CITYFOLK MONTHLY - February 2005

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the CITYFOLK E-NEWS! Our intent is to give you more background on the artists, traditions and cultures we present as well as the people who help to make it all happen. For this first edition, we are sending it to everyone for whom we have an email address. To unsubscribe from this list, reply to this email with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. Please feel free to share this with every traditional music fan you know!

The Celtic diaspora over the centuries has resulted in pockets of Celtic culture and music in some unlikely locations around the world, from Turkey to Spain to Australia. Few are more surprising than Brittany, a province in the northwestern part of France on the Atlantic coast. The old-timers there still speak a Celtic language known as Breton (or Brythonic) and the people party the night away at community dances known as festou-noz.

Traditional dance music in Brittany--Bretagne in French--has historically been played on a variety of reed instruments, especially the bombard, an oboe-like instrument, and the biniou, the local form of the bagpipe. The usual musical accompaniment for a dance was a couple de sonneurs, a bombard-biniou duo where both instruments play the melody line over a constant drone from the biniou. Beyond being used for dances, many towns in Brittany have massed bombard and biniou marching bands called bagadou.

The bombard-biniou duet sound has never been a very successful export, so most Breton musicians that have become known in the U.S. and around the world have played other instruments. The world was introduced to the music of Brittany through the recordings of Alan Stivell, a folklorist, multi-instrumentalist and singer who began recording in the 1960s. He's best known for a series of albums he made in the 1970s featuring the Breton harp. His finest recorded moment might be his groundbreaking album Renaissance de la Harpe Celtique.

Other noteworthy instrumentalists from Brittany includes harpists--and identical twins--the Keffelean Brothers; guitarists Dan Ar Bras, Nicolas Quemener and Soig Siberil; transverse flute player Jean-Michel Veillon; and fiddler Christian LeMaitre, a mainstay of the Celtic Fiddle Festival and one of the first to adapt traditional Breton music to the fiddle.

In the 1970s, traditional music in Brittany began moving from mostly solo and duet playing to four- or five-member bands, many of which added fiddle, accordion, guitar, bass, drums and other instruments as well as vocals to the traditional format. The first great Breton band was Tri Yann, which debuted in 1970 as an acoustic trio and later moved in more of a folk-rock direction.

The most popular acoustic band from Breton is Kornog, something of an all-star group featuring LeMaitre, Siberil and Veillon, that has recorded several fine albums available in the U.S. Many other bands from the region have mixed acoustic and electric music and traditional and original material in varying degrees. Top Breton bands from the 1970s to the present include Malicorne, Den, Gwerz, Bleizi Ruz, Pennou Skoulm, Triskell, Sonerien Du, Archetype, Kemia and Tantad. The Chieftains, the internationally renowned Irish traditional band, recorded an entire album of Breton music in the late 1980s, Celtic Wedding.

Of course, instrumental music is only one part of the picture in Brittany. The province has an exceptionally rich, varied and complex tradition of vocal music, ranging from solo and duet singing to large choral ensembles. Indeed, many of the biggest Breton stars are singers. But that's another story for another time.

The fiddlers in the Celtic Fiddle Festival get all the attention...but supporting all three players is guitarist Ged Foley. He's performed in Dayton several times before, with Patrick Street and the Celtic Fiddle Festival on the concert stage and with Sandy Jones on the Festival stage. The list of Celtic icons he's performed with is a who's who of Celtic music: and he's practically a local treasure, making his home near Athens, Ohio. Green Linnet, the label for which most of his recordings were made, has some very nice things to say about him. We were interested in knowing what he's up to these days, so we asked him to answer a few questions:

RECORDING I'M LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW: Navicularia by Berroguetto, a band from Galicia. The CD just turned up in the house one day. It was obviously left behind by someone who had visited. Anyway, it is a magnificent CD.

LAST THREE BOOKS I'VE READ: Absolute Friends by John Le Carre, Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding, and The South Beach Diet by Arthur Agatston

FAVORITE LIVE MUSIC EXPERIENCE: Dave Edmonds, The Peppermint Lounge NYC circa 1982. Bruce Springsteen and Brian Setzer joined him for the end of the gig!

FAVORITE COMFORT FOOD: Pre "South Beach" - Full Irish Breakfast, post "South Beach" - Cashew Nuts

FAVORITE PASSTIMES: Playing the fiddle. Playing Scrabble on my Palm Pilot. Shopping at Krogers.

DREAM VACATION: My life feels like a vacation. I get bored when I actually have to take one!

THREADS AND YARNS

Each year, the Cityfolk Festival features a material culture area. The traditions explored here so far have been pretty diverse: woodworking, quilting, games, clothing and uniforms, musical instrument making, and more. At the 2005 Cityfolk Festival, we will feature Threads and Yarns; the diverse crafts that are made from spun fibers. About a dozen artists--quilters, spinners, weavers, knitters, crewel and crochet artists, among others--will display and demonstrate their work. One invited artist--D.Y. Begay--is a Navajo weaver.

According to Navajo legend, Spider Woman taught them how to weave sunlight and lightning on a loom of sky and earth. Anthropologists think it's more likely that they were taught to weave by neighboring Pueblo Indians in the mid 1600s.

First the weaver gathered, cleaned, carded and handspun their thread from the hair of livestock and game animals, as well as natural fibers found in the landscape. Black and grey are natural to sheep’s wool and other colors were created from natural materials such chamizo stems and flowers (yellow), senna (rust), walnut (brown) and indigo (blue). Sometimes they unraveled Mexican weavings to obtain colorful threads.

Due to their nomadic lifestyle Navajo women traditionally wove on upright looms that were relatively small and portable. Each thread is woven by passing it by hand over and under the warp threads (strung vertically on the loom pictured here). In this way they created a variety of clothes, including a serape-like ‘wearing blanket’, belts, hair ties and saddle blankets.

The earliest Navajo rugs are very similar to those by the Pueblo, characterized by simple color schemes and horizontal lines. By the end of the Early Classic Period (1600s - 1804), the Navajo began to experiment more with color, and with weaving techniques that resulted in serrated lines, stepped triangles and diamonds, and colorful stripes. Few examples of this weaving still exist.

The Classic Period (1804 - 1880) is known for its warm, wearable blankets, which were softer, lighter, and boasted a higher weft count (tighter weave). Patterns became more elaborate during this period, with the common element of broad white and black stripes. Saxony yarns were becoming available from Europe. These and other more expensive materials were used mostly in items for trade.

The end of the 19th century is known as the Eye Dazzler Period (1880 - 1900) because brightly colored Germantown yarns and chemical dyes became readily available. Suddenly, Navajo works included brilliant reds, blues, greens and yellows. However in 1890 the Pendleton Woolen Mills began mass-producing blankets that were lighter, warmer and much less expensive, and the demand for Navajo blankets dropped dramatically.

Fortunately, demand was on the rise for rugs and tapestries of Navajo design, thanks in large part to two trading post owners who had the foresight to encourage quality, and designs based on the Oriental Rugs which were also popular at this time. During the Early Rug Period (late 1800s - 1920), regional differences in pattern became more pronounced.

During the Rug Revival Period (1920 - 1940), advances in dye technology made the dying process safer and provided a wider range of color options. New breeds of sheep were introduced, which combined high mutton production with quality wools.

Regional differences have become even more pronounced over the last 65 years as areas surrounding various trading posts developed signature patterns and colors. The current period is known as the Regional Style Rug Period. Prices of Navajo weavings are higher than ever, but there are fewer and fewer Navajo weavers today because of the time it takes to create each work. A rug can take well over 200 hours to weave, not including any time spent preparing and spinning the threads. As with so many other traditional crafts, Navajo weaving is now see more as an art than as an everyday task. The rug pictured here is "Mountains behind the Hogan", an original design by DY Begay.

In April, when Cityfolk brings Kotchegna Dance Company to Dayton, we will do so with the help of an organization called the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD). The organization, founded in 1968 as the Ethnic Folklife Center, promotes traditional arts in and around New York City. The Big Apple is a magnet for immigrants from around the world, and for many of these immigrants, a crucial way to maintain ties to their homeland--and be sure their children know their heritage--is to gather to sing, drum, dance, and play music. For nearly a decade, CTMD has worked as an agent for groups who have the talent and drive to expand the public presentation of their traditions. Most of these performers have 'day jobs'--and yet many have been honored with National Heritage Awards, our country's highest honor in the traditional arts. The current roster includes a dance band from the Dominican Republic, young drummers and dancers from Korea, Jewish performers such as Shashmaqam (who were at the Cityfolk Festival a few years back) and Andean musicians. CTMD gives Cityfolk's artistic staff the opportunity to bring you performances by natives of many countries around the globe, without the challenges and expense that come with visas and overseas travel.

In addition to acting as an agent, CTMD develops performance and educational programs of music and dance indigenous to the ethnic communities of New York, in the form of concerts, festivals, audio and video productions, and collaborative projects. Their mission is "to celebrate and strengthen the practice of traditional performing arts, affirming the value of diversity as an essential component of our national identity." Next month, they will premiere "Callejon", a theatrical performance featuring the coastal music and dance of Peru as performed by the students and teachers of Pachamama Peruvian Arts.

At the 2002 Lotus Festival, I had the pleasure of hearing the lovely voice of Cristina Branco, a Portuguese fado singer [Photo by Jose Melo]. This was my first introduction to fado, which is a very old singing tradition some liken to the blues. Instrumentation is often spare; just the singer accompanied by one or two guitar-like instruments. The lyrics--which Branco thankfully provides in English and French in the liner notes, in addition to the Portuguese which she sings--read like poetry. "In the midst of the brightness/Of the deeply sad day/The city was huge, so huge/And no one knew me..."; she croons in 'Cold Brightness' on her CD Corpo Iluminado.

Since I don't understand a word of Portuguese, I don't fully appreciate the poetry. What I do appreciate is the passion and emotion she communicates. Some songs seem gut-wrenching, others lively, others defiant. The spare instrumentation is fitting somehow. No glitz or glamour, just the essence of the poetry and the beauty of strings; you can appreciate both together or get lost in just one aspect of it. Delightful.

Her CDs are wonderful, but the live performance had even more impact. Branco's face is so expressive, and the small church sanctuary which houses one of the stages for the Lotus Festival was a wonderful acoustic space for her voice. Her CD Post-Scriptum is available at the Dayton-Montgomery County Public Library. Give her a listen. If you like what you hear several of her CDs--and those of other amazing fado singers--are readily available at Amazon.com.

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