International Search – Recommended
Fendika, DJs Cale Arthur & Lawrence Peters
Wed., June 26, 9:30 p.m.International
West Africa has griots, and Europe used to have bards. In Ethiopia the performers who combine the functions of entertainer, news bearer, and cultural custodian are called azmari. Ethiopian culture has remained distinct from the rest of Africa’s for centuries, and this is reflected in its peoples’ dances (which often require more movement from the head and shoulders than from the lower body), the tonalities of their traditional instruments, and the intricate peregrinations of their pentatonic melodies. In Ethiopia, like everywhere else, traditional modes of art are struggling to remain relevant and sustain themselves. Dancer Melaku Belay, the leader of Fendika, has set out to preserve azmari tradition by collaborating with first-world musicians such as the Ex and the Debo Band. This mixing hasn’t meant dilution, though; when Fendika join the Debo Band, for example, they invest the Boston-based ensemble’s renditions of classic Ethiopian pop songs with flavor and depth by singing them as they were sung during Addis Ababa’s golden age in the 1960s and ’70s. The members of Fendika will improvise in various combinations with drummer Tim Daisy, guitarist Terrie Hessels, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, guitarist Jeff Parker, saxophonist Dave Rempis, and reedist Ken Vandermark. Cale Arthur and Lawrence Peters spin records.. —Bill Meyer Fendika also plays at Constellation on Tuesday night.
$10
773-227-4433Garifuna Collective
Fri., June 21, 8 p.m.International
In spring 2007, when Belizean singer and songwriter Andy Palacio released his last and best album, Watina (Cumbancha), the Garifuna Collective was just his adroit backing group. The musical culture of the Garifuna (a mixed race of Africans and Arawak Indians) is in danger of dying out, and that record brought together its past and present—but then Palacio died from a stroke and heart attack in early 2008, and his people lost their most poetic and profound living artistic spokesman. I’m happy to see that the Garifuna Collective has picked up Palacio’s torch, and that it delivers the goods on the forthcoming Ayo (Cumbancha); no one member can match its former leader’s charisma and soul, but together they do his legacy justice. Gently percolating, sashaying polyrhythms thread their way through a delicate, dreamy lattice of acoustic and electric guitars, creating a warm, translucent backdrop for one of three different lead vocalists. The music has some familiar Caribbean flavors—sometimes Cuban, sometimes reggae—but the stuttery grooves, characterized by forceful patterns on maracas and scraped turtle shells, are distinct to the Garifuna, who live in parts of Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Belize. This is the first show of the group’s U.S. tour. —Peter Margasak
$22, $20 members
