west of the Mississippi.
Etran Finatawa’s performance went by fast although they did play for nearly an hour before an intermission. When they came back on stage for the second half, it was during this part of the concert that Etran really got the audience going. Two of the percussionists came forward joining the other Wodaabe member for a spectacular display of dance and eye movements particular to the Wodaabe. Our peek into this culture from a remote corner of the world was our great fortune. Sadly it will likely be another couple of years before they make a return visit to America. Watch a video by clicking here to see a segment of the Werner Herzog film about the Wodaabe. And click here to watch Tuareg dancing from the Ghadames Cultural Festival.
Photos courtesy of The MIM and Jimmy C. Carrauthers of Great Leap Productions.
Huun Huur Tu & Carmen Rizzo
It’s 7:30 and from stage right, the door opens. Five men walk out, four of them are Tuvan the other American. The four Tuvans make up the throat singing group Huun Huur Tu. The American is Carmen Rizzo, he represents a whole new dimension to the more traditional and possibly ancient style of music. As a backdrop, a large screen flickers to life with looping abstract video images and a slow rhythmic beat from electronic instruments begins to pulse. The strings of the doshpuluur and the igil start to resonate.
Then the voices begin their drone and whistle. The overtones of Tuvan throat singing bring goosebumps to this magical moment. We feel lucky to be able to witness a live performance of a type of music that stems from such a tiny place far, far away. This style of singing appears to have begun with shepherds in the area of Mongolia but can be heard in different styles from native peoples as close as the Inuit of northern Canada. Our previous encounter with throat singing was a performance of Tibetan monks years ago in Scottsdale.
Tonight’s set was nearly evenly divided between the more traditional acoustic performances of the four members of Huun Huur Tu with and without the accompaniment of Carmen Rizzo. Both sides of the show were perfect; Carmen Rizzo took up his place behind the masters adding an epic soundtrack feel to the already dramatic sounds of this wonderful performance. A million thanks to the Musical Instrument Museum for bringing another great concert to Phoenix during a time of year that could typically be called “entertainment light”. Click here to watch and listen to Huun Huur Tu performing with Carmen Rizzo.
Thanks again to Jimmy C. Carrauthers of Great Leap Productions for his kind permission to use his photographs to accompany my blog entry.