September 19, 20 & 21, 8 pm

Marzena presents Songs of Heaven and Earth:
Celebrating the music of Olivier Messiaen

multiple venues
see details below

Marzena presents Songs of Heaven and Earth: Celebrating the music of Olivier Messiaen on the occasion of his 100th birthday /// The weekend of 19-21 September 2008 in Portland, Oregon /// Free Admission (donations welcome) /// Concert I - Friday, 19 September (8 pm), Free Marz String Trio - Anniversaries: Music by former Messiaen students; George Benjamin,Bob Priest, Thomas Daniel Schlee and Fabian Watkinson,plus other works by Canetti, Gorecki, Lutoslawski and Penderecki - Community Music Center, 3350 SE Francis St. /// Concert II – Saturday, 20 September (8 pm, Tamara Still (organ) – Heroes of France: A complete performance of Messiaen’s monumental 9 meditations for organ, La Nativite du Seigneur Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 147 NW 19th Ave. /// Concert III – Sunday, 21 September (8 pm), Fear No Music – Fear No Messiaen; Program includes excerpts from Messiaen’s piano masterpiece, Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant Jesus, Quartet for the End of Time, and Joan Tower’s tribute to Messiaen for cello and piano; Community Music Center, 3350 SE Francis St. /// Festival performers include, Ines Voglar (violin), Joel Belgique (viola), Justin Kagan (cello) and Jeff Payne (piano)

Monday, September 22, 2008, 8pm

Chicha Libre

Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave.

Ticket Price: $13.50 adv / $15.00 dos /// All Ages - Doors at 7:00 PM, Show at 8:00 PM /// When journalists in Lima want to write about Chicha, the psychedelic-meets-Amazon music once popular in Peru, ironically, they place a call to Brooklyn’s Chicha Libre. The new band—led by Barbès club owner Olivier Conan—is reviving the style that was popular among indigenous empowerment groups in the 1970s, but frowned down upon by the middle class and mainstream. Antibalas did it with Afrobeat. Sidestepper did it with Afro-Colombian music. Now Chicha Libre does it with the funky wah-wah groove and psychedelic organ of Peru’s Amazon. Their debut album, Sonido Amazonico (to be released on Barbès Records on March 25, 2008), features cover songs from the era alongside originals arranged not only in the sound of the time, but using the spirit of Chicha’s syncretism. Retro-Latin bin-scavengers caught wind of The Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias, a compilation that Barbès put out last year that drew critical acclaim from NPR, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, among others. Conan scoured street markets in Lima and spent over a year tracking down the masters of these under-recognized bands for the Chicha collection. The unexpected sound is now back in the form of a live band who covers “Sonido Amazonico,” the song by Los Mirlos which opened the earlier compilation CD, as well as new compositions. In the hands (and minds) of Chicha Libre, the exotic sound has as much in common with the Beatles as it does with anything else. This is what Chicha may have become had it infiltrated popular culture in the U.S. “When Rock and Roll took over the world, in the 1960’s, it spelled out the end of a series of Latin crazes around the world,” claims Conan, the bandleader, vocalist, and cuatro-player. “Prior to that, Mambo and Rumba (or Rhumba, whatever that was…) had been on the verge of taking over the world. Cuban rhythms were adopted by almost every musical genre in the world. Then Rock and Roll came about and acted as steam roller. It leveled every other popular genre – pretty much preventing their growth. Everybody wanted to be modern and Rock and Roll instrumentation was the epitome of modern – it used electricity.” Soon, everybody started going electric, says Conan. Organ, bass and guitars became the new status symbols. They were part fashion statement, part musical instruments. “A lot of local genres were completely influenced or stopped in their growth by the onslaught of Rock and Roll,” says Conan. “Some great things happened because of it: all the hybrids, from Ska to Soukous and Highlife. It was the same phenomenon the world over.” Growing up in France, Conan soaked up both the Latin and Rock imprints. He listened to The Clash’s London Calling alongside Willie Colon’s Crime Pays. “To me, both Rock and Latin music were foreign, exotic genres you could relate to,” Conan remembers. He was listening to Johnny Pacheco and Eddie Palmieri, whose popularity was so strong in France that Conan didn’t realize they were based in New York until he moved there himself many years later. “Frontier towns in the Amazon were close enough to Colombia and Brazil to soak up different rhythms,” Conan continues. “Cumbias, of course, but also Brazilian music, as well as indigenous Andean and Amazonian folklore. And, Rock and Roll. Unwittingly, the Amazonian bands were creating one of the most compelling cosmopolitan genres ever heard. A global hybrid which could appeal to pretty much everybody – young and old, Peruvians and foreigners, Rock and Roll aficionados and Cumbia dancers. The process they went through was similar to what I went through musically.” Hearing Chicha for the first time was like hearing the music he heard in his head, in his dreams, all along. He brought recordings back from Lima and played them for his friend and Barbès business partner Vincent Douglas, who had a similar Surf-Rock approach to his guitar-playing. While many American fans of Manu Chao are first confused by his French-Latin-Caribbean hybridization, it fits naturally for Conan. “He is not that different from Chicha,” says Conan. “He uses some Cumbia rhythms (though they end up sounding like Dub Reggae) and he is Rock based. It’s a similar approach.” While the members of the New York-based Chicha Libre have played a variety of genres, including Jazz, Klezmer, and Balkan, Conan feels that Chicha has been very natural for them, since their musical upbringing in Rock aligns well with Chicha’s development. “The original Chicha guys were making it up as they went. It is not a pure form. The codes and rules were very loose. For some reason we were able to apply the same loose rules and come up with a similar sound, without forcing it in any particular direction. We’re learning their approach more than we are learning their music. And in a way that’s why it works,” says Conan. The band’s instrumentation is unique. Keyboard player Josh Camp (a founding member of lit rock band One Ring Zero) plays a rare Hohner Electravox. It looks like an accordion, but sounds closer to the Farfisa organs used in the ’70s. It is entirely vintage electric; no air passes through it. “It has a very warm sound, very lo-fi,” Conan describes. Conan’s instrument of choice is the ukulele-like Venezuelan cuatro. “It sounds authentic, even though it’s not. We sound timeless and placeless with hints of Andean music, Classical, and Rock.” The band also includes a “baby bass”—the popular electric upright used by a lot of Latin bands—in the hands of Nick Cudahy (from Combustible Edison) and a variety of percussion, including unexpected but fitting instruments from Brazil. The band approaches their songs similarly, hinting at the original style without feeling cramped by it. On “Primavera,” the group takes Vivaldi’s Spring theme from The Four Seasons, puts it in a minor key, and chicha-fies it. “The original Chicha guys used tunes from their Peruvian environment that they tweaked, but instead of quoting an Amazonian or Andean tune the way they did, we used Vivaldi, which is one of the default anthems of Western cultures,” explains Conan. Similarly, the band takes on Ravel’s “Pavane” and Satie’s “Gnosienne.” “It’s remarkable how easy it is to turn anything into a Chicha tune. It’s like Reggae,” Conan says. “You play anything in a Reggae style and it becomes Reggae. The music has such a strong identity.” “Chicha has its own special groove,” Conan continues. “It’s mostly a Cumbia groove, but it’s a little stiffer. It’s often faster, and it’s not as loose as a lot of Cumbia. They’re not playing their own music. They’re borrowing it. So they are playing it a little more straight some times. The loose quality to Cumbia disappears from Chicha. It grooves in a unique way.” While “Sonido Amazonico” finds Chicha Libre paying homage to the style as closely as possible, “Six Feet Under” is an attempt to stretch the limits of Chicha. The band used a vaguely Greek melody and a French chorus showing that they can play their own brand of Chicha. “The Chicha sound came around in a completely organic manner which explains why it hasn’t aged a bit,” says Conan. “This is where Chicha Libre comes in. The group doesn’t play Chicha as an exercise in ethnomusicology or because of an acute case of exotic fetishism. In a way, we recognized the sounds of Chicha as something we’d always try to emulate without quite knowing it.” Given the strong positive reaction that Peruvians in Brooklyn and back home have to Chicha Libre, the band’s approach may demonstrate that authenticity of the soul is more important than authenticity of repertoire when taking on music from afar. While the Internet has claimed credit for much of the shrinking of the planet, the wah-wah pedal and electric organ may still be a quicker path from the Amazon Jungle to the Concrete Jungle.

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008

Maraca
(Bobby Torres Ensemble opens)

Roseland Theater
8 NW 6th Ave
Portland

21 + over /// "Maraca is the Cuban jazz and Tropical outfit led by flautist, pianist, composer and arranger Orlando "Maraca" Valle (born Havana, 1966). After playing along with singer Bobby Carcassés and participating in Chucho Valdés' Irakere the talented musician decided to go on his own. The 12-member Maraca & Otra Visión and the Latin jazz Maraca and Afro-Cuban Jazz Masters followed soon after. From January 6th to the 31st, 2002 Maraca recorded the Tropical-inflected Tremenda Rumba! at Havana's Miramar Studios, featuring vocals by Wilfredo Campa and paying tribute to the Cuban dance style known as Danzon." --Drago Bonacich, www.allmusic.com

Wednesday, October 01, 2008, 8 pm

Solas

Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave.

Ticket Price: $20.00 adv / $22.00 dos /// All Ages - Doors at 7:00 PM, Show at 8:00 PM /// In a manner befitting their name (a Gaelic word meaning “light”), Solas burst onto a largelydormant Irish music scene and almost instantly became a beacon – an incandescent ensemble that found contemporary relevance in timeless traditions without ever stooping to crossover clichés. Via spectacular musicianship, riveting band empathy, and a bold willingness to extend the boundaries of their sound, Solas cleared a path for traditional Irish music in the new millennium. While their rapid rise to prominence was startling and reinvigorating, equally impressive is Solas’ continued artistic growth. Despite – or perhaps because of – continued evolutions in the band’s lineup, they have harnessed the explosive energy of their thrilling early era and extended it outward across a series of albums that showcase an increasing sophistication and a still restless creative spirit. Solas’ most recent album, For Love and Laughter (available August 26 on Compass Records), finds the band embracing new elements while simultaneously looking back. “Looking at this album, we wanted to combine some of the previous approaches,” explains founding member and multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan. “We went in with more of the raw, immediate mentality of our first three albums, but kept ourselves open to other possibilities and new elements.” The most striking of those new elements is the welcoming of new vocalist Máiréad Phelan to the current Solas lineup of Egan (flutes, whistles, banjo, mandolin, guitar, percussion), Winifred Horan (fiddle), Mick McAuley (accordion, concertina, vocals), and Eamon McElholm (guitar, vocals). Egan is quick to cite the rejuvenating effects of Phelan’s addition, remarking “Sonically, a new singer –especially one of Máiréad’s abilities – opens up so many different options in terms of both what she can sing and what we can build around her voice.” The ability to adapt to new lineups while continuing to grow artistically is one of Solas’ many strengths. First formed in New York City in 1994, the original lineup of Egan, Horan, John Doyle (guitar, vocals), Karan Casey (vocals), and John Williams (accordion, concertina) delivered two quintessential albums (1996’s Solas and 1997’s Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers) before Williams departed and was replaced by the multi-faceted McAuley. Those first few years saw the band emerge as a critical and commercial favorite, with the The Wall Street Journal declaring “they already seem poised to join the elite of Irish traditional bands active today, including the Chieftains and Altan.” Casey departed for a solo career prior to the band’s 2000 release The Hour Before Dawn, which introduced vocalist Deidre Scanlon. 2002’s The Edge of Silence welcomed guitarist Donal Clancy, who departed in time for McElholm to take the guitar chair for 2003’s Another Day. This lineup reconvened for 2005’s gripping Waiting for an Echo. The continuity of Solas was well illustrated by the remarkable 2006 release Reunion: A Decade of Solas, a live CD/DVD that documented a concert in Philadelphia featuring all past and present members – sometimes in their original configuration, but more often reassembled in intriguing new ways that ingenuously and refreshingly defied nostalgia. “The reunion project took up a fair chunk of time and energy,” Egan reflects. “That was probably about a year from conception to actually getting it done. But after a quick bit of reset, we set out playing again.” The band has maintained a hectic schedule, and has been especially active in Europe. Scanlon left to pursue other opportunities in 2007, and for some time the band carried on without a full-time singer, allowing McAuley and McElholm – both gifted, soulful vocalists in their own right – to share the vocal spotlight. The band continued recording, and in Egan’s estimation “had the better part of an album finished by the time Máiréad joined us in early summer of this year. As soon as she said ‘Yes,’ we were in the studio finishing it.” Recorded in Ireland, Louisiana, and Philadelphia (the band’s unofficial home-base and where all but one of their albums were recorded), For Love and Laughter is a dynamic, vibrant collection of songs and instrumental features that, as the band intended, matches the hard-driving glory of the first few Solas albums with the richer textures of their subsequent projects. Cellist Natalie Haas, whom Solas met while they were performing as the house orchestra of the popular Boston holiday program ”A Christmas Celtic Sojourn”, enlivens three tracks, while two songs feature a full-bore collaboration with Canadian roots alchemist The Duhks, recorded in the Louisiana studio of the highly regarded producer and multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell. “We’d run into one another in festivals, and would sit with one another in late at night,” Egan explains. “It would be great fun, and at one of the festivals we asked if they were up to trying something for the new album, and they agreed. The cool thing was that we were able to record those tracks live in the studio – both bands together and just played it.” The resulting songs – an instrumental set called “Vital Mental Medicine” and the vocal feature “Merry Go Round” – are rousing performances on an album that finds Solas embracing straight-ahead grooves more than ever before. “There aren’t full-on drum kits on this album,” quips Egan. “But we do use a MacGyver-esque approach to the percussion sections, which is what we did early on. We definitely decided to not be afraid of the backbeat on a few tracks!” “Seven Curses,” which features a luminously restrained performance from Phelan, packs a similar percussive wallop and also showcases McAuley’s and McElhom’s spot-on harmony vocals. Instrumental sets like “John Riordan’s Reels” and “Eoin Bear’s Reel” feature the brilliant intertwining of Horan’s dazzlingly agile fiddle, McAuley’s squeezebox, and whichever instrument Egan chooses to employ at a given moment, backed by McElholm’s surging rhythm guitar. Longtime Solas associates Chico Huff (bass) and John Anthony (who, in addition to recording and mixing much of the album, contributes percussion) are also a key part of the band’s rhythmic force.As a whole, For Love and Laughter is an impressive summary of what continues to make Solas an engaging and powerful presence on the Irish music scene. “I believe,” Egan says, “that we were successful in melding together all of the various approaches we’ve used over the years in a way that comes across as being organic. This album has that raw feel of the first few, but also has some of those things that you don’t necessarily pick up on the first listen…things that are working in the background that you only discover on repeated listens.” “We’re going into our thirteenth year now,” Egan concludes. “After continuing on this long, as a musician, you want to be surprised; you want to be pushed. Those qualities are important. Whether it’s from a new member or by collaborating with people like The Duhks or Natalie Haas, it’s good to have a different perspective…it makes you feel young again.”

Thursday, October 02, 2008, 8 pm

Global Drum Project
featuring Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju, and Giovanni Hidalgo

Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave.

Ticket Price: $39.50 adv / $42.00 dos /// All Ages - Doors at 7:00 PM, Show at 8:00 PM /// The GLOBAL DRUM PROJECT Tour brings Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju, and Giovanni Hidalgo together again in a reunion sparked by the 15th anniversary of the ground-breaking album Planet Drum. Released in 1991 on the Rykodisc label it went on to earn the first-ever Grammy Award in the World Music category. The tour is the groups first in almost a decade. It also marks the resumption of an artistic relationship – between Mickey Hart and Zakir Hussain – that goes back to the late 1960s. For Hart, this reunion is an opportunity to take Planet Drum into new places. “This is a deep drumming groove. We’re taking the archaic rhythm worlds into outer space. Planet Drum explores rhythm and noise…it’s a sound yoga of processed acoustic percussion headed straight for the trance zone that becomes a dance of ancient and modern worlds. Deep drumming is a skeleton key into these realms.” In 1968, Mickey Hart was the percussionist for a band called the Grateful Dead. Ever-curious, he met Hussain’s father, Allah Rakha (Ravi Shankar’s tabla player), and became his part-time student, bringing Indian percussion ideas to rock and roll. It was a seminal encounter. In the 1970s, Allah Rakha gave Hart what he called his greatest gift – his son, Zakir Hussain, who went on to succeed his father (Allah Rakha passed on in 2000) as the world’s preeminent tabla player. Hart and Hussain’s musical relationship first emerged into the public eye in 1976 with the Diga Rhythm Band, a collaboration of percussionists (most of whom were students at the Ali Akbar Khan School of Music) that was, Hart said, an American version of a gamelan. After opening for a Jefferson Starship concert at San Francisco’s famed Winterland, they recorded Diga, which included the tune “Happiness is Drumming,” which evolved into the Hart tune “Fire on the Mountain,” a staple for the Dead, Other Ones, and Planet Drum. Later in the 1970s Hart organized the “Rhythm Devils,” a percussion group that included his fellow Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann and Michael Hinton, among others, to record the percussion sound track to Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Soon after, in the early ‘80s, Hart collaborated with Airto Moreira and Flora Purim on Dafos. By then, he’d begun an in-depth investigation into the sociocultural history of percussion, which resulted in two books – a memoir, Drumming At the Edge of Magic, and then a pictorial history, Planet Drum. Alongside the book came the CD, and perhaps the greatest summit meeting of percussionists the world has ever known. All of them were legendary. The elder was the late Babatunde Olatunji (“Drums of Passion”) from Nigeria, the man who introduced African drumming into popular American sensibilities, along with his protégé and aesthetic heir, Sikiru Adepoju (whose specialty is the talking drum), also of Nigeria. From Brazil came Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew fame. One of the great Latin percussionists of all time, Giovanni Hidalgo, brought in the flavor of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Finally, Zakir Hussain (and his associate T.H. “Vikku” Vinayakram) blended in the magical sounds of classical India. The CD was a critical and popular smash, as were the book and the tour. And now, 15 years later, with each of the four – Hart, Hussain, Adepoju, and Hidalgo – at the height of their creative powers, it’s time to invoke the percussion gods again.