The internationally acclaimed band, Jaojoby, will bring the high-energy dance music of Madagascar to Fallon in a free in-the-park concert on August 14.

The band will perform in Oats Park beginning at 7:30 p.m., so plan on getting together with friends and family, bring a picnic supper and lawn chairs or blankets, and enjoy an evening of outstanding music under the stars.

The ten-member ensemble, Jaojoby, is named after its founder Eusebe Jaojoby and the music they perform is known as salegy.  In Madgascar—an island nation east of Mozambique in the Indian Ocean—salegy is extremely popular and Jaojoby is its acknowledged monarch.  The music has an insistent powerful rhythm that blends electric guitar with sax, flute, accordion, and driving vocals.

But this energetic dance music is not confined to Madagascar; they have turned the music of their homeland into an international phenomenon.

Jaojoby stole the show at Womex, Europe’s acclaimed world music festival.  Their appearance in Fallon, part of the group’s U.S. tour, is part of a month-long journey across the country performing in Philadelphia, New York, Toronto, Montreal, Seattle, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Portland, Chicago and several other cities.

Jaojoby’s salegy is electric music with no real debt to the west.  Its compelling 6/8 rhythm descends from traditional Malagasy musical forms, dating back to the fifteenth century, and it entrances dancers.  But it is by no means a staid rehashing of ancestral traditions—Jaojoby has said that one of his biggest influences is James Brown.  The term for the music, salegy—which is of Indonesian origin—emerged in the 1960s and it refers to a new electric music in which Malagasy guitarists transposed popular and folk music from traditional instruments, like the zither, to electric guitar.

Jaojoby has said that he added electricity to get both more decibels and more people to dance.

And, dance is very much a part of the group’s presentation.  The band is a family affair with Jaojoby’s wife, Christine, on vocals; his son, Elie Lucas on electric guitar; and his daughters Roseliane and Eusebia, singing and dancing.

Asked how the girls have updated the traditional dance styles, they replied that they have choreographed it more, made it more sexy, without losing the insistent 6/8 beat.

The group has released several CDs including Aza Ariano, on the Indigo/Discorama label in France, which made them a favorite of the world music festival circuits in Portugal, Germany, Holland and France.  And, they will have a new CD coming out on August 10, just before they hit Fallon, entitled Malagasy on the World Village label.

All of this makes for a group committed to playing an exotic island music, one that is festive, voluptuous and infections.

It’s music for dancing and celebrating, a joyous sound for escaping the realities of the everyday.  So plan on joining everyone in Oats Park for a unique musical experience.

For more information, please call CAC at 423-1440.

-Kirk Robertson