By Katie Teresi

Atimevu Dance and Drum

They consider themselves a family and their shared genetic makeup is instruments. The artists of Atimevu Dance and Drum gather on the shores of Lake Mendota on a serene October morning to play traditional Ghanaian music. Their instruments bind them together, and their sound is their gift to the world. The kpanlogo is a hand-carved drum that can sound like a sharp slap, high crack or thumping bass depending on how it’s hit. The iron gakogui is a simple bell that produces two clear notes, high and low.

The members of Atimevu Dance & Drum. Photo by Brittany Radocha.

Atimevu Dance and Drum is one of many Madison-based bands that bring music from around the world to Wisconsin. Each musician of Atimevu handles one instrument, playing a lively melody or bouncing rhythm. Low thumps of the kpanlogo and dundun drums mix with the cheery songs of chanting voices and the atenteben, a flute. Emmanual Eku, the group’s master drummer, leads the musicians and weaves the separate pulsing beats of the various instruments into a cohesive and happy piece.

To this group, drumming has become a way of life. For some of the musicians who moved to Wisconsin from Ghana, it is part of their history taught to them by family. Other members, some Wisconsin natives, joined Atimevu because of their love for the music.

“I grew up playing drum since I was a little kid, and that’s what I like to do so that’s why I do it all the time.  I mean, I cannot imagine not playing music somehow,” Edi Gbordzi, a member of Atimevu, says. “It has been part of me for my life.  That’s how I see it.”

Xtring Quartet

In 2006, four members of Xtring – Selim Firat, Raquel Paraíso, Enrique Rueda and Francisco López – visited Rueda’s family in Colombia. Independent musicians upon their arrival, Rueda’s father, a talented bandola player, encouraged them to play music together. They haven’t stopped since.

Now, more than five years later, Xtring continues to play traditional Colombian Andean music. The band uses eight string instruments: the bandola, mandolin, violin, tiple, guitar, bass, cavaquinho, and cuatro llanero. That’s 58 strings.

The traditional Colombian music Xtring plays dates to the European waltzes danced in South America in the 1700s. The rich mix of indigenous Latin, African and European sounds is lovely and sophisticated. Each instrument has a particular role: bandolas play the melody, guitars and bass strum the harmony and baselines and the tiple acts as percussion. Xtring diligently merges each instrument’s part together to create pieces that give the listener a unique blend of high-class style and homespun warmth.

Deeply dedicated to music, these artists have welcomed the challenge of playing and arranging this complicated genre.

“It’s the beauty of it, but also it has an interesting rhythm pattern which you don’t necessarily recognize in classical music that actually throws you off quite a bit,” says Firat, a soft-spoken man who opens up when talking about the fundamentals of this genre.  “It takes time to get used to it and learn it, but once you get to learn it, it actually opens a new set of doors for you to expand and you could actually come up with a lot of new ideas and put into it and advance it to some different level. That’s what actually excites me about it.”

“This is not easy to play. It requires a lot of skill, and you need to practice a lot to get it done,” López says. “It is pretty, it’s very pretty, but you are always looking for the challenge.”

In addition to personally growing as a result of playing, Xtring has used the music and their instruments to challenge Wisconsin communities to expand. The group hopes that by performing at festivals, music venues and schools, they can help people learn about the lesser-known aspects of Latino music and culture.

Musically, Xtring breaks the classic profile of a Latin band. For many people the idea of Colombian music brings to mind samba, cha-cha or meringue. Instead, Xtring’s traditional style gives audiences the opportunity to escape pop culture’s Latin dance music. People are often pleasantly surprised by the unexpected style. The members of Xtring also believe their music has the ability to bring different cultures closer together. When people listen to the music, Rueda says, they have the opportunity to connect with a new culture.

“Playing this music here in the States is like placing a seed in people’s minds,” López says of using their music educationally. “If there’s one of them in a class who remembers, we have gained.”

Yid Vicious

It began with a search for a euphonium. Looking to bring more klezmer music to the Midwest, Bob Jacobson, one of the original band members, traveled to thrift shops in 1995 to find the tenor-voiced brass instrument. There a guitar player and the klezmer band Yid Vicious were born.

Yid Vicious plays klezmer music, a traditional celebratory Jewish folk music that originated in Eastern Europe. Beginning mostly with string instruments such as the fiddle and guitar, the genre transformed as musicians were introduced to military brass instruments and American jazz following the immigration wave of the 1920s. Staying quietly in the Jewish community for decades, klezmer surfaced in the 1970s with the revival of folk music. The resurgence, however, was slow to reach the Midwest.

“At one point we could call ourselves ‘Wisconsin’s Premiere Klezmer Group’ because we were the only one,” the band’s ponytailed clarinet and bass clarinet player Greg Smith says.

Although only two of the original members remain, Appleby and Daithi Wolfe, Yid Vicious now stands seven members strong.

The band uses a variety of instruments including vocals, clarinets, saxophones, a fiddle, a French horn, a guitar, an accordion, a tuba and a drum and a theremin, an electronic instrument invented in 1919. This kind of variation, the band says, makes it more intriguing to audiences.

“At some festivals, every act has acoustic guitar, banjo and fiddles,” Kia Karlen, the French horn player, says. “We get up, and we have saxophones and tubas.”

Along with the instrumental variation, Yid Vicious’ unique sound adds to their appeal. The band combines traditional klezmer music from Eastern Europe with its own contemporary spin to create a lively and dramatic folk nature. For Smith, it’s a music anyone can listen to and find interesting.

“I play a lot of regular jazz music, and that’s up in the head,” Smith says. “And to me, klezmer music is the heart.”

The distinctive sounds, assorted instrumentation and danceable nature of bands like Yid Vicious have helped the klezmer culture grow in Wisconsin. Cities like Madison and Milwaukee host a couple klezmer bands, and they are often featured at state jazz and folk festivals.

By Hannah Shepard

Listen: Birkie Fever

“Birkie Fever,” by Kris Hennum and the Off the Wall Band, reflects the fun-loving sentiment that so many participants feel every cold Birkie morning:

“You wonder if the pleasure

is worth all of the pain.

Only sorry that this race

is run but one once a year,

Thank the lord for snow,

now I got to go

Last one in buys the beer.”

Listen: Birkie Rag

“Birkebeiner Rag” was written by Eric Schubring, WOJB local Morning Edition host.  The song lyrics follow the race, and references several landmarks that can be seen on the map above, including Firetower Hill and Lake Hayward.

By Katie Teresi