Global Roots Days 1 and 2: Learning On the Job

Learned a couple of things already this festival about the interesting instruments involved as well as more arcane knowledge involving such things as rough-and-ready Turkish coffee making.

Whatever I said about the dhol in the Cedar podcast was wrong, well partly. I just asked Red Baraat's Sunny Jain about it.  The two head part was right, but there are actually two sticks.  No hand percussion involved.  You get a bass head, which is usually skin, then you get the treble side, which on Jain's dhol, is synthetic.  To me it had the sharp, commanding sound of a snare drum with the snares off.  He said the synthetic heads just last longer, but some players go for the skin heads on both ends.

Now it's the sticks where things get really interesting.  The bass side is played with a "j" shaped rather heavy wooden stick, which reminded me of the sticked used with talking drums.  The treble side is played with a very flexible bamboo stick that can just boing off the read and reverberate.  When both sides get gong at once...well. you know... it's Chaal, baby!  Or if you don't know, here's a little snippet of video from Tuesday's concert at the Cedar.

You know what the whole arangement also reminds me of?  The tapan(davul/lodra/towla) drum used in Balkan and some Middle eastern music.  You get the two sides with different pitches, the two different sticks, the great complex rhythms.

Anyway, the dhol would be a mighty addition to any marching ensemble.  Too bad Red Baraaat didn't go and march areound the West Bank for a while to (ahem) drum up some business before their show!

And about that coffee? The Mahala Rai Banda fiddler (and ringleader!) asked me for some coffee after supper, so I pointed at the carafe full of The Cedar's finest Fair Trade organic Peace coffee.  He shook his head,"American coffee is not good.  We need Turkish coffee." I asked "Like espresso?" and started to explain how to get to the nearest coffeeshop.  He shook his head again and told me "Bring the coffee."

So I went to the kitchen and grabbed the big container of drip ground coffee, then watched as he laid out a row of mugs, spooned coffee into each one, put a lot of sugar on top of that, then filled each mug with boiling water.  All the older guys in the band just slurped it down! Whew! I've seen some African bands bring their own hotplate just to boil up the mint tea, but this was hardcore.

As you can see here, their performance was caffeine (and vodka) fueled.  I was rather limp after three hours of dancing to mighty brass music.  Not to mention the emotional singing!  I have some video of Red Baraat's Sunny Singh showing us how it goes in South India, but I wish I'd taken some of the wedding singer guy from Mahala Rai Banda.  What drama!  What vibrato! It reminded me of the scene in the film Shukta Book of Records where the old men in the town of Suto Orizari have an annual contest to see who owns the cassette of the saddest Turkish music.  They all play their cassetes in turn and gauge the reaction.  If it makes somebody get up and dance, that's pretty good.  If it makes some of the guys tear up, they're on the track to victory! (I just won't tell you about how I got choked up at the conclusion of Oreka Tx's Nomadic Tx film.  I told you, I'm in touch with my feelings!)

I also just have to ask about that trombone magic...anybody?  The ladies were just flocking around the trombone players in both bands after the show.  I saw one gaggle of gals line up both 'bone players for a team photo! Sorry I don't have a copy of that. Very easy on the eyes, yes.

How did they fit them all in the van?  Are they really driving to Iowa like this?  That's a lot of  Romanians! (and one Turkish drummer, as they kept reminding me!)

The quieter, captivating music Wednesday night was the perfect contrast, a little yin to go with all that yang.  I feel balanced again this morning.  Here's the cool wierd instrument gallery from Wednesday's bands, Portico Quartet and Oreka Tx.

Oreka Tx's stone txalaparta. Extra fee for the airline on this one!

Portico Quartet played not one, but three hang drums and used them to sublime effect.

It's the alboca!  I thought he had a little bag pipe up there, but no. Can you see there are two pipes with two sets of finger holes leading to the horn?  There's the source of your drone. There's a reed hidden inside the round wooden part.

Did you notice Red Baraat's Sunny Singh in the lead-in photo?  He's showing off the chimpta, which basically means "tongs" in Punjabi.  That's tongs covered with tiny cymbal-ish jingles.

Before I hang it up for the day, let's talk shoes for a moment.  The well dressed men in Mahal Rai Banda had some fine shiny, shiny shoes but the cool shoe award so far goes to Sunny Jain.  Check out these sassy kicks!