Balkan Beat Box: the Lady Gaga of folk revivalism

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/music/balkan-beat-box-the-lady-gaga-of-folk-revivalism/article1690386/

Oh yeah, the Gaga fans were there with black tape on their nipples, silver pants, and they were all dancing, shaking their asses, they loved it, says Ori Kaplan, sax player and Balkan Beat Box co-founder, speaking from Tel Aviv.

Of course, this is not your grandmothers Balkan music Balkan Beat Box are to folk revivalism what Lady Gaga is to 1950s rock n roll. But Kaplan is quick to point out that some of their gigs do actually have audiences spanning three generations. So, who knows, your grandma might relate, providing she has an exceptionally adventurous spirit (and possibly a good set of concert earplugs). Balkan Beat Box are loud, and proud of their music, which unabashedly drives in so many directions.

And what of those many directions? Since the band first emerged in 2004, writers have whipped themselves into word frenzies trying to accurately describe the bands style. For their Ashkenaz festival debut they are described, on the venues website, as Balkan, Cross-cultural, Dance, Funk, Hip-Hop, Middle-Eastern, Reggae, Sephardic.

Knowing the antecedents helps Kaplan, who has a jazz background, played with the self-described gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello. Co-founder Tamir Muskat was the drummer for the global indie collective Firewater. The bands stage-diving vocalist/rapper, Tomer Yosef, got his start as a stand-up comedian and D.J. All three are originally from Israel, and converged in New York City.

Balkan Beat Box is the personal experience of three people who found each other, who are kindred spirits, explains Kaplan. Its our language.

Their language is in the dialect of Balkan music though, which Kaplan says comes out of a fanatic love of Balkan and Roma brass, and an obsession with some of the musicians who come from there. Their latest album, Blue Eyed Black Boy, was recorded in part in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, and features local musicians from renowned Roma ensembles. But calling the music Balkan is not, says Kaplan, geographical, instead it symbolizes something.

What it seems to symbolize is the most is a freewheeling, capacious attitude towards culture, or, as the bands bumph would have it: The members of Balkan Beat Box do not believe in flags, nationalities or borders. They do believe in New York City, though.

Its a very New York philosophy, says Kaplan. New York is a melting pot, where we recognize where we come from but also our neighbouring cultures, everything, Kurdish, Pakistani, Iranian, and Balkan, of course. In New York we realized pretty quickly that all of our musical training can be shared, and what makes us different is what makes us stand out.

No fears about not standing out. Even in New Yorks fierce gypsy music scene, Balkan Beat Box are skyscrapers. Theyre also increasingly political, although their messages arent necessarily as sophisticated as the music, with anti-war and anti-racism songs painted with broad-brush-stroke lyrics. But Kaplan believes that through dancing feet a lot of messages can come out that dont always come through speeches. Since Balkan Beat Box regularly play to madly dancing crowds of up to ten thousand, he might be right.

Balkan Beat Box perform at the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto on Sept. 5.

Ashkenaz highlights

Keeping the Ladino flame alight: Octogenarian Flory Jagoda deserves her nickname, Keeper of the Flame, with six decades devoted to Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) musical traditions.

Phantasmagorical Yiddish drama, 21st-century style: I. L. Peretzs 1907 play, A Night in the Old Marketplace, reinvented by klezmer star Frank London as multimedia, avant-garde opera (Canadian premiere).

Mongrels, but not down in the mouth: Montreals Les Bⴡrds du Bouche (Mouth Mongrels) create new Jewish harmonica quartet music (world premiere).

The power of music: Songs of the Lodz Ghetto, David Kaufmans documentary about Polands infamous ghetto; music by klezmer greats Brave Old World (world premiere)