Landmasses Of The Madison World Music Festival: Europe
Kepa Junkera takes his trikitixa wherever he goes.
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In a mere four days, this year's Madison World Music Festival (Sept. 16-19) attempts to give Madison a free, flesh-and-blood hookup to four continents. To help Madison listeners prepare for this abrupt and all-too-brief global transport, The A.V. Club will examine how the festival lineup represents several vast chunks of ground that could devour Wisconsin like an after-dinner mint. In the third of this four-part series, it's time to grapple with the vastest continent of all.
Size: 3,837,081 square miles
Chief World Music Festival exports: Esoteric regional traditions; non-offensive uses of the term "gypsy."
Tips for visitors: Remember, you didn't come all this way just for the musical equivalent of drifting along in a gondola or riding an elevator up a tower.
Traditions: Both of the festival's European representatives—Hungarian band Parno Graszt (who perform Thursday afternoon in Ingraham Hall and Friday night at the Terrace) and Basque musician Kepa Junkera (playing Thursday at the Terrace and Saturday at the Willy Street Fair)—remain rooted in oft-overlooked pockets of musical lore. Parno Grastz's 10-member ensemble even work spoons and a milk churn into an unruly take on gypsy music that all but hip-checks the listener into dancing and shouting along with the festive group vocals. The group's so interested in its lineage that it recently took a trip to India, where the ethnic group called gypsys (also known as Romani) are thought to have originated.
Kepa Junkera might have a slightly more polished appeal, but his music hinges on something that's apparently just as specific: the trikitixa, a style of accordion from his native Basque region. Those who find Parno Graszt a little too rough-and-tumble might have an easier time dancing to Junkera's friendly, nimble-fingered melodies.
Brushes with the 21st century: Not unlike fellow WMF act Maria De Barros, Junkera aims to flesh out his sound with a bit of eclectic spit-shine--that is, a bright, clean production style and arrangements that might include anything from layered female vocals to symphonic strings. That said, it sounds like his touring setup is a little more stripped-down for this show, so for all we know he may well deliver a gritty dance party after all. Parno Graszt, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, seems adamant about making something authentic, but it's not shy about letting the world at large in on its traditions: their bio boasts that PG"s 2002 album Hit The Piano was the first Hungarian record to break into the world-music top 10 on European charts.
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