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Concert Review
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Reax Magazine, Concert Review >>
All too often in Central Florida, performances by international musicians fall into one of two categories. Either they're the music is providing "authenticity" to some theme park/cultural fair/restaurant "experience" or the concert is a high-dollar affair presented in the sterile environs of a performing arts center or museum. These may be effective ways to present cultural artifacts to chin-stroking observers or to distract from the artifice of a certain environment, but they are far from the best way for music to be enjoyed.
With this in mind, it was with extraordinary trepidation and the slightest bit of optimism that the news of a concert by renowned Palestinian group Le Trio Joubran was received in these quarters. That the concert was scheduled to be performed at a Middle Eastern art gallery in tres-chic Winter Park didn't instill a tremendous amount of hope. Would the promoters put these oud-playing brothers in a corner of their gallery to play songs while patrons clinked wine glasses and chatted about the merits of thousand-dollar oil paintings?
Thankfully, the answer was a resounding "No." In keeping with the reputation that Le Trio Joubran has established for themselves – the trio has garnered considerable international press attention, and their second album, Majaz, is currently a top-seller in Europe – an impressive, tented outdoor stage was set up on the street, while the gallery hob-nobbing was kept entirely separate.
Opening act Ritmo Gitano, with their furiously infectious Spanish-guitar sound, wasn't the most obvious accompaniment, but they won the audience over, regardless. Though normally (and unfortunately) relegated to the above-mentioned restaurant circuit, the local group should be a more recognized presence in the Orlando scene. Ask yourself this: if Rodrigo y Gabriela were to come to town, would they play a restaurant or a music venue? While Ritmo Gitano's sound is only tangentially similar to the Mexican duo's, it's hard to understand why they're not accorded the same respect by local venue-bookers.
It was Le Trio Joubran, however, that was the reason the crowd of 150 or so braved the night's torrential downpours. The three brothers (all sons of a luthier) were accompanied by the impressive percussion work of Yousef Hbeitsch. The combined impact of three expressively and expansively played ouds (which, if you're unfamiliar, is the Middle Eastern precursor of the lute) and Hbeitsch's multifaceted drum-work cast an immediate spell on the audience.
And not in a chin-stroking way, either.
It didn't take too long for the audience to find their feet and by the third number, there was dancing in the aisles and lots of time-keeping clapping going on in the crowd. Festive and fun, the show was not without its serious notes: elder brother Samir noted when the beeping sound of a truck backing up momentarily distracted everyone, "We are used to that for dangerous stuff." When introducing the improvisation that closed out the evening, he sought to very simply "present our case: we want to see an end of the occupation ... my only weapon is my instrument."
Baraka Collection co-founder Hatem Akil noted in his introduction that this show was the first of many to be hosted by the gallery, and one can only hope that future concerts continue to prove that non-Western music shouldn't be squeezed into delicate presentation boxes to be enjoyed properly.
--by Jason Ferguson 03/03/08 >> go there
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