International roots at Voodoo Fest

Music Notes

Voodoo Fest this year will be host to an array of musical greats in various genres. I am excited to report on bands with international roots ranging from rock and punk to reggae and Big Band Havana. I feel there is a lack of Latin roots bands in Voodoo. And know there are many Latin rock, punk and alternative bands with huge International followings. Considering New Orleans has seen a rise in the Latin population since Katrina, I think this would be a good move for Voodoo Fest and support evident by the many Latin restaurants and businesses that have sprung up in the last four years.  Despite my misgivings, there are a few bands comprised of members with various cultures and ethnicities at Voodoo like rocker Alejandro Escovedo whose roots are Mexican, Gogol Bordello which is a multi-ethnic punk band with the majority of their members from Eastern Europe, K’NAAN who is originally from Somalia and sings political reggae, New Orleans own Zydepunks who do songs in Spanish and German and Mas Mamones who is also a New Orleans based Latin band who is known for their 1950-60’s Old Cuban Style/Jazz numbers.

Alejandro Escovedo began his career as a founding member of the pioneering San Francisco-based punk band The Nuns in the mid-70’s. He is also part of a very musical family being the uncle to Sheila E and brother to Pete Escovedo. Escovedo moved to New York City, where he joined forces with Chip and Tony Kinman in Rank & File, a band that forged the early 1980s country-punk sound that later became known as alternative country. After Rank & File relocated to Austin, Texas, Escovedo left the band and formed True Believers with his brother Javier. In 1992, Escovedo embarked on a solo career with his debut album Gravity. Subsequent solo albums have included Thirteen Years, With These Hands, More Miles than Money: Live 1994-1996, Bourbonitis Blues, and A Man Under the Influence. In the late 1990s, he began developing a dramatic work, based on his songs about his father, with the Los Angeles theater company About Productions. The resulting composition, By the Hand of the Father, premiered to critical acclaim in 2000 with Escovedo performing his songs as part of the production. The Boxing Mirror, released in 2006, traces Escovedo’s journey from the brink of death at the hands of Hepatitis C to renewed wellness and artistic creativity. His set this Weekend at Voodoo should be a great one as this 50 something really knows how to rock.
 

Gogol Bordello has been breaking down musical barriers since 1999 with a supercharged music based on a brutal gypsy two step rhythm that sounds like an Eastern European cousin of ska, augmented by punk, metal, rap, flamenco, roots reggae, Italian spaghetti, Western twang, dub and other sounds generated by gypsies and rebels from across the globe. “Reggae and gypsy music were created by poor people with nothing to lose,” Hutz explains. “They had to find a new way to look at the world, so the theme of SUPER TARANTA! is New Rebel Intelligence - NRI – a concept born in the band. Looking at string theory, creationism, globalization, political cataclysms and the general chaos facing us makes you realize you have to find some way to survive.” Gogol Bordello’s philosophy is simple and pragmatic. Music makes it possible to make the contradictions of life sound harmonious, at least for the duration of a song. Their trans-global rebel rock is based on the belief that music and art can transform negative energy to positive and inspire individual action.

Gogol Bordello has been circling the globe igniting the international community with their frenzied brand of anarchic mayhem. They’ve scorched venues all across the U. S.; headlined Festivals in Britain, where they topped the Rock, Metal and Indie charts and wowed fans in Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw, Kiev, Zagreb and Prague. Along the way they’ve discovered more styles of rebel music and incorporated them into their omnivorous sound. This bands set on Saturday at Voodoo is a must see. They are an awesome spectacle!
 

K’NAAN recorded primarily in Kingston, Jamaica where K’NAAN was granted unprecedented access by his friends Stephen and Damian Marley to their father Bob Marley’s original home studio at 56 Hope Road and the legendary Tuff Gong studios Troubadour is a hip-hop album like no other. K’NAAN successfully blends samples and live instrumentation for a sound that’s both rooted in traditional African melodies and the classic hip-hop tradition. “I’m not interested in being mediocre,” declares the rapper. “If there’s not a necessity to what I’m doing, I just wouldn’t do it. If I don’t have something to add to the conversation, I’m just not gonna talk.” Luckily for us, he has plenty to say.

Utilizing everything from folk guitar to the actual Hammond B3 used on Bob Marley’s Exodus, the emcee deftly finds a balance between earnest tales of growing up and clever, braggadocio rhymes straight out of Big Daddy Kane’s rhyme book. It’s this mix, both musical and lyrical, that earned his 2006 debut album The Dusty Foot Philosopher a Juno award for Rap Recording of the Year, a BBC Radio 3 Award, and nomination for the inaugural Polaris Music Prize, Canada’s equivalent to the Shortlist Music Prize. In a country whose name is synonymous with strife, it’s easy to brand K’NAAN with the “political rapper” tag. But that’d be both easy and disingenuous.
 

K’NAAN lyrics lie in stark contrast to emcees that use their medium as a pulpit to promote their beliefs. Consider his words more front-page reportage than editorial page. “My job is to write just what I see/So a visual stenographer is who I be,” he rhymes in “I Come Prepared.” Doubtless, K’NAAN is not without his opinions, but in Troubadour, songwriting always comes before sermons.
 

Innovators, renegades, survivors - within a few years, the Zydepunks have grown from underground heroes into one of New Orleans' most talked about bands. Yiddish riddles, Irish ballads, Cajun punk, and original songs in Spanish and German are a small demonstration of why they astound new audiences. Wild folk dances fronted by accordion and fiddle and backed by relentless drums and bass are a testament to the high-energy folk-punk dance craze that is a Zydepunks show.
 

This band began in 2004 and quickly took the New Orleans music scene by storm with their speedy and amped-up versions of European and Louisiana folk music. Vocal stylings in six languages (German, French, Spanish, Yiddish, English, Portuguese) immediately set the band apart. Their own original work has given the band a more cohesive feel while staying true to their sound. With furious energy, this band, a young genre-defying New Orleans group featuring drums, bass and dueling violins and accordions, wail through a variety of original mash-ups blending Yiddish, zydeco, Klezmer, rock, Irish, Cajun and Slavic music. It’s almost like this band is our own version of Gogol Bordello
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Mas Mamones of New Orleans do not like to be called a merengue band simply b/c this is not what they are. Manny Lander is vocalist for the nine-member Mas Mamones, whose stylish revival of Cuban jazz is one of the hottest new sounds to emerge on Frenchman Street in years. That scene is no stranger to Latin bands, but what sets Mas Mamones apart is that they don't do merengue or any other of the popular styles currently topping the charts in Latin America. Mas Mamones instead stick to the big band sound of Havana in the '40s and '50s, the days when mambos, cha cha chas and boogaloos -- not the Macarena -- ruled the dance floor.

"Everybody else in New Orleans plays newer music and popular music, like popular dance tunes," notes bassist Andy Wolf, Mas Mamones' founder and arranger. "They play the stuff that people are more into. We concentrate on the old style of music that not many people play." A cute and interesting side note is that mas mamones means more mamones, a Venezuelan fruit. Could the name have, perhaps, a double meaning?  "It has tons of double meanings according to the band.”

With all these international roots bands playing at the Fest this weekend, one of these bands is bound to remain in the psyche of those who enjoy their originality and fun vibes. Please make sure to support all these bands that are not as nationally known as KISS or EMINEM, but who are definitely top quality acts.

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written by Martha, October 30, 2009

Thank you for your comment Mr or Mrs FuckYou

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