Legion Arts Presents Landfall Festival of World Music! Experience Ethnicity and Culture September 24-28

By Ric Holmquest Eastern Iowa music fans can once again go global with the Legion Arts 6th annual Landfall Festival of World Music, September 24 thru 28. The five day musical and cultural event features twelve international performing artists or groups, and diverse regional performers including a Balkan boogie band from Decorah.

The current lineup includes musicians and performing artists from Mongolia, Ghana, Corsica, Reunion Island, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Norway, Sierra Leone, Poland, Finland and Brazil. The festival features two to four performances daily at multiple venues including; the Opus Concert Café, CSPS, the new Cedar Rapids Public Library, Greene Square Park and First Presbyterian Church.

Sponsors include; Legion Arts, the Iowa Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Rockwell Collins, Hoopla, National Performance Network, Hotel Motel Fund of the City of Cedar Rapids, Little Village, Polish Cultural Institute New York and Diversity Focus.

Landfall’s performers are diverse and eclectic. Arga Bileg is a seven piece Ethno Jazz band from Ulaanbaatar Mongolia. African drum, dance and adrenaline with the five brothers comprising African Showboyz from Ghana. Barbara Furtuna is a polyphonic vocal ensemble from Corsica. Reunion Island’s Christine Salem sings Maloya musique, a version of Reunion Creole with percussion. Ukraine’s Dakha Brakha name means “give take” and performs world music reflecting fundamental elements of sound and soul.

Boston based Debo Band is an eleven piece incorporating traditional Ethiopian scales and vocal styles with soul and funk rhythms. Frigg from Norway is hot fiddles melding Kaustinen and Nord Trondelag folk, with a little Americana and Irish folk mixed in. Janka Nabay is a major figure among the performers of Bubu, traditional Muslim music played by the Temne people of Sierra Leone.

The Janusz Prusinowski Trio from Poland follows the traditions of village masters, avant guard with their own characteristic sound and language of improvisation. Kardemimmit is Finland’s modern folk music group of four young women that sing reki style and play the kantele, the national instrument of Finland, performing runo song traditions as well as archaic improvisation.

Matuto is New York’s six piece Appalachia gone Afro Brazilian sound, named after a Brazilian slang reference to a man from the backcountry. North American folk songs mix with South American rhythms of Maracatu, Forró, and Coco, typical of the northeastern region of Brazil, featuring rolling drums, quicksilver accordion licks, earthy vibes and thoughtful reflections.

John Herbert, Legion Arts Executive Director explains how Landfall developed with “there are a handful of international music events that take place in the Midwest in the later parts of September or early October, biggest of them being the Chicago World Music Festival. Other festivals held at the same time include Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Madison. As a venue and musical presenter, we get calls from people saying we have this really cool artist coming from Mali or New Zealand and could you present them. In a way, the festival developed from the availability of the artists’ performing in the Midwest and the recognition by their agents that CSPS is a good venue to play. We were presenting so many artists from around the world, we decided to make it an international festival and brand it as such.”

Herbert shares “our goal has always been to make it a community event, bringing music from around the globe to the widest possible audience. Eastern Iowa is developing many strong cultural organizations, producing great events and working effectively at creating an atmosphere where people feel comfortable, enjoy music, culture and find a way to talk about it. These are world class musicians, best of the best, combining music and traditions from their country with trends that are interesting and fun.”

Landfall affords eastern Iowans a unique opportunity to support the international musical initiative with donations to offset costs of production, volunteering to assist with the various events and by attending the performances. Legion Arts on Facebook features videos from the performing artists. Schedules, tickets, daily event passes, information, donations and volunteer sign-up at 319.364.1580 or www.legionarts.org Admission for each event is a suggested $10 donation. Saturday in Greene Square Park is free with two stages and food vendors.