The Elysian Fields

Spent most of today watching the Mummers Parade. Starting last year, Deb, aequitaslevitas, and I kept score on the string bands... we didn't quite vote along with the judges or the viewers choice, so we'll see how we do this year! =)

Here's some videos of the string bands from last year's parade...

Up first my first choice for this year as well as one of my favorites from last year, Polish American, with Ghouls Gone Wild:


( Four more string bands, King Kong, leprechauns, and more under the cut... )

I'm in no wise trying to present a history of the mummers, or even an in-depth overview of the parade, but all these guys in these bands are average, every day people - they're not professional musicians, dancers, costume designers, and choreographers. They're plumbers, auto mechanics, electricians, and whatever other trade or profession people in a city might have. There's a few councilmen, judges, and so forth in the bands and clubs, but they're generally rank-and-file members. Many of the clubs are family based and then extend outward to the neighborhood.

~ ~ ~

During one of the Murray Comic Club's presentations, a mummer went into cardiac arrest... as he was playing the devil, and the theme had something to do with Hell freezing over, it wasn't immediately apparent that his fall to the ground wasn't part of the act... no word on who he is or his status but I hope, first off, that he's okay, and, if that fails, at least he went out doing what he loves.

The NAMM show - National Association of Musical Merchandisers - is an incredible opportunity to see new instruments and equipment and hundreds of artists that play them. Of course, officially, it is (or was - my last visit there was Winter 1988) only open to manufacturers, artists they invite, and music gear resellers.

This little bit, apparently at Monster Cable's booth, gives you a taste of some of the treats you can get... in this case a jam between guitarist Al Di Meola, fretless bass master Bunny Brunel, and, heard but mostly unseen percussionist Gumbi Ortiz:

While the other Stomp clips show percussion instruments made from bits of this and that, this clip goes a step beyond and really gets into the "use everything in your environment as an instrument" thing. It should be especially entertaining for anyone who ever worked in a commercial kitchen, whether or not they realized the musical potential of everything around them, or for anyone who ever put together a set of drums from pots and pans:



Despite that this likely comes from Stomp Out Loud - and it was confirmed that yesterday's clip did, as well - I'm going to highlight a third Stomp DVD today: Pulse: a Stomp Odyssey so as to further broaden your horizons, especially if you already have that first disc! =)

...and that concludes the set of international percussion...

I suppose some of you saw this coming ~ I didn't. It seems inevitable, though, to end a set of clips featuring percussion with a few clips from a production dedicated entirely to percussion.

The original set was just intended to feature Habib Koite & Bamada and some Uakti, and then Bamboo Orchestra was pointed out to me. As I collected those clips and lined them up, I realized some daiko ~ something I've liked for over a dozen years ~ would do nicely in this set. While searching and gathering for some great Japanese percussion, I couldn't help but notice the links for clips to Stomp [stomponline.com], which bills itself as a "Combination of percussion, movement, and visual comedy" and if only one third of that really fits the theme, it was enough to get me to watch. Of course, they also bill the show as "the international percussion sensation" ~ and that is, exactly, the theme.

Where the folks in Bamada and the daiko ensembles use traditional instruments of Mali and Japan, respectively, and Uakti combines traditional instruments of Brazil and elsewhere with engineered creations of PVC and other materials, Stomp uses anything and everything as an instrument. Although there is design behind it, there is much more of an improvisational feel to the bits of flotsam and jetsam that make up their instruments. More than that, they make use of their whole environment ~ anything within reach of a drumstick, hand, or whatever becomes a percussion instrument.

Here's the opening from their DVD, Stomp Out Loud:

Continuing on with some daiko drumming and other traditional Japanese instruments, here's another ensemble, Yamato:

It's not all that big of a stretch to move from the music of Bamboo Orchestra, which has its roots in Japanese percussion, with that of daiko, which is Japanese percussion.

Taikoproject, an American ensemble that blends contemporary touches with traditional music, has another performance of Omiyage on video, and it is the one I originally wanted to present here, but it had the embedding disabled, so I dug a bit deeper and you get this different - although still excellent - performance with a bigger ensemble combining the forces of Taikoproject with Zenshin Daiko:



There are two DVD collections by Taikoproject, the first is TAIKOPROJECT:(re)generation Special Edition Taiko DVD. The second, TAIKOPROJECT: Rhythmic Relations 2006 Special Edition Taiko DVD, features performances by other taiko groups as well as Taikoproject.

Here's our second piece from Bamboo Orchestra, Periode Jurassique:

With this, we wrap up Uakti's portion of the current set. In yesterday's "part one", some fairly traditional instruments were featured... here we branch out further and see a few more of the band's interesting creations.



If you like what you've heard, and want to explore further, Uakti has released a number of albums since 1979. My first and favorite is still Aguas da Amazonia, although I can also recommend Twenty One and I Ching. They've also made some contributions to Philip Glass : Orion, along with other incredible musicians from around the world. Of course, that only covers the albums I have; you can see all their available works on Amazon.com.

I believe this documentary is in Portuguese - it shows, through sometimes painful pixelization, the instruments of Uakti:

"Teardrop from the South", Lágrima do Sul. Even though we've moved over to Brazil for the musicians, including the guest vocalist, the transition from Africa is eased somewhat as the song is about South Africa during apartheid.

Uakti use some traditional instruments, but, for the most part, play original instruments they designed and created. One might be tempted to compare their PVC, wood, metal, and glass instruments to those of the Blue Man Group, but one must also look at the history of the two groups: BMG came about in the early nineties, whereas Uakti was playing their constructed instruments in the late seventies.

Percussive instruments - or, with some tunes, traditional string instruments played with percussive techniques - and complex rhythms with layers of different time signatures dominate their music, yet it remains quite accessible. Their music has been compared to the experience of being in the rainforest.

The name of the group comes from a Tukano native South American legend. Uakti was a mythological being who lived on the banks of the Rio Negro. His body was full of holes, which, when the wind passed through them, produced sounds that bewitched the women of the tribe. The men hunted down Uakti and killed him. Palm trees sprouted up in the place where his body was buried, and the people used these to make flutes that made enchanting sounds like those produced by the body of Uakti. - from Wikipedia



This tune can be found on Uakti's Trilobyte album, and is also available as an MP3.