CITYFOLK MONTHLY - April 2005

Last fall, when Cityfolk staffers John Harris and Diane Funke were in Boston for the International Festival and Events Association convention, they saw a performance by Marta Gomez, and were hooked. Not wanting to wait to introduce you to great new music, we're bringing her to the 2005 Cityfolk Festival. The full Festival schedule will be available on our website in about two weeks.

Colombian singer-songwriter Marta Gomez sings mostly her own original songs, but her music has deep roots in a multitude of traditional styles from Colombia and elsewhere in South America. Gomez was born in Cali and grew up in the capital city of Bogota, so her embrace of the traditional Colombian styles of cumbia and bambuco makes perfect sense. But on her three critically acclaimed albums (Marta Gomez, Solo Es Vivir and Cantos de Agua Dulce), she also mixes other folk-based styles into her sound, including zamba from Argentina, lando from Peru, bossa nova from Brazil, and son from Cuba.

Like most traditional music of a non-religious nature, cumbia and bambuco are forms of dance music. Cumbia originated in the northern part of Colombia, along the Atlantic coast. The distinctive shuffle rhythm and dance steps of the cumbia are said to be the legacy of African slaves dancing as best they could while shackled together at the ankles. From its regional base in the rural north, cumbia began spreading in the 1930s and 1940s and entered the country's popular culture to such an extent that it is now regarded as Colombia's national dance. One famous cumbia song, “La Pollera Colora,” is jokingly called the country's real national anthem.

Cumbia is distinguished by a polyrhythmic pulse supplied by a variety of drums, a loping beat said to resemble the trotting of a horse, an airy and syncopated melody and, at least in the more traditional ensembles, the use of a pair of old-time Indian instruments: the flauto de millo, a kind of clarinet, and the gaita, a recorder-like flute (pictured here). Toto La Momposina (who recently appeared on this Putumayo compilation album with Marta Gomez and other Latina singers) is a popular singer whose band still plays a relatively old-fashioned form of cumbia.

Colombian life and culture, including its traditional music, is an amalgam of four different cultural groups: the indigenous Indians, Spanish colonists, slaves from west Africa and non-Iberian Europeans who came after Colombia gained its independence from Spain. Each group contributed something of significance to the cumbia; the same is also true for bambuco, the style of music that is most closely associated with the mountainous region of the country.

Though lesser known in non-Latin circles than the cumbia, bambuco is wildly popular in Colombia. Thought to be of African origin, the bambuco has a beat similar to European waltzes. Traditionally, this song and dance form has been performed by a singer (or singers) accompanied by a stylized group dance, usually in 3/4 or 6/8 meter. In its most traditional form, bambuco songs were performed by a male vocal duet. The style is associated with stringed instruments, including the guitar, tiple (a small ukulele-shaped instrument with ten strings, pictured here) and bandola (a kind of mandolin). Bambuco was first developed in Andean Colombia but has since spread throughout the country and beyond. Bambuco gained great popularity in Bogota and other interior Colombian cities starting in the mid-1800s and has since become known across Latin America.

Visit Marta Gomez's web page.

Read Afropop Worldwide's description of the cumbia.

Read John Varney's thesis on the bambuco.

For Leilani Duteil, Hawaiian hula is in her blood. Hertutu, or grandmother, performed hula in Hawai'i for many years, and began passing the tradition down to Leilani when she was only 8. She has learned from many of the top hula masters in the world, but none is closer to her heart than her first teacher. Leilani lives here in Ohio with her husband and son, and she travels to Maui every year to visit her tutu's home and re-energize. Leilani will perform and teach a hula dance workshop at the 2005 Cityfolk Festival. (Photo by Himani). We were interested in knowing more about her:

RECORDING I'M LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW: Palehua by Amy Hanaiali'i Gilliom and Willie K. (1999 Na Hoku Hanohano Song of the year) and Opihi Moe Moe by my late Uncle Leonard Kwan, whose slack key instruction book is in the Library of Congress.

LAST THREE BOOKS I'VE READ: Then There Were None by Martha H. Noyes, On Being Hawaiian by John Dominis Holt, and Voices of Wisdom Hawaiian Elders Speak by M.J. Harden

FAVORITE DANCE EXPERIENCE: I was on Maui, being photographed by Himani. She is renowned for hand tinting sepia photos, primarily of hula. I spent hours with her on the beach at Makena, sun glistening off the ocean, black lava rock jutting out on the point. Embracing the beauty of my surroundings, I danced the ancient hula (hula kahiko). My performance that day was pure, and the mana (spiritual energy) flowed through me from the land of my ancestors. It is powerful, dancing hula on the 'aina (land) of Hawai'i. Elements all around you infuse the dance with 'ola (life). To me, no other performance compares to that feeling of completeness.

FAVORITE LIVE MUSIC EXPERIENCE: My attendance at the first ever Ka Leo Hano Awards was a once in a lifetime experience. I spent the evening watching the greatest performers of Hawai'i. Legends of music, song and dance were all there celebrating with aloha spirit. At the end of the night's performances we all joined hands in the audience and sang "Hawai'i Aloha" with tears of pride and joy.

FAVORITE COMFORT FOOD: Mexican food! Pepito's or Baja Fresh

FAVORITE PASTIMES: Dancing hula is number one. I am a haumana (student) for life. I like to study Hawaiian language and culture. My husband and I have an active 5 year old son who keeps us busy. Last summer we bought a house and I enjoy working on our home.

DREAM VACATION: To spend a couple weeks in Kipahulu, Maui, where my ancestors lived farming kalo & sugar cane. They were expert healers using medicinal plants. I'd spend time learning the native ways of sustainable living, "talk story" with the kupuna, and immerse myself in genealogy research. To gain this knowledge and pass it down to my son has tremendous importance. In fifty years it is speculated the piha Kanaka Ma'oli (pure Hawaiians) will be extinct. We will no longer have the blood, but through the children, we will keep the culture of Hawai'i alive.

THREADS AND YARNS: RUG HOOKING

Traditional rug hooking was a creative answer to the need for warmth in winter when resources were scarce and Wal-marts were nonexistent. Women in the North American colonies in the early 1800s were faced with the need to provide a warm floorcovering for the bare floors of their pioneer homesteads. Using a hand hook (similar to a short crochet hook with a fat wooden handle), they pulled strips of fabric or yarn from the rag bag through the large holes of old feed sacks to form a looped pile. The sturdy, even weave of the feed sacks provided a sturdy base that could stand up to the daily wear and tear of foot traffic. The rugs presented the women with a rare outlet for creativity. Common motifs include florals, houses, animals and geometric patterns. These rugs are now prized as folk art.

Rug hooking has been enjoying a revival over the last decade or so. This means that the supplies can be found in most quilting or stitchery shops, many books on the craft are available, new patterns and reproductions of vintage pieces are available, classes and even weekend-long retreats are offered to help modern crafters learn or perfect their technique, and places like SauderVillage near Toledo present rug hooking exhibitions.

Despite the name, contemporary rug hookers don't limit themselves to rugs. They also use the technique to create chair seats, wall hangings, trivets, Christmas tree ornaments, pillows, bags, clothing, jewellery and anything else that comes to mind! And since modern women are making these pieces for fun more than need, the patterns can be absurd, seasonal, elaborate, or personal, as you can see from this rug by Zak Zaikine.

Don't confuse traditional rug hooking with latch hooking. The hook is very different, and so is the final product. In rug hooking, the surface of the rug is made up of loops, usually all the same height, and the wool or yarn is in long strips which make several loops each. In latch hooking, short lengths of yarn are knotted around the canvas, leaving the cut ends to make the surface of the piece.

Want to try it yourself?

When Cityfolk was planning the first National Folk Festival here in Dayton in 1996, we wanted to provide children with fun and engaging activities which they could take home with them. For the sake of the parents, we wanted these activities to be free. Thanks to the wealth of programs they provide for children all year 'round, the K12 Gallery for Young People has been the perfect partner since that first year. Each year, they come up with an art project that ties into the material culture area or some other part of the Festival programming. They gather the materials to make these projects, and over the Festival weekend, they provide volunteers to assist the kids. The gallery's founder and director, Jerri Stanard, shares her side of this experience:

The Cityfolk Festival is a wonderful time for K12 Gallery for Young People...we love serving around 1500 children during the weekend! The most exciting thing about working at the Festival is meeting all the families, listening to all the great music and seeing all the wonderful crafts people. The visiting artists are always an inspiration to us. We love working with the great crowds you all accommodate during the weekend event, and look forward to planning the art projects every year.

Over the past 9 years, K12 Gallery for Young People has provided thousands of young people with a memorable work of art--Chinese gongs, velvet puppets, or shields and armor, for example--that they created all on their own. I still have parents tell me today about the art they still have from 1996, 1997, and so on! Sometimes, I get the wonderful surprise of hearing that their child even still plays with the item they made.

It's nice to know that our projects are long-lasting and will carry cherished memories through their life about the fun time their families had at the Cityfolk festival. So often, T-shirts are tossed aside and the ticket stubs are lost, but the act of creating--with your Mom, Dad, Aunt, Uncle or a sibling--is something that is cherished in an entirely different way.

We are looking forward to this year's art project for the children: making finger puppets out of discarded gloves. We only have one little problem: we are trying to collect about 1500 gloves! Can you help us collect some gloves for the festival? Mix and match gloves, sets, you name it, any glove will work. Just deliver them to either Cityfolk or K12 Gallery for Young People at 510 East Third Street.

For years, I've been fascinated by the music of Africa, Portugal, Brazil and the Caribbean. And on a recent trip to Costa Rica I discovered paranda music, a style created by the Garifuna people of Central America that shares a very similar lineage.

Descended from escaped Nigerian slaves and Carib Indians who were deported to Central America by the British when they conquered St. Vincent in 1802, the Garifuna maintained a separate cultural identity that resulted in the development of several distinct musical styles, including paranda. And like the music of Brazil and the Caribbean I love, paranda has evolved from the rhythms brought from Africa by descendants of the Garifuna and blended with a whole host of local influences.

One modern interpreter of paranda is Aurelio Martinez, a guitarist born in Honduras now living in Belize, who combines the rich traditions of the Garifuna he learned from his parents with virtuosic playing, a beautifully textured voice, and a distinctly contemporary approach to this traditional music. On his most recent CD Garifuna Soul, Martinez finds the intersection between the traditional foundation of his music and its modern expression, its unmistakably African roots and the Caribbean and Latin flavor of his Central American home.

If you have an interest in Afro-Caribbean music, Aurelio Martinez is an artist you won't want to miss.

To learn more about garifuna, start here.

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