New Museum Focuses on Musical Instruments

Music is something all humans share, a source of beauty and comfort in our daily lives, a means to give voice to our joy in times of celebration and a powerful force that brings us all together. Music is the lifelong friend that we all have in common.

Sounds like something we at Cityfolk would say, doesn't it? But it wasn't us, this is the first part of the Vision Statement of the Musical Instrument Museum, which opened in Phoenix in April 2010. Their collection is comprised of about 10,000 instruments from 200 countries.

Visitors don headphones which react with the displays: stand in front of a kora, for example, and listen while you watch a video it being played in its native setting. On display are 'famous' instruments, such as the Steinway piano on which John Lennon composed "Imagine." In one gallery, visitors are invited to play instruments from around the world; you can also watch through a window as craftsmen maintain and repair the collection. Rotating special exhibits focus on musical styles or regions, such as the "American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music" exhibit which is currently on display.

And of course, a museum like this would not be complete without a performance space. True to the nature of their collection, they are bringing in a diversity of musicians--Irish, surf guitar, Cajun, Indian, classical music and more--as well as films about music and musicians.

Here's the NPR interview that turned me on to this museum in the first place. Once you hear it, more than the climate will give you a reason to visit the desert southwest.

Otherworldly Vocals from the Steppes

You've heard the Cityfolk staff regale the wonders of Huun-Huur-Tu again and again, urging you to be in the audience on February 1 at the Kennedy Union Ballroom when the quartet returns to Dayton. Read on for some fresh input on this amazing group.

In Saturday's Dayton Daily News, Adam Alonzo wrote:

As the Huun Huur Tu quartet takes the stage, their brightly colored costumes and unusual instruments may spark curiosity. But it’s when they begin to perform that listeners become mesmerized.

These musicians are the cultural descendants of Central Asian herdsmen who developed a mysterious method of singing.

“Four men with four very simple instruments sat on stage, and filled the theater with the most amazingly rich, sonorous textures,” said Eileen Carr, coordinator of the University of Dayton Arts Series, when recalling the group’s last appearance in the area. Huun Huur Tu returns to UD on Tuesday, Feb. 1, in a concert co-sponsored by Cityfolk.

“One piece literally sounded like bird song, quite delicate,” Carr said.

“Others were so powerful you couldn’t believe the sound was produced by just these four musicians.”

Huun Huur Tu is from Tuva, a mountainous republic in southern Siberia.

Because it is so geographically remote, Tuvan music evolved its own distinct traditions. Performers play string, wind and percussion instruments that are strikingly different from those used in the West.

Tuvans are best known for “throat singing,” a vocal technique that combines low drones with high-pitched whistles, enabling one person to create a duet or trio. The haunting effect mimics the complex layers of sound heard in nature, according to Alexander Bapa, a spokesperson for the group.

“They are the sounds of the mountain, the sounds of the river, of the steppe, of the wind, of the animals,” he said.

Since the 1990s, the members of Huun Huur Tu have been Tuva’s musical ambassadors. They’ve collaborated with artists including Frank Zappa, Ry Cooder and the Kronos Quartet. Their latest release, “Eternal,” blends throat singing with the rhythmic electronics of producer Carmen Rizzo.

There’s nothing unique about Tuvan anatomy that gives them the ability to throat sing, as every vocalist produces secondary tones rather than one pure pitch. But Tuvans have perfected the technique over centuries, perhaps due to the isolation that comes with their nomadic lifestyle. It seems while watching his cattle on the frigid steppes, a man who can sing a duet with himself is never alone.

And earlier this month, Sasha Frere-Jones said in The New Yorker:

Whatever the category of "world music" means, it isn't much. It's used, uselessly, to encompass everything from Columbian cumbia to Nigerian highlife to the throat singing of Huun-Huur-Tu, a band from the Republic of Tuva that's been making spectacularly strange music for almost two decades. The bedrock of Huun-Huur-Tu's music is the group's otherworldly vocal technique, which employs very low notes and circular breathing to create tones that sound like electric guitars plugged in and left on the floor to drone. (This explains the healthy subset of metal fans in its audience.) For years, the band used only guitar and Tuvan instruments, gradually opening up to harps and tabla. Eternal, a 2009 collaboration with Carmen Rizzo, was somewhere between placid spa music and rougher, more abstract electonica. Live, though, the band is never a background affair. Still a quartet after 18 years, Huun-Huur-Tu creates a deeply resonant buzz that is simultaneously human and identifiable.

Outstanding Bluegrass Double-Header Coming January 29

Grammy-winning bluegrass superstar Ricky Skaggs, credited by Chet Atkins with “single-handedly saving country music” in the 1980s, returns to Dayton with his red-hot band Kentucky Thunder and special guests the Steep Canyon Rangers, for a concert on Saturday, January 29, 2011, at the Dayton Masonic Center.

Born in 1954 in Cordell, Kentucky, Ricky Skaggs is one of the most important, influential, successful and popular musicians in the modern era of bluegrass. From the time he started his career as one of Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys to his current status as Grand Ole Opry star and award-winning bandleader, Skaggs has distinguished himself as a peerless singer and hot-picking multi-instrumentalist (mandolin, fiddle, guitar), as well as a respected advocate for bluegrass, traditional country and Americana music. He has 14 Grammy Awards to his credit and is nominated for another three Grammys this year. Skaggs’ band Kentucky Thunder has won the IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year Award eight times, more than any other band. Kentucky Thunder consists of Andy Leftwich (fiddle), Cody Kilby (lead guitar), Mark Fain (bass), Paul Brewster (tenor vocals, rhythm guitar), Eddie Faris (baritone vocals, guitar) and Justin Moses (background vocals, banjo). A concert in Virginia earlier this month got rave reviews from the The Boot.com.

Thrust into the national spotlight through its association and touring with comedian/banjo picker Steve Martin, the Steep Canyon Rangers—Mike Guggino (mandolin), Charles Humphrey III (bass), Woody Platt (guitar), Nicky Sanders (fiddle) and Graham Sharp (banjo)—have been playing together since they were students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in the late 1990s. The quintet was named “Emerging Artist of the Year” by the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2007. Steve Martin says of the Rangers’ original but traditional sound: “It makes you feel that even though you know you haven’t heard this music before, it seems like you have, or at least should have.” A collaborative album with Steve Martin is scheduled for release this spring. All four of their albums have received heavy national radio airplay and One Dime at a Time topped the chart in Bluegrass Unlimited.

You can sample these bands' sounds at this earlier blog post, and hear the real deal on January 29 at Dayton Masonic Center.

New Harmonies Will Ring in Dayton Area

Later this year, a wonderful traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution will be on view in the Dayton area. New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music looks at the sacred and secular music which makes up America's music. We are an incredibly diverse and complex group, and it shows in the music we make. The variety of rhythms, instruments, and melodies stand alone and merge to make new music that is distinctly American. In their words, "the main beat of the exhibition is the on-going cultural process that has made America the birthplace of more music than any place on earth. The exhibition provides a fascinating, inspiring, and toe-tapping listen to the American story of multi-cultural exchange. The story is full of surprises about familiar songs, histories of instruments, the roles of religion and technology, and the continuity of musical roots from "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to the latest hip hop CD."

The exhibit will be on display at the Quaker Heritage Center at Wilmington College from March 14-April 14 and the Springfield Museum of Art from May 22-June 22. It is also traveling to locations in New Jersey, Minnesota, Mississippi and South Carolina. Learn more in this recent article from USA Today.

Paddy Moloney to receive Lifetime Achievement in Music award

On January 27, New York’s National Arts Club will present Paddy Moloney with its Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement in Music.

Piper and flutist Moloney has been at the helm of The Chieftains since they formed in the 1960s. The group revived traditional Celtic music almost single-handedly. Their partnerships with guests as diverse as Nanci Griffith, The Rolling Stones, Sting and Diana Krall has helped spread Irish music to new audiences for decades.

For more information about the celebration at which he will be honored, check out this article from The Irish Emigrant. You can see Paddy Moloney and the Chieftains live at the Schuster Center on March 6.

Spotlight on Huun-Huur-Tu

On February 1, you'll have another chance to see the amazing Tuvan throat singers of Huun Huur Tu at the Kennedy Union Ballroom on the University of Dayton campus. Tuvan throat singing is truly one of the most amazing things I've ever heard. The range of sounds they're able to make with their voices is mind-boggling. The last time they were in Dayton, they told the standing room only crowd that the music originated from Tuvan reindeer herders who used it to give each other directions. They sang the landscape to each other! Fascinating. But enough superlatives from me. Here are some YouTube videos that will show you what I mean better than my words can.

Documentary Filmmaker Steve Gebhardt Coming to Dayton

Cityfolk will show Steve Gebhardt's Bill Monroe documentary Father of Bluegrass Music on Wednesday, January 19 at 7 PM at the Neon Movies in downtown Dayton. Admission is free. Gebhardt and scriptwriter Larry Nager will be on hand to introduce the film and discuss Monroe's rich legacy. The movie includes interviews and performances with performers from across a wide range of country and pop music such as Ricky Skaggs, who will perform at Cityfolk's annual winter bluegrass extravaganza at the Masonic Center on January 29.

Gebhardt, who lives in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Prospect Hill, will bring an interesting history with him. While managing Anthology Film Archives in New York City during the late 1960s, he met John Lennon and Yoko Ono and went on to work with the couple on various projects including directing the concert film Lennon:Live in New York City. He also produced the film Ladies & Gentlemen The Rolling Stones which was shot while the band was touring behind their classic Exile on Main Street album. The film was recently given a limited theatrical release in conjunction with last year's re-issue of Exile, then released on DVD. In addition to work with Lennon and the Stones, Gebhardt has produced documentary films about jazz composer Carla Bley (Escalator Over The Hill), anti-Vietnam war activist John Sinclair (20 to Life: Life and Times of John Sinclair) and is currently preparing a film about renowned architect Zaha Hadid, creator of the building that houses Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center.

Father of Bluegrass Music features performances by Bill Monroe captured during his final years. Longtime Cincinnati -based music writer Larry Nager (now in Nashville), wrote the script for the film. Nager is familiar to Cityfolk audiences through performances with Red Allen, William Lee and Tony Ellis and, most recently, Ohio Heritage Fellowship awardee drummer Phillip Paul.

Spotlight on Ricky Skaggs and the Steep Canyon Rangers

Happy New Year!

It's January, which means that Cityfolk's annual bluegrass show is right around the corner. This year's concert, at the Dayton Masonic Center on Saturday, January 29, features the Steep Canyon Rangers opening for Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. Most bluegrass fans are familiar with Ricky Skaggs, who has been a force in the bluegrass world for four decades now. Steep Canyon is much newer to the scene and on the rise, especially since being chosen by Steve Martin to be the back-up band for his new banjo album and tour.

Here is Steep Canyon and Steve Martin on Late Night with David Letterman recently:


And doing one of their most memorable songs on Austin City Limits:


They also sound mighty fine on their own:


Here, Ricky Skaggs talks about his new, Grammy-nominated album Songs My Dad Loved


You can hear some of that material on this promotional video: