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Jubilee Royal Albert Hall, London
Jubilee: Contemporary Expressions of Musi- cal Heritage from the Middle East, West Africa & Central Asia showcased performers collectively called the ‘Master Musicians of the Aga Khan Music Initiative’. The Jubilee part of its title referred to his Highness the Aga Khan’s diamond jubilee – the sixtieth anniversary of, for example, a sovereign hav- ing a title conferred on them, more specifi- cally, his accession to hereditary imam and spiritual head of the Shi’a Ismaili branch of Islam. ‘Special guests’ swelled the company’s number. In the second part of the first half, this was San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet. In the second part of the second half, it was Mali’s ngoni lute maestro Bassekou Kouyaté with his wife Amy Sacko and daughter Oumou Kouyaté on vocals.
The evening began with Josh, a rubab lute and tabla duet, played respectively by the Kabul-born Homayoun Sakhi and this Afghani compatriot, the percussionist Salar Nader. (Backtrackers should beeline to Ustad Mohammad Omar and – Nader’s teacher – Zakir Hussain’s Smithsonian Folkways gem Virtuoso From Afghanistan.) Building and improving on this came Duet for Tabla and Doira from the Uzbeki doira percussionist Salar Nade and Nader. Nader’s contribution was tabla tarang, the part-circle of tuned tablas which turns rhythm into melody.
Jubilee’s production values were lavish. With everything having a set running order, it granted little room for improvisation – some- thing at the core, heart and fibre of nearly all of the night’s traditions (Western string quar- tet music being the obvious exception). Rein- forcing that, above everything three screens played images ranging from abstract graphics, animated miniature paintings, Islamic patterns and calligraphy to Bogolan textile and Malian architectural images. Above, for example, Duet for Tabla and Doira ran the part-animat- ed Lahori miniature, Young man carried off by a simurgh, from circa 1590 CE. Given the human take-away in its beak, it looked more roc-like than the benevolent, mythical bird of Persian and Sufi lore and literature. Like many images, what it had to do with the music elud- ed. Some visuals detracted and distracted. Exhausting the eye, Samai had Busby Berkeley- cum-Yellow Submarine elements. Jama Ko’s flicker-book Malian architectural images just overwhelmed visually and interfered with con- centration. Visuals should help and enhance, not hinder musical appreciation.
Several pieces were musically outstand- ing. Concluding the first part of the first half, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture veteran and pi’pa player Wu Man’s Dance of the Yi was exceptional. Wu’s travelogue piece, Four Chinese Paintings: Gobi Desert at Sun- set with Kronos exceeded it, assisted by its sandscape images. Best of all was the ten- strong ensemble piece (raga) Madhuvanti, far terser than Homayun (sic) Sakhi’s version on The Art of the Afghan Rubâb (2005). Ngoni Fola in the second part of the second half thrilled and shone. The finale, Bassekou Kouyaté’s Jama Ko featured all the partici-
pants bar Kronos. A mob-handed world music fusion performance, it fell flat on its face, despite its good intentions and its ensemble logicality as a concluding piece. Nevertheless, a memorable evening.
Ken Hunt
Východná Slovakia
This is about Východná folklore festival, in the foothills of the Tatras in northern Slo- vakia in June. But first I want to talk about folk costumes.
They’re often seen as perhaps a touristic thing. When I lived in Scotland those of us involved in the folk music scene, at that time largely song-focused, steered clear of the shortbread-tin tartan image, while pipers and accordionists who did dress up were seen somewhat as other tribes. Nowadays, though, performers at world music festivals going on stage in ordinary western clothes are much less likely to get their photo taken, or to be on the poster or cover of the pro- gramme, than the more exotically clad.
And there are the big folkloric ensem- bles, such as those that existed in the Soviet- era East and Central Europe, whose music is often regarded as more a fixed-smile, dena- tured, orchestrated spectacle than anything connected with village music.
But as I watched one of the large-scale pieces that are a central part of Východná festival I found myself defending them to the person next to me: “This isn’t a state ensemble – it’s people from non-profession- al groups in villages and towns who’ve spent all year rehearsing, and making and repair- ing costumes often handed down through the family, for the big event. Look at their faces – those aren’t fixed smiles, they’re peo- ple enjoying what they’re doing – and at the mix of ages.”
Traditional costumes have an importance and significance to people in some parts of Europe. When we were recording Serbian vil- lage music in Dalmatia for the Žegar Živi album Obrad Milic didn’t feel right playing his diple unless he was wearing his traditional hat, and the rest of the group had, with diffi- culty, preserved those of their costumes that they could during the war of the 1990s and insisted that their photos had to be taken wearing them. Often specific to a region, even a village, traditional costumes are fre- quently very elaborate and a lot of work goes into them; that in itself is a folk custom, as is wearing them to traditional events, and putting together performances.
Anyway, back to Slovakia. This year was Východná festival’s 64th. A lot has happened in the country in that time, including Soviet tanks crushing the Prague Spring in 1968, the Velvet Revolution of 1989, independence with the Velvet Divorce from the Czech Republic in 1993, and membership of the EU in 2004.
It’s probably true to say that, while pro- duction values have moved with the times, with excellent sound and lighting, and the current amphitheatre was built in 2006, a lot
about the festival’s essence has remained pretty much the same. This year there were fine bands playing for vocal and dance groups in themed and storytelling shows such as the enactment of a traditional wedding preceded by a procession, and also playing for a packed, jubilant dance night, alongside workshops, presentations, and stalls selling traditional crafts, instruments and costumes. The festival site is permanent, consisting of wooden buildings centred on the night-time main stage amphitheatre and the daytime stage. Attendance is around the 30,000 mark, with a fairly even age spread.
There’s a strong lydian-mode flavour to much Slovak music, which comes out at Východná largely in the singing; less so in the instrumental music of the bands, which are typically fiddles, viola, cimbalom and bass, though at the festival there were some with wider, less traditional instrumentation. That lydian mode is particularly characteris- tic to essentially natural-scale instruments such as koncovka (no-hole harmonic whis- tle), trombita (long wooden trumpet) and fujara (bass overtone flute), but Východná isn’t in the heartland of those; for fujara that’s the Podpolanie region of central Slo- vakia, which has its big folklore festival in Detva in July. There was, though, a well- attended fujara workshop led by maker and player Matúš Filo, and there were some other leading fujara makers with stalls at the festival.
Much of the music features ensembles from across Slovakia, but there were stand- out soloists of the present and older genera- tions. One, whose singing I’d already been knocked out by three years ago, when he sang in a collaboration I was involved in at the little Šumiac village festival, is Štefan Štec, a wonderful singer with a glorious soaring tenor voice, lately deservedly become a new national star. At Východná he just performed the occasional song and was a host on the national TV show presented from the festival, Zem Spieva (‘Earth Sings’), of which he was the 2017 award winner. Of the rising generation, Martin Repán, 2018 Zem Spieva winner, singer and player of heligónka (Czech and Slovak version of melodeon) was strikingly lively and impres- sive. Celebrated singer of the older genera- tion Ján Ambróz (whose daughter Jana Ambrózová is a fine fiddler and Slovak folk musicologist), gave a full concert in celebra- tion of his 70th year.
A major aspect of Slovak music is the input of Roma instrumentalists, singers and bands. While there wasn’t much representa- tion at the festival, it was good to see that they weren’t entirely absent; twin sax-front- ed Roma band Lomnické Cháve played a late- night show.
Thanks to Jarmila Vlcková and Ivetka Svetliková for their help.
festivalvychodna.sk Andrew Cronshaw
Scenes from the folklore festival opposite, including Štefan Štec bottom left and Martin Repán right. Photos: Andrew Cronshaw.
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