Janusz Prusinowski Trio (plus 2) live in Warsaw, May 13, 2013 from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo.

The Mazurkas of the World Festival took place in Warsaw the second week in May, sponsored by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. There were daytime workshops in music and dance, and wonderful performances at night. The band needed a lively video in a hurry, so I threw this one together. These guys rocked the joint!

A Catalonian Feast-ival from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo.

Located about 50 kilometers from Barcelona, Manresa is a small, laid back Catalonian city. It has its picturesque Old Section as well as an impressive, well-appointed cathedral, and the famous monastery of Montserrat is perched on a nearby rocky mountaintop. But the Fira Mediterránia de Manresa, a four-day celebration and Trade Fair going into its 16th year, stirs the place up and brings the population into the concert halls and out onto the streets to enjoy a meticulously programmed whirlwind of music, cinema, dance, theater and more. The joint gets jumpin’. If you’ve got a trip to Spain planned in November, make sure you include this festival in your itinerary.

Because the event takes place all over town, it was necessary to pick and choose my coverage and up front I’ll tell you that what I have captured in my video is only a small slice of it. In particular, I did not cover the imported acts, because I was curious about the local Catalan culture specifically, and fine as these other artists were, I felt they would divert me from my focus. I’ll always regret not catching Hermanos Cuberos, who according to the festival book combine music from the Alcarra region of Spain with bluegrass! And there were many fine Catalan acts that I did not even get around to seeing.

And I also have to say a word about the food. It was everywhere, and if you knew where to go, (and could deal with the siesta closings) it was excellent. I brought back 2 bags of little dried local mushrooms which I am still using slowly, when the dish calls for their distinctive taste and texture. They are tiny treasures.

I was fortunate to be staying at the same hotel as Dave Ellwand who has researched and written about Catalan food, music and mores. Our conversations over breakfast were informative and tantalizing, so I simply had to include him at some point in the video; credit where credit is due. He has provided some links to further information and events below. And because this video is a quick survey, here are links to full songs.

To see the full song by Evo, go to: http://inter-muse.com/blog/2013/04/16/evo-performs-at-fira-mediterrania-de-manresa/

To see a (different) full song by Els Berros de la Cort go to: http://inter-muse.com/blog/2013/01/11/medieval-songs-of-sex-from-catalonia-els-berros-de-la-cort/

For full performance of “Waka Waka” by Els Laietans go to: http://inter-muse.com/blog/2013/03/16/els-laietans-at-the-fira-mediterrania-de-manresa/

For more information about the festival visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fira_Mediterrania_in_Manresa

For an archived radio programme about the previous year’s festival: http://www.prx.org/pieces/85507-mediterrania-taste-of-the-music-of-people-of-ca

CAT centre has an annual festival of Catalan/Valencian/Balearic/Basque performances from January to April as well as year-round music teaching and summer schools.* Information about all festivals is easiest to get on http://www.catalanarts.cat/web/?q=en

Evo at Manresa from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo.

The Cathedral “La Seu” in Manresa was the venue for some lovely performances over the course of the festival. This one was particularly good, although I found the acoustics to be problematic. Sometimes you want that massive church echo (great for Gregorian chant); but sometimes it turns the music to mush. Even as I was shooting, I was wondering if the audio track was going to be usable. As it turned out, it wasn’t. So I was thrilled when the leader of the group, Efrén López sent me a recording that was made from the performance, and while it still had a goodly amount of reverb, it had decent separation of the sounds.

The group is made up of: Efrén López Sanz, Miriam Encinas Laffitte, Laia Puig Olives, Iván López Sanz, and for this performance, Pau Marcos. The song is “De la iensor qu’om vey” by Berenguer de Palou, a 12th century troubadour also known as Berenguier de Palazol or Palol. However you spell the name, the man could write a great melody, and although I do not speak Catalan (and don’t even try a computer translation, it is NOT going to work) I suspect the lyrics are equally eloquent. It is a song of unrequited love, and part of a series of songs the troubadour wrote on the subject of courtship. The arrangement is by Efrén López.

Here are the medieval Catalan lyrics (translation is welcome!):

De la iensor qu’om vey, al mieu semblan,
On nueg e jorn velh e pens e cossir,
Mi vurlh lunhar, si·l cor mi vol seguir,
Ab tal acort que mais no·l torn denan,
Quar longamen m’a tengut deziron
Ab belh semblan, mas tan dur me respon
Qu’anc jorn no·m volc precx ni demans sofrir
Ai! belhna dona, ab belh cors benestan,
De bel semblan e de gent aculhir,
A penas sai de vos mo mielhs chauzir,
Si·us vey o no, o si·m torn, o si m’an:
Non ai saber ni sen que mi aon:
Tan suy intratz en vostr’amor prion,
Qu’ieu non conosc per on m’en puesca essir.
Pero, dona, si·us vis cor ni talan
Que·m denhessetz l’amor qu’ie·us ai grazir,
So es us mals don no vogra guerir;
Mas, pus no·us plai, al ver Dieu vos coman;
De vos mi tuelh, e non ab cor volon,
Quar res ses vos no·m pot far jauzion;
Vejatz si·m puesc ab gaug de vos partir!
Senher Bernart, no·ns part ren viu del mon,
Mas la belha que·m destrenh e·m confon
Tem que·m fassa per mort de vos partir.

For more information about the festival visit: http://www.firamediterrania.cat/en
For more information about Evo, visit: http://www.myspace.com/evomedievalmusic

Els Laietans at the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo.

My first night at the festival I was told that if I wanted to hear the real down home Catalan music, the place to be was the Taverna, a tent performance space in the center of town. Throughout the festival that held true, but the first night deviated in that there was a competition of four young local bands. There was a jazz ensemble, a folk big band, an a capella group all performing traditionally based music, and ……this, which sent me spiraling into a Catalan Twilight Zone. In a good way. The shawm-like instruments being played are gralles (pronounced GRAI-yas) and they are most closely associated with that other unique Catalan pursuit, the building of human pyramids. Yes, when they build one of those there is always gralle music. But I doubt that it’s ever “Waka Waka.”
Anyway, these guys are absolute charmers, and they won the contest. I think they should be playing at every soccer game half time in Spain.
Apology:
The sound of the drum was so loud that it shook the floor. That’s why frequently the camera loses focus, as the monopod and tripod reacted to the floor vibrations. Nothing I could do about it…..(that and the spotlights also drove me mad, but hey, that’s guerilla vlogging for ya.)

Parvathy Das Baul and Lakshman Das Baul at IndiEarth Xchange from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo.

I first saw Parvathy Das Baul at the Fez Festival in Morocco. I was immensely impressed with her powerful voice and stamina; she sang for almost an hour straight. I found out later that she had performed with a fever of 102; more impressive still! But the concerns of the body are less than tertiary to Bauls. As they sing of divine love they also sing of the illusion of material life, and the constant search for the soul. In this performance at IndiEarth Xchange (a gathering of music professionals in Chennai) Parvathy is joined by Lakshman Das Baul, a wonderful singer in his own right, who I have covered in another article: inter-muse.com/blog/2013/01/31/lakshman-das-baul-sings-an-invocation/. Throughout the show, he mostly backed her up instrumentally, but they sang this song as a duet. I found the melody to be particularly lovely. And the musicians are of course, magnificent representatives of the powerful and living tradition they come from.

Groupa at WOMEX from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo.

Groupa is a veteran band, and is currently comprised of Jonas Simonson, flutes, Mats Edén, violin, and Terje Isungset on percussion and assorted sound objects. The various members who have long been active in the Nordic music scene have always been not only great players, but experimenters. This is just from the tail end of their showcase at WOMEX….I came in late due to another obligation, and kicked myself for it when I heard what good stuff was going down. But I think you’ll get the idea of how they blend a firm foundation of folkloric music with a modern deconstruction. And of course, I am a sucker for those wonderful fiddle tunes, like the ones they segue into after the first overtone flute piece and atmospheric sound collage half way through.

IndiEarth Xchange took place in Chennai, India, and was created as a forum for the promotion of independent music in India and the Indian Ocean area. For three frenetic days at the Park Hotel, IndiEarth hosted conferences, schmoozes and performances by a wide variety of independent artists. The hotel offered nightclub sized rooms with stages, intimate bars, and even an “Out There” performance space in the lobby. Karthick Iyer whose music reflects his carnatic training (since the age of five) and a western harmonic sensibility, performed in the “Out There” stage, and this, his closing number, was particularly lyrical.

The High Lonesome sound of…Albania from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo.

Although there is great dissent and discussion amongst those of us who attend WOMEX, (the European World Music Expo) about its inclusion of so many hybrids and pop manifestations, we always know that there will be a helping of something starkly ethnic that will please the most demanding purist ear. This time it was Hysni (Niko) Zela and the Albanian Iso-Polyphonic Choir.
The polyphony of Albania is one of the most hair raising and hauntingly gorgeous sounds made by the human voice. Strong words, but I stand behind them. I first heard this kind of music back in 1995 when I was putting together a compilation of music from formerly Soviet “satellite” nations. It sent me roving through what for me turned out to be Terra Incognita on multiple levels. I remember trying to get recordings from the State owned radio station in Tirana and coming up against a surprising language barrier; my English and French were of no use—either I had to speak Albanian or I had to speak ….Italian. Plus there were several layers of Albanian song, depending on the region. But at last I found a recording of a polyphonic group singing “The Legend of the Walled in Woman” and I knew I had found something precious and important. It literally sent shivers down my spine, and that does not happen often.
So here is my video, and excerpt from the concert. This choir is true to the tradition, and they sing magnificently. Mr. Zela looked blissed the entire time he was performing, he was most definitely “in the zone.”
Here is the information about the songs as I received it from their management:

1 – Zura nje bilbil me vese – I caught a Nightingale – love song very rich of metaphors
2 – Syzeza – Black eyed – love song
3 – Shoke nat e shoke dite – Friends of nights and days – dramatic song a la Romeo and Juliette
4 – Dola nje dite nga mali – Wander in the mountain – love song
5 – Legjenda e ures – The bridge legend – while the title is referred to the bridge it is dedicated to the Rozafa castle legend. The girl that accepted her sort to be a human sacrifice (buried alive in the walls) for the castle and that asked to leave out one breast to feed the toddler and one leg to rock the cradle.
6 – Dollandyshe vogelo – Little Swallow – Love song 7 – Mu thane syte mu thane – My eyes are dry – Dramatic migration song of a mother that has run out of tears because the son came back home dead right before the wedding ceremony.

LakshmanDasBaul sings an invocation in Pondicherry from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo.

The second leg of my trip to India found me in the seaside town of Pondicherry, and shooting the trans-Pacific band Sing Sing in the evening, at the Aurodhan garden stage. “Opening” for the band was Lakshman Das Baul, of Bengal. I had seen him perform in Chennai, but there he was simply doing some simple backup chanting and bell playing for Parvathi Baul. (more of her in another post) Here he was performing solo, and I got to hear his fine, powerful voice in full cry, singing this invocation for the evening. The bells that you hear are on his ankles, so he is really quite the one man band. The Bauls are hereditary troubadors, and by custom they lead a devotional life, singing in public about the transitory nature of the physical world, and the quest for unity with the divine. The song here is credited to Lalon Fakir, one of the greatest song writers of the Bauls, and puts forth the proposition that when you die, you will take nothing with you, only your soul will be there when you meet the great Beloved.

Medieval Songs of Sex, from Catalonia: Els Berros de la Cort from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo.

As its name would indicate, the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa showcases music from Catalonia and also from all around the Mediterranean. It provides a lively music trade fair where business connections can be made and deals closed, but it is also a citywide festival. Every resident can participate and the main streets are full of families taking advantage of the public performances and general party feeling.

I’ll be covering the festival in greater depth soon, but for now, here’s a dose of medieval secular music from Els Berros de la Cort who were playing at El Sielu, one of the smaller club-like venues. As you will see the band uses authentic instruments, with the addition of some contemporary percussion and amplification. So while the sound is probably quite similar to what one might have heard at a medieval festival, there are definitely heightened rhythmic color and dynamics.

The lyrics for the first a capella piece come from the “Speculum al Foderi,” which was a kind of medical sex manual for the lay person (no pun intended, but hey….). The very title, which contains some rather blunt language, suggests that it was not published for royalty, who would usually be reading a book in formal Latin. The words themselves, which the band has set to original music describe various attributes of a woman: her fair parts, her dark parts, her round parts, her petite parts and her sweet smelling parts.

The full translation is available upon request

This is followed by an instrumental which is a free adaptation of “Molt Eram Dolz Mei Conzir” a composition by Arnaut de Maroil (sometimes written Arnaut de Mareuil), an Occitan troubadour of the late 12th century.

This all leads me to believe there was lot more to medieval culture than we are commonly taught!

For more information about Els Berros de la Cort, visit: elsberrosdelacort.cat