|
| |
 Teri Tibbett |
|
In our travels through Europe, my daughter Haley and I landed in San Sebastian, or Donostia, as it is known in the local language - a beachside city on the Atlantic coast of northern Spain. The people, or Euskaldunak, are earthy, passionate and fiercely proud. Their music has these qualities as well.
In the old part of Donostia people walk on narrow cobblestone streets past 19th century stone buildings with ornate dormers and black wrought-iron balconies.
Walking through the old part one evening, I heard drumming and turned to see a group of musicians rounding a corner playing a variety of percussion instruments - bass drums, snares, cowbells and chocalla (tambourine-type instrument).
Dressed in regular street clothes, each member of the group wore a yellow T-shirt with the name Taupada Samba Taldea, printed on it. Taupada means "heartbeat."
The group's manner was intense, pointed and political. Their method, one member told me, is to walk through the streets, play their instruments and talk to people.
Their Web site (www.taupada.net) features some highlights of their causes, including anti-war, anti-racism, gay rights and solidarity of the Basque people.
|
| courtesy of teri tibbett |
| In the streets: A Basque percussion group, "Taupada Samba Taldea," performs earlier this summer in the streets of Donostia (San Sebastian), Spain. |
|
After more strolling, we came to an outdoor stage at the Plaza de la Trinidad. The small courtyard was surrounded by old buildings and a tall stone retaining wall holding back Mount Urgull. There was a beer garden with people milling around - locals and tourists, hippies in skirts and dreadlocks and others dressed in fashionable clothes, pressed jeans and expensive Italian shoes.
The event, called, V Encuentros Interculturales de Urgull (Fifth Intercultural Encounter at Urgull) featured a weekend of films, theater, music and dances from places as diverse as Spain, Bolivia, Uruguay, Ecuador, Romania, Senegal, Berber (North Africa) and the local Basque region.
On Friday, the main stage act was Araca la Cana, a Uruguayan group performing a style of political music and theater called murga. Murga was banned in Uruguay in the 1970s and 80s for its irreverent criticisms of the government.
About 15 singers, dressed in brightly-colored flowing costumes with carnival-esque white face paint and tall colorful stuffed hats, stood behind a row of microphones singing with gusto, strength and passion in rich, five-part harmony.
A jester-like character dressed in a blue tux and tails with stars sewn on the lapels, broke from the ranks and pranced up and down the stage, singing loudly and taunting the performers and audience alike.
In between the songs the group performed skits with political commentary, all in a flamboyant, artistic way with exaggerated facial expressions and near-constant motion.
On Saturday, the festival began at noon with street theater, music and dances from Bolivia, Ecuador and Spain.
In the evening, Basque folk musician Juan Mari Beltran took the stage and played a Basque folk style of music called trikitixa.
He played a double-horned instrument called an alboka, made of two cow horns, connected by two reeds with holes and held together with a wooden handle. It makes a high-pitched drone sound, like a bagpipe, that plays under the melody.
Other group members played tambourine, drum, violin, accordion, guitar and a wooden xylophone called txalapaarta.
Most of the music in trikitixa is happy, lively and sung in Euskara. Some songs, however, were sad, haunting and reminiscent of the folk music of the British Isles.
Another group, Bouhia, played music influenced by the Berber culture in Morocco, mixed with a little rock'n'roll. The leader, dressed in an Arabic headscarf, played a banjo, making it sound exactly like an oud (traditional Arabic stringed instrument). A woman dancer with flowing red bedlah, bare belly, scarves and jewels, danced in a Middle Eastern style throughout the band's set. The visual was as exciting as the music.
The show concluded with a Basque rock band, Niko Etxart - loud, screaming and metallic. The leader is an older guy with flowing white hair who rips on guitar. His style is distinctive and unusual, reflecting his non-American roots.
Band members played accompaniment on guitar, bass, drums and harmonica, and sang back-up in three-part Euskara harmony, reflecting some pretty complicated words and syllables, and the "sh" sound prominent in the language.
On the walk home back to our pension, the moon was full, the skies clear. An ocean breeze brushed across the land, bending palm trees and cooling the air. Young people poured out of the bars onto the narrow cobblestone streets, holding glasses, laughing, cuddling and kissing to music blaring from the open doors - Saturday night around the world.
