CITYFOLK MONTHLY - February 2007

India is one of the most complex nations on the planet. The world’s second most populous country with more than one billion people, India has 15 official languages (not counting English and Hindustani, which are both widely spoken); 29 states and seven territories; two major ethnic groups; dozens of political parties; and even more religions. Trying to generalize about the music or culture of such a place is impossible, or at least pointless.

There are probably thousands of discrete styles, sub-styles and genres of music in India. Only a handful of them are familiar to non-specialists in the U.S.: Hindustani or north Indian classical music, as popularized by Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and others; the music of Bollywood, the name given to the massive and highly popular Indian film industry, which also generates much of the country’s pop music; and bhangra, a modernized form of Punjabi folk music transformed into electronic dance music by young South Asian musicians, especially in England, for three examples.

Kiran Ahluwalia (pictured here), an internationally acclaimed vocalist born in India, will performs two lesser-known and distinctly different types of vocal music native to the Indian subcontinent on March 21 as part of the Cityfolk World Rhythms Series. She masterfully sings traditional folk songs of the Punjabi people and ghazal, a form of sung poetry that arrived in India in the 14th century, a few hundred years after it had developed in Persia (modern-day Iran).

Punjab is a large state in the far north of India, one of the most fertile regions in the world and one of the wealthier Indian states. Both the people of Punjab and the language they speak are called Punjabi. When India gained its independence from Great Britain in 1947, after two centuries of colonial rule, Punjab was “partitioned” into two sections. East Punjab became a state in the newly independent secular nation of India. West Punjab became part of the new Muslim nation of Pakistan.

While the idea of “partition” was to minimize friction between Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus, it hasn’t worked out that well in practice, if one judges by the frequent bouts of bloodletting and intermittent wars. The initial problem in 1947 was that millions of Punjabis were trapped behind enemy lines as it were: Sikhs and Hindus suddenly lived in Pakistan, and Muslims in the opposite predicament in India. Immigration has largely resolved that problem—the population of West Punjab is now more than 98% Muslim.

Punjab is a rural region where most of the people work in farming. Traditional Punjabi folk music has been made by and for these rural people, who use it both in planting and harvest rituals and purely for entertainment. Before it got souped-up for European dance clubs, traditional bhangra was dance music performed during bisakh, the festival celebrating the end of harvest. The dance mimicked the movements of a farmer using a scythe and the only accompaniment came from the dhol, a large double-headed drum (pictured here).

The dance and rhythm became enormously popular within the farming communities of Punjab and eventually spread into the region’s towns and cities. At that point, about 200 years ago, bhangra left behind its ceremonial role and entered the realm of popular entertainment. This newer form of bhangra was accompanied not by the dhol, but by the dholak, another double-headed drum that was capable of greater subtlety.

Over time, bhangra and other folk music of Punjab added elements and grew in complexity. Singers and songs were an early addition. The lyrics of the songs tended to be humorous, playful and light-hearted and dealt with both romantic and agricultural subjects. Non-percussion instruments were added to the mix, at first such homemade instruments as the thumbi, a one-stringed fiddle made from a gourd, and the alghoza, a simple flute.

Later additions came from other parts of India, including the tabla, a percussion instrument consisting of two hand drums of differing size and timbre; the tanpura (pictured here, called the tambura in some parts of India), a long-necked, round-bodied, fretless Indian lute that produces a buzzing drone sound; and the santoori, a kind of hammered dulcimer.

Punjabi folk musicians have also embraced such foreign imports as the violin, guitar, mandolin, saxophone and harmonium, a keyboard instrument that combines the pump organ and the accordion. The traditional folk music of West Punjab also has much in common with the music of neighboring Afghanistan.

The second type of vocal music performed by Kiran Ahluwalia is the ghazal, an ancient form of sung romantic poetry. Ghazal developed in Persia and spread to India a few hundred years later, carried by Muslim armies and Sufi mystics. The ghazal is a series of rhymed couplets following a specific form and meter, while the subject of the poetry is almost always unattainable or unrequited love. The word ghazal is an Arabic word that literally means “talking to women.”

Originally intended to be recited as poetry, ghazals today are more often sung as Urdu songs in India and Pakistan. “In this genre,” explains vocalist and composer Ahluwalia, “the poet and the composer have always been two different people. It’s not like the singer/songwriter tradition where it’s all in one person. Poets spend their lifetime studying the poetry and someone else who spent their lifetime studying Indian music comes along, picks up a poem, composes it and sings it.”

In both India and Iran, many poets and/or mystics who wrote ghazals are revered as literary giants. The most prominent of these in the west is probably the 13th century Persian and Sufi poet known as Rumi. The ghazal form flourished in India, with major poets enjoying the patronage of the Muslim rulers and steady employment in the royal courts.

Ghazals are still written today—in Urdu, English, German (Goethe was an aficionado), Persian and countless other languages. As a composer, Kiran Ahluwalia is currently working with three transplanted Pakistani poets living in Toronto, creating new ghazals a world away from their ancestral home. Ahluwalia received her instruction in the form in Hyderabad, India, where she studied with the legendary and highly revered singer Vithal Rao, one of the last living masters of ghazal.

Kiran Ahluwalia has performed in Pakistan, Spain, and Finland and toured throughout Canada and the U.S., introducing audiences to two of the world’s oldest and most beautiful vocal traditions. As the Toronto Globe & Mail put it: “For those uninitiated into the charms of non-classical Indian music, this is an ideal place to start.”

One of the musicians on stage with Karan Casey on March 9 is her brother-in-law Caoimhín (pronounced Kee-veen). Casey is married to his older brother Niall, a concertina player. (For the record, brother Cillian Vallely will also be in Dayton soon, with Lunasa).

Caoimhín grew up in Armagh and began tin whistle lessons at the Armagh Pipers Club before moving on to learn the fiddle and classical piano. On leaving school he went to University College Cork to study music. From there he moved on to the University of Limerick where he studied for an M.A. in Traditional Music Performance.

He has played and recorded with many different bands and individuals over the past ten years including North Cregg, Upstairs in a Tent (along with Brian Finnegan now of Flook, and Kathryn Tickell) and Nomos . In late 2005, he released his debut solo piano album, entitled Strayaway. In 2004, he and Niall joined guitarist Paul Meehan to form 'Buille', which just released its first album on Compass Records on February 20!

WHAT I LIKE BEST ABOUT MAKING MY LIVING AS A MUSICIAN: Seeing the world while doing something I love doing, and partying

FAVORITE PASSTIMES: Watching Armagh play Gaelic football, watching TV and reading

Across Ohio you can find wonderful family restaurants that add much to the flavor of their communities. Most have been there for several decades, passed down through the family or bought by long-time employees. Notable examples in greater Dayton include The Amber Rose in Old North Dayton, El Meson in West Carrollton, Cassano's and Marion's Pizza in multiple locations, and Hook's Bar-B-Cue and Huffies Bar-B-Que in west Dayton. Folklore graduate students Sheila Bock and Ashley Overstreet recently found these four restaurants elsewhere in the state.

In an area of Akron that is known for its industries (the Goodyear Tire Company, for example) sits the New Era Restaurant. Because of its location, many of the restaurant's first customers and its regulars were rubber factory workers and other industrial workers who came for the home-cooked food and the bar. Today, the restaurant is known as one of those places where businessmen sit next to factory workers at the bar and eat lunch.

The restaurant was opened in 1938 by Lucille Juric, a Yugoslavian immigrant. Later, Juric's cousin Lucija Strebick was brought into the business as a cook. Although the restaurant has been open nearly 70 years, little has changed on the menu, which includes a blend of Eastern European and American dishes. For example, a customer could choose the Chicken Papkrikash, the restaurant's signature dish of chicken and dumplings in a paprika-based sauce, or a cheeseburger and fries. The restaurant is also known for its strudel, stuffed cabbage, and pigs in a blanket.Named New Era because of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs during the Great Depressio,; the restaurant continues to maintain its commitment to working class customers through its affordable prices.

For those looking for Mexican dishes, Marcelita’s in the Akron suburb of Twinsburg is a necessary stop. Marcelita's has been in business for 28 year and is run by Jack McNeill, his wife Marcela, and his sister Jeanne. When the restaurant began, none of the partners realized that it would last as long as it has. Jack met his wife in Mexico City while completing a summer internship as a graduate student at Harvard. They spent some time in Mexico and then moved to the US, where Jack worked for Exxon and Reliance Electric. When he realized that he didn't like working for a large corporation, he began looking to see what work he would enjoy. Since he wanted to work directly with customers and had enjoyed working at a small business, he and his wife decided to open a restaurant. Jack and Marcela looked at 54 locations before deciding on their current building which had been a country biker bar. They did all of the remodeling to turn the building into a restaurant themselves.

According to Jack, his wife could not cook at all when they first married, but when they returned to Mexico, her mother and four older sisters taught her to cook. The recipes at Marcelita's are all from Marcela's family. When they began the restaurant, Jack and Marcelita both worked full-time in the kitchen. Today, Marcela does not work as much as she once did, but she is still involved in the kitchen and runs the register two nights a week. Jack explains that the employees are the experts and are given a lot of latitude because they are good at what they do.

The staff has a combined 600 years working at Marcelita's, a testament to the close relationship between the employees and management. The kitchen staff—each of whom Marcela trained herself –has 250 years alone. The restaurant goes on the premise that their recipes should not change, and they haven’t during the restaurant's history. Consistency, value, and authenticity are important to the customers, employees, and management.

Bistro Joe's in New Richmond—east of Cincinnati along the Ohio River—is located on the town’s main street overlooking the river. The building was formerly Joe's Place, a bar that served some food, including buffalo burgers and white bean chili. It was frequented by some locals and was known for its live music on Saturday nights. The bar bought its buffalo meat from nearby Vista Grand Ranch, owned by Cindy Cassell and David Uible. When Joe's Place went out of business, Cindy and David decided to remodel it and to open up a restaurant that served more of their buffalo meat. The menu features many dishes that include buffalo meat, from buffalo burgers to buffalo steaks to salads and sandwiches with buffalo meat. Since Cindy is a nutritionist, she wants to provide the community with healthy alternatives to what they may order at other local restaurants or drive-thrus.

A long-standing food business of Urbana, 40 miles northeast of Dayton, is Crabill’s Hamburgers. A milkman before he entered the burger business, Forrest Crabill started selling nickel hamburgers out of a buggy in 1927. Two years later, he moved his business into a building, still making the hamburgers as his mother made them: small. When Forrest died at a young age of a heart attack, his wife Frida—with seven children at home—took over the restaurant. The restaurant has always been a family business, and still is: Forrest’s granddaughter Marsha is now co-owner and her three children work there in the summer.

Marsha likes knowing the customers when they come in; even if she doesn't know their names, she does know what they want to order. She will see people in the parking lot and say “Here comes 3 doubles…” and start cooking before they even come in. Crabill’s has been in Urbana for so long that customers often come in with stories of eating there when they were younger.

To keep up with rising costs, the hamburgers now cost sixty cents, but the menu has remained nearly the same. One key difference on the menu today is that Forrest originally offered only brown mustard, sweet relish, and onions as condiments. In 1990, ketchup was added. Marsha can tell the difference between new customers and those who have been coming for years, because the “old-timers” never order their burgers with ketchup. Another key difference is the size of the building: the old shop had only six wooden stools and a tiny kitchen, while the new shop is three times bigger, even though the counter still only seats eight.

2007 Cityfolk Festival Pin

2006 Cityfolk Festival Pin The Cityfolk Festival pin is back by popular demand! 2006 was the 10th anniversary of the Cityfolk Festival, and to commemorate the event we introduced the first Cityfolk Festival collectible pin. If you missed out on the first one (pictured here), you still have a chance to call, email, fax or mail the Cityfolk staff and buy one now so that you can be sure to collect them all. The pin is yours for a donation to Cityfolk of $5 or more.

Now we invite you to help us create the 2007 Cityfolk Festival pin! Our goal over the years is to represent all the types of music and culture presented by Cityfolk in our pins, so each will feature a different musical instrument. The candidates for 2007 are:

To submit your vote, email your choice to festival@cityfolk.org. The instrument with the greatest number of votes on March 30 will be the winner, so vote early and often!

The seedling Foundation was established in 1996 as a non-profit organization to exclusively support arts education at Stivers School for the Arts. Stivers is a part of the Dayton Public School system and serves approximately 850 students in grades 7 - 12. The Foundation is directed by an elected board of trustees consisting of parents of current and past Stivers students and interested members of the community.

During its first several years, the Foundation’s annual cash flow was in the low five figures. That changed in 1999 when a structural audit was made of the Stivers building on East Fifth Street in downtown Dayton. The 1908 building failed that audit and there was strong sentiment on the Dayton school board to raze it. The community, however, stepped forward and supported repair of the building and the continuation of the Stivers arts-based magnet program. The Dayton board found a $10 million federally-backed interest-free loan that could be used to bring the building up to code. With the loan went an obligation for $1 million to be raised in the community. At that time the seedling Foundation board stepped forward and took on responsibility for raising the $1million.

Through a combination of cash grants and in-kind gifts, the goal was met within four years. Donations were made by students, families, faculty and friends as well as Dayton area businesses and foundations. A series of high profile student concerts were held in Dayton’s major performance venues to raise funds and raise the visibility of the school in the community.

With completion of the federally required $1 million obligation, the Foundation has gone on to raise money to support a wide range of critical school needs. Stivers receives the same per-pupil amount from the school board as other district schools, but all non-salary costs for arts programming must be raised from the community.

The seedling Foundation leads these efforts, raising and distributing funds to the eight magnet arts programs in the school. Monies go to purchasing critically needed materials, for covering costs of visiting artists, for purchasing instruments, for local, regional and national travel and many other essentials of a vibrant arts program. Without the seedling Foundation it would be impossible for the school to deliver the world-class education that Dayton students receive at Stivers.

Support of the Foundation continues to come from individuals, businesses and foundations throughout the Dayton area. Donors recognize that Stivers plays an important role in the larger Dayton community as a symbol of what can be accomplished despite the area’s struggling economy. Stivers is a beacon of hope for the whole community, and the Foundation’s support fuels that beacon.

One of the most important music releases from 2006 incorporates a classic Motown musician’s greatest recording with a New Orleans’ brass band’s reinterpretation of that music in response to one of the greatest human tragedies of the 21st century.

I’m talking about the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s re-imaging of Marvin Gaye’s classic What’s Going On in response to events in New Orleans in relation to Hurricane Katrina and subsequent multiple levee failures from August 2005.

What’s Going On was originally released on the Tamla label in May, 1971 and was among the first soul records to highlight concerns such as environmentalism, political corruption, drug abuse, and the Vietnam War. It is also believed to be the first concept album by an African-American artist, and has been ranked as the number 6 album of all time by Rolling Stone. In 2003 it was one of the 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. It is also the first album that credits Motown Records’ main studio band, The Funk Brothers. The album is told from the perspective of a returning Vietnam War veteran who sees the injustice, suffering and hatred prevalent in the US at that time. Classic songs from that album include: “What’s Going On,” “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology),” and “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler).” The album has been in my collection for dozens of years and one of my great music regrets is not ever having the privilege of seeing songs from the album performed by Marvin Gaye live.

Jump ahead about thirty years to 2006 and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (DDBB) from New Orleans, LA. The band formed in 1977 and has played a major role in the rebirth of New Orleans' brass band culture. The band has gravitated away from stale, tourist-driven brass band music towards a more diverse mix of jazz, rock, r & b, and rap and hip-hop. A roster of artists who have recorded with the DDBB include Elvis Costello, DJ Logic, Norah Jones, Danny Barker, Widespread Panic, and the Black Crowes. DDBB is one of my favorite bands to see live whether it’s in front of thousands at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, or with a couple of hundred in a smoky bar somewhere.

The re-imagined version of What’s Going On is quite a departure from Marvin Gaye’s initial vision in 1971. However, the same themes of environmental degradation, social injustice, suffering and hatred apply to the world of New Orleans after Katrina--or “the thing” as it’s called there. Guests on the DDBB’s What’s Going On include Chuck D from Public Enemy, Bettye LaVette, Ivan Neville (son of Aaron Neville), G. Love, and Guru. Some of my favorite cuts include the title cut with Chuck D’s“What’s Happening Brother” with Bettye LaVette’s passionate vocal, and “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler).”

I highly recommend both of these recordings for your collection as an example of great music that also carries important social messages. It’s uncanny too, how the problems identified by Marvin Gaye in 1971 are still with us today, in 2007. Finally, if you ever get the chance to see the Dirty Dozen Brass Band perform live, definitely check them out, I guarantee that you’ll be glad that you did!

Born in Dayton: Billy Strahorn

When Dayton's greatest musicians are discussed, it isn't long before Duke Ellington enters the conversation. A number of outstanding Ellingtonians, including trombonists Malcolm Taylor and Booty Wood and saxophonist Norris Turney, all had strong Dayton roots. What's less known is that the musical right arm of America's premier jazz composer was born at Miami Valley Hospital in 1915. It's Pittsburgh--where pianist, composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn was raised--that gets hometown credit. A decade ago, biographer David Hajdu's deeply-researched Lush Life revealed the life of this gifted musician, who died of esophageal cancer in 1967 after a three decade association with Ellington. Robert Levi's elegant new Strayhorn documentary, which shares its title with the book, recently debuted on PBS as part of the Independent Lens series.

Levi's film tells the story of Strayhorn's complicated role in the vast Ellington legacy and speculates about what might have been, had he not been standing in the bandleader's imposing shadow. As a companion to the film, Levi has produced a new CD for Blue Note records which features musicians Joe Lovano, Hank Jones, Diane Reeves, Bill Charlap and Elvis Costello interpreting Strayhorn's songs, while showcasing a number of recently uncovered rarities.

Want to learn more?

Listen to Ashley Kahn's story on NPR about the documentary, which features singer/pianist Andy Bey.

Read a review of the documentary from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Read a short interview with Billy Strayhorn about 'Take the 'A' Train on Teachervision.com.

From time to time, stories on NPR, in the New York Times and in other places catch the eye (or ear) of the Cityfolk staff. These are stories about traditional music, handicrafts, ways of life...stories that deepen our understanding and appreciation for the folkways of the world. We will keep bringing as much of this to Dayton as we can; in the meantime, take a listen to this:

If you find a story that you'd like to share with other Cityfolk ENews readers, please send us the link and we'll put it the hopper for possible inclusion.

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