Larry Bland and the Volunteer Choir
Gospel choir
Richmond, Virginia
Larry Bland and the Volunteer Choir, based at the Second Baptist Church, are a Richmond institution. In a region rich in gospel tradition, this remarkable ensemble has forged a unique position over the 40 years of its existence. Recognized as a trailblazer in gospel music presentation, Bland has combined elegant and powerful renditions of traditional gospel songs with costuming and precision choreography to create the “show choir,” an innovation that has brought him national recognition.
In addition to performing at local, regional and national gospel shows, Larry Bland and the Volunteer Choir have performed with the Richmond Symphony and the Richmond Opera Company in their productions and have assisted in fundraising for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the March of Dimes Campaign. The ensemble performed at Chuck Robb’s inauguration and for the Queen of England in 2007 as part of Virginia’s Royal Welcome. While they have deep roots in the Richmond community, Larry Bland and the Volunteer Choir have also toured extensively throughout the United States appearing at venues ranging from the late Reverend James Cleveland’s Gospel Convention in California to Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia, and Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
The Cellicion Traditional Zuni Singers
Zuni flute, song and dance
Zuni, New Mexico
Ancestors of the Puebloan peoples came to the Southwest at least 12,000 years ago. Over time, they developed distinctive cultures. They were called Pueblo (literally "village") Indians by the early Spanish explorers because of their distinctive architecture. The Pueblo Indians did not constitute a tribe; each Puebloan culture was a village that functioned as an autonomous political entity. Among these were the Zuni.
Corncobs found at village sites tell that the people who lived at Zuni were agriculturists 5,000 years ago. They built multi-storied urban dwellings of stone and masonry and had developed complex irrigation systems and practiced crop rotation. They were hunters who sometimes ranged hundreds of miles from their villages to hunt bison. Today's Zuni now live where they have always lived, in the region along the Zuni River near the border of New Mexico and Arizona. The present-day pueblo of Zuni has been occupied for at least 600 years. The Zuni have long been noted for their work as weavers, potters and jewelers.
The Zuni have always believed that personal fulfillment is reached through family unity and communal happiness. There has been no place in their society for "kings" or "nobles" or powerful priests. Their social goals, distilled from centuries of living in a harsh environment, stress the seeking of harmony with nature, members of their own village and other people. Zuni culture stresses restraint, not aggression. For four and a half centuries, these sturdy, spiritual people have gently and successfully resisted Spanish colonizers, Roman Catholic priests, raiding Apache Indians and Protestant Christian missionaries. In the present century they have maintained the core of their ways despite being surrounded by a modern, dynamic mass culture.
Fernando Cellicion of Zuni, New Mexico, is one of a wave of musicians who have participated in the pan-tribal revitalization of the native flute once found throughout the Americas. He became interested in the instrument as a child and devoted himself to it. His recordings of solo traditional and original compositions have been critically acclaimed. In addition, he is an accomplished traditional singer who learned much of his repertoire from his father, Roger Cellicion, a highly respected cultural leader at Zuni. Fernando leads the Cellicion Traditional Zuni Singers who perform with drums, rattles and voice, presenting such traditional dances as "The Eagle Dance." All members of the group are related by blood, marriage or clan. Joining Fernando at the festival are Florentine Johnson, Ray Dean Johnson, Al Dean Nastasio, Kalela Laney and Xyla Johnson. This group offers an arresting glimpse of the song and dance traditions of one of the most artistic people of the Americas.
Fernando and his group have performed widely in the U.S. and around the world. They are favorites at the Smithsonian, having appeared several times in the Festival of American Folklife, and have performed at Wolf Trap, the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center.
James Cheechoo
Cree fiddling
Moose Factory, Ontario, Canada
Cree fiddler James Cheechoo is from the James Bay region of northern Canada. He is a member of the Moose Cree First Nation, a Native reserve community located on the old island settlement of Moose Factory, Ontario. One of the oldest settlements in Ontario, Moose Factory dates back to the 1670s when it was established as a major fur trade outpost for the Hudson's Bay Company. The island is situated on the Moose River near the south shore of James Bay on the southern end of Hudson Bay.
From the late 1600s to the early 20th century, James Bay was a destination point for Hudson Bay Company ships. With the ships came the Irish and Scots and their fiddle music. Fur trade outposts evolved into more permanent settlements; European men stayed and married Cree women. The fiddle gradually became accepted as a part of community life on the Bay, and according to Cree tradition, in this way spread among the Cree people.
James is a self-taught fiddler, and one of the few remaining traditional James Bay Cree fiddlers, with a repertoire of traditional tunes that echoes an earlier time when the Cree and European cultures had merged upon a common social ground in various James Bay settlements during the fur trade era. The youngest of seven children, James grew up hearing his father and older siblings playing the fiddle and the old tunes at home, and took up the instrument at age 12. A two-sided handmade skin drum that was placed on the lap and played with two sticks traditionally accompanied tunes. There were special tunes for each square dance, step dance and jigging form. During the long hours of daylight in summer, community dances would go all night with three or four fiddlers taking turns.
In the 1950s the phonograph introduced more modern fiddle tunes from points south. The guitar replaced the skin drum, and the dances changed The old tunes quickly fell out of favor. Now at the age of 68, James has retired from his trade as a carpenter, but his passion for traditional Cree fiddle music continues, and he hopes to raise awareness of its place in the history of the James Bay Cree. James will be joined by his wife Daisy on spoons and son Lawrence on hand drum.
E.U.
Go-go
Washington, D.C.
For nearly 40 years, the dominant dance beat of our nation’s capital has been a heavily syncopated, percussive music called “go-go.” Go-go is a blend of Latin beats, call-and-response chants, rhythm and blues, and jazz layered over a signature pattern of syncopated quarter and eighth note rhythms laid down on snare, kick drum and high hat cymbals A regional offshoot of funk pioneered in the early ‘70s by Chuck Brown, go-go has over the years developed its own distinctive sound, dance moves, and traditions Best enjoyed live, it has thrived around marathon performances, bootlegged recordings of live sets, and the almost rabid obsession of local fans Over several hours on stage in a crowded dance club the beat never stops, and the interaction between the band and the audience is an integral part of the go-go experience. Today, the go-go music scene in D.C. and the region remains vibrant, with live shows taking place most nights of the week
For a short period in the mid and late 80s, go-go appeared poised to take over the world At the head of the pack of bands getting national attention was E.U Along with Chuck Brown, Trouble Funk, and Rare Essence, it is one of the original Washington D.C. go-go bands Its members all attended Ballou High School in the 1970s, and there formed a band they originally named “Experience Unlimited” – “Experience” a nod to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and “Unlimited” to indicate no limit to the range of the group’s music. Fronted by founding member Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliott, E.U. quickly gained a regional following for its energetic, groove-oriented live shows with William "Ju Ju" House’s drums, Ivan Goff’s keyboards, and Elliott's funky bass, go-go chants, and exuberant stage personality.
The band got its big break in 1986 when it was booked to play a party celebrating the release of Spike Lee's debut film, She's Gotta Have It. Lee liked what he heard, and tapped E.U. to perform a song in his next movie, School Daze. "Da Butt" became a dance sensation and made #1 on Billboard's R&B chart (#35 Pop) and scored a Grammy nomination The group followed up with hits like “Buck Wild” and “Taste of Your Love,” recorded with Salt & Papa (“Shake Your Thang”) and with rap innovator Kurtis Blow (“Party Time”).
But the band’s real strength was never captured on vinyl. What earned E.U. a large and devoted following were its energetic, groove-oriented live shows, not its records. As the fickle national market moved on to the next trend, E.U. and the other go-go groups refocused their energy locally Today E.U., with Sugar Bear front and center, still packs dance floors up and down the Eastern Seaboard behind its relentless groove The group is currently in the studio recording a new CD.
Grupo Cimarrón
joropo music
Colombia
Los Llanos, the broad plains of eastern Colombia watered by the Orinoco River and its tributaries, are home to música llanera (literally, “plains music”), the engaging musical traditions created by ranching people with a love for cattle, horses, music and dance At the heart of this region’s music is joropo, a hard-driving music that brilliantly showcases the percussive capabilities of stringed instruments and the musician’s ability to improvise. With its unerring rhythms, incredible improvisations and strong spirit Grupo Cimarrón is one of Colombia’s finest joropo ensembles. The group’s appearance at the first Richmond Folk Festival offers a rare opportunity for American audiences to experience this passionate South American music.
The main instrument of llanera music is perhaps an unexpected one – the harp. Introduced to South America in the 18th century by the Spanish, in the hands of the llanero, or plains cowboy, the harp became a percussive dynamo that serves as the backbone of música llanera Joropo ensembles are generally comprised of the harp, the bandola llanera (a four-stringed pear-shaped guitar), the small four-stringed cuatro, contrabajo (acoustic bass), rounded out by maracas (gourd rattles) and vocals.
Joropo music features both slower, more lyrical songs called pasajes as well as faster tunes called golpes The hallmarks of the traditional joropo singer are a powerful voice that can handle the fast, hard-edged vocal style and the ability to improvise the lyrics. Joropo singers have traditionally been male, but Grupo Cimarrón takes a more contemporary approach with the inclusion of a female singer who can hold her own with the best.
As rural llaneros and musicians have migrated to cities for economic opportunities, the music of the plains has gained prominence in Colombia and is now a part of the commercial music industry and festivals Música llanera has become an expression a regional pride
The director of Grupo Cimarrón is harpist, arranger, composer and scholar Carlos Rojas who founded the ensemble to bring a professional and authentic representation of música llanera to the public The group features Hugo Molina (bandola llanera), Libardo Rey (cuatro), Carlos López (bass), Jhon Onofre (vocals and percussion) Ana Veydó (vocals and dance), Leonardo Mesa (percussion, vocals and dance), and Gustavo Vásquez (percussion and dance).
Grupo Cimarrón’s CD entitled Si, Soy Llanero on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings was nominated for a 2005 Grammy for Best Traditional World Music Album.
Mark Halata and Texavia
Texas-Czech polka
Webster and Austin, Texas
Polka is one of the musics Texans play best, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise given the strong Eastern and Central European heritage of many of the state’s residents. Whether it’s a Tex-Mex conjunto or a western swing band, polka is a mainstay in the repertoire. A young exponent of one of the more rare varieties of Texas polka music is Mark Halata with his group Texavia. Its Czech-Moravian style mixes traditional Czech tunes with roots country and rock to produce traditional polkas and waltzes with a rousing zest that brings them into a new century.
Polish, German, Slovak, Czech and Hungarian immigrants to eastern and central Texas during the late-19th century brought their native languages, music and dance traditions and instruments with them. Polkas, waltzes and obereks blended with older reels and quadrilles already popular with Texans. The introduction of the accordion opened up new possibilities and generated the creation of new hybrid musical forms.
Growing up in Pasadena, Texas, a “little Czech bubble,” bandleader Mark Halata began playing the accordion at age five. He took a handful of basic lessons, but really learned to play by following along with the Czech polkas his father listened to. "My dad didn't play but he always had Czech music on, so that's what I played." Regular trips to visit relatives in the Czech community of Moravia, Texas further developed his love of Czech polka and the accordion. It was not a mainstream sort of passion, and being Texas State Accordion Champion at 13 didn’t really do much for his popularity at school His musical horizons expanded in the 80s when (at first a bit stunned to discover that there were other styles of accordion music) he saw zydeco great Clifton Chenier play rock and roll on the accordion
Joined by Mark Rubin on tuba, Jeff Brosch on drums and Bruce Brosch on guitar,
Mark and Texavia play for dances, festivals and community celebrations in the Houston area. All are versatile musicians adept at playing country, rock, and zydeco as well as the traditional Czech-Moravian polkas and obereks. The group’s repertoire is broad and diverse, catering to the tastes of Texas’ many dancers. Their latest CD is entitled Amerika, which features both Czech tunes as well as a tinge of zydeco.
Harmonia
Eastern European
Cleveland, Ohio
In the heart of America, the music and culture of Eastern Europe is resurgent – in Cleveland. It’s a city that, until recently, had the largest population of Hungarian people outside of Budapest, a city with more Slovenians than any other city in the world. Political and economic woes in the latter 19th century created the first wave of immigration from Eastern Europe. A century later, the same sorts of problems have brought Croats, Serbs, Carpatho-Rusyns, Ukrainians and Slovaks in a second wave of major immigration to this industrial Ohio city. Now, these two generations are creating an exciting music that reflects their unique experiences in the American heartland. The finest expression of Cleveland’s thriving Eastern European traditional musical scene is the virtuosic seven-piece ensemble Harmonia, a multi-cultural group of master musicians from several countries that performs the virtuosic and passionate traditional music of Eastern Europe.
There’s a great richness of musical forms in this region between the Carpathian Mountains and the Danube and in the Balkan region, such as the csardas, halgato, kolomyjka, doina, hora, and invirtita, and Harmonia’s repertoire reflects the cultures of this region: Hungarian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Romanian, and Rom, among others. Performing on traditional instruments, and styled after turn-of-the-century East-European gypsy bandas, Harmonia’s music is drawn from both the urban and rural traditions of Eastern Europe. The ensemble’s emotive performances combine the technical brilliance, soulful melancholy and nostalgic yearning that characterize the music of the region.
The multi-cultural members of Harmonia are from several countries and varied East European backgrounds, but in Harmonia find a common musical language. While firmly grounded in tradition, they are building something new upon this foundation, composing and performing their own material as well as traditional material. Founder and accordionist Walt Mahovlich of Cleveland is of Croatian/Hungarian heritage and formed Harmonia in 1992. Others in the group represent the more recent generation. The brilliant cimbalom player Alexander Fedoriouk is from Kolomyia, Ukraine, in the Carpathian Mountains. Andrei Pidkivka, a virtuoso on the nai (pan flute), flute, sopilka, and other ethnic flutes, is also a native of Ukraine. Beata Begeniova, the group’s lead vocalist, was born in Medzilaborce, in eastern Slovakia. All enjoyed successful careers in their respective homelands prior to immigrating to the United States. The group’s newest members include Steven Greenman, who is one of the finest practitioners of Eastern European violin styles, and bassist Brano Brinarsky.
For both romance and exciting improvisation, be sure to catch one of Harmonia's dizzying performances at this year's Richmond Folk Festival.
The Itals
Roots reggae
Jamaica/ Washington, D.C.
In the patois of Jamaica’s Rastafarians, the word “ital” means pure, natural and unprocessed. These words also closely describe the sound and message of The Itals, one of the island’s finest roots reggae vocal groups Emerging from the island of Jamaica in the 1960s, reggae captivated the world with its musical calls for justice, freedom and equality, and messages of hope and redemption. For over 30 years, The Itals soulful harmonies and powerful lyrics have remained true to the spirit of this powerful music.
At the heart of the Itals is singer and songwriter Keith Porter. Porter grew up in Jamaica at a time when different musical and historical streams were converging to create what is now popularly known as reggae. The reggae beat, slow, deep and steady like the human heartbeat, has roots in the island’s indigenous folk percussion and the religious drumming known as nyahbingi. Mento, a Jamaican folk music closely related to Trinidadian calypso, also contributed to the development of reggae. Finally, reggae drew from two popular homegrown dance styles that preceded it, ska and rock steady, both influenced by American R&B and jump blues.
The development of reggae is intertwined with the history of Rastafarianism, a spiritual, social, and political movement that began to develop among the island’s poor during the 1930s. “Rastas,” as they came to be known, believed in the divine nature of Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, and helped to revitalize pan-African nationalism throughout Jamaica. In the increasingly volatile political climate of the 1960s, reggae music fused with Rasta consciousness and became an important musical outlet for expressing the hopes, fears and aspirations of the Jamaican people.
The Itals were formed in 1976 when Keith Porter and Ronnie Davis, two singers from the beautiful countryside of Jamaica's Westmoreland Parish, recorded the song “In A Dis Ya Time” for the Spiderman Label. There was no intention at that initial session to form a permanent group, and the original 45-rpm record was credited to “Keith and Ronnie.” The unexpected success of the single prompted the duo to stay together, re-releasing the hit single under the new moniker, “The Itals.” They added a third harmony singer (originally Lloyd Ricketts and since 1987, David Isaacs), solidifying their now classic three-part harmony sound, and quickly returned to the studio, cutting many successful singles. By the mid 1980s, the group had become major force in the reggae world, releasing numerous influential records on the Nighthawk label and touring internationally.
When Ronnie Davis left in 1995, lead singer Keith Porter and harmony singer Davis Isaacs carried on until 1997 when, joined by Keith's daughter, Susan Porter, the Itals became a trio once more. Today, the group continues as strong as ever. The Itals’ timeless message and sweet, soaring harmonies epitomize the enduring appeal of roots reggae at its best.
Though their musical careers have evolved in parallel for four decades, it’s only recently that Ledward Ka’apana and Mike Kaawa have joined forces to create one of the great collaborations in Hawaiian music. 
When these two of America’s leading young players of the acoustic guitar, flatpicker Robin Kessinger and finger-picker Todd Hallawell take the stage together, guitar aficionados will want to be in the front row. Their musical collaboration showcases not only each player’s technical brilliance, but also a crop of lovely original tunes performed in a musical dialogue of great taste, subtlety and charm. Robin, from St. Albans, West Virginia and Todd, originally from California and now living in the Richmond area, have different backgrounds yet are united by the common bond of dynamic and virtuosic musicianship.
Eighty-year-old Lee Sexton is one of the most respected and revered traditional musicians in eastern Kentucky A master of traditional banjo styles, both two-finger picking and "drop-thumb" (clawhammer), Sexton has lived his whole life near his birthplace in Letcher County, Kentucky Born in 1927, he grew up in an intensely musical family and community He worked for a week clearing a field to earn the dollar that bought him his first banjo, a homemade wooden fretless model with a groundhog skin head that he acquired when he was eight years old With instruction from his father and uncles (one of whom was the legendary banjo player Morgan Sexton, Sexton soon mastered the instrument, and the fiddle, as well He is also a powerful singer whose repertoire includes such classics as "Cumberland Gap" and "Little Birdie." As a young man he would work all week in the mines and then play music all weekend at house parties, bean stringings and corn shuckings.
Over the centuries, Irish music has proved marvelously adaptable and resilient, always finding new ways to appeal to the next generation. In the case of the brilliant young band Líadan, the fertile ground proved to be the University of Limerick Irish World Music Center, where six young women studying traditional music performance teamed up in 2004. Since that time Líadan’s mesmerizing singing and creative instrumental work have been captivating audiences throughout Ireland, Europe and America. 
Nadeem Dlaikan was born in Alai, Lebanon in 1941, and as a child began playing the nye, a reed flute often played by shepherds. It was in fact one night in a rural village, while accompanying his father on a business trip, that Dlaikan first heard the nye and fell under its spell. Although his family discouraged him from playing this instrument with humble, rural associations, he persisted and even found ways to make his own flutes out of locally grown reeds. Dlaikan began studying with Naim Bitar, the country's premiere flutist at the Lebanese Conservatory. Upon graduation Dlaikan moved to Beirut, and traveled frequently throughout the Middle East as part of Lebanon's best-known folk troupe. In 1969, a staff member at the U.S. Embassy heard him playing at a Fourth of July party and encouraged him to perform in the United States. Dlaikan first came to the U.S. as a back-up musician for Lebanese pop singer Samira Tawfik.
Sisters Karin and Kathy Kettler are Nukariik, a duo that carries on the rarely heard Inuit throat singing tradition and other age-old forms of Inuit entertainment such as drum dancing and a ja ja songs. A vocal game used to amuse children and women while men were out hunting, Inuit throat singing is an art practiced almost exclusively by women. Two singers stand or crouch facing each other and engage in a bit of friendly competition as one singer takes the lead and the other follows. During the vocal exchange, the voiced sounds and breath of each singer combine to form rhythmic melodies that imitate sounds from nature such as a mosquito or a river. The result is mesmerizing, as the singers playfully compete to see who will stop or laugh first.
Western Kentucky’s Muhlenberg County and its neighboring communities are recognized as being the birthplace of the complex guitar-playing style called “thumb picking.” This instrumental technique is based upon a women’s “parlor guitar” style that became an international fad during the late 19th century. It requires the thumb to keep a regular rolling rhythm while the fingers pick the lead melody. Princeton, Kentucky’s guitar playing county coroner Eddie Pennington is today’s leading proponent of this traditional technique.
Plena Libre is one of Puerto Rico’s powerhouse dance bands, whose music is rooted in the island’s traditional genres, bomba y plena. But with it’s inventive arrangements, sizzling horns, formidable rhythm section and frontline of lively singers, the band has expanded upon tradition to bring audiences a creative and sophisticated new sound.
For nearly 30 years, one of the great soul singers of the 1960s and early 70s was missing and presumed dead. Yet today Howard Tate is back to thrill a new generation with an undiminished artistry that solidifies his reputation as of one of the genre’s legendary practitioners. 
The Silicon Valley city of San Jose is home to one of the country’s oldest and largest Japanese American communities, and a dynamic, world-class ensemble, San Jose Taiko. Ranging in size from the handheld tsusuke to giant drums the size of a wine barrel, the thundering taiko drums embody the spiritual essence and heartbeat of Japan. They produce a breathtaking array of sounds and percussive melodies in a whirl of constant motion. Although grounded in the ancient Japanese art, taiko as performed by this ensemble is very much a Japanese American form that reflects the multi-cultural influences of its founders and members. Weaving traditional Japanese sounds with other world rhythms – African, Latin, Balinese, American rock and jazz, San Jose Taiko is in the vanguard of the taiko movement in the United States.
The traditional art of shadow puppetry, wayang kulit (why-young-coo-lit), dates back nearly 1,000 years on the island nation of Indonesia Shadow Masters called dalangs traveled from village to village, entertaining people with epic tales of love and war – a 10th century version of the soap opera They used intricately carved and painted flat rod puppets made of buffalo hide to play the parts of brave princes, evil brutes and willful heroines The puppets' shadows danced and fought across a cotton screen illuminated from behind by an oil-burning lamp Always accompanied by a gamelan orchestra and performed in temple yards or village squares, the average wayang play lasts from sunset to dawn without intermission. 
The “Flying Man” Sundance is surely the most spectacular dance created in the western hemisphere. Similar to many other Native American dances, it is a religious ritual and prayer as well as an intricate dance. The earliest description of it comes from Christopher Columbus. The great navigator reached the North American continent on his fourth voyage in 1502 and wrote of an amazing dance he saw at an Indian village in what is now southern Mexico.
Performed on the cane fife accompanied by bass and snare drums, the pre-blues African American fife and drum band is one of the most fascinating American musical traditions. It has its roots in colonial America and both the military and social history of our nation When NEA National Heritage Fellow Othar Turner, the oldest living fife and drum practitioner, died in 2003 at age 95, many believed that this tradition would vanish But today his legacy lives on with Othar’s 18-year-old granddaughter Sharde, who learned his songs, his fife–making craft and now leads his band Sharde Thomas and The Rising Star Fife and Drum infuse a centuries-old tradition with a new energy and youthful spirit.
A master of a variety of Latin dance styles, Eileen Torres will share her knowledge of salsa at this year’s Richmond Folk Festival. 
Young Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré ushers in the next generation of Malian blues. He is heir to the legacy of his celebrated father, Ali Farka Touré, whose explorations of the deep connections between the famously bluesy strains of northern Malian traditions and American blues made him an international superstar. Now Vieux is emerging as a brilliant guitarist, singer and songwriter in his own right. Incorporating elements of rock, funk, and reggae into the Saharan blues and traditional melodies of his native Mali, Vieux and his five-piece band are creating an electrifying new sound rooted in tradition. 
Dale Watson was born in, fed on, and raised with real country. He’s never had to go back for it, because he brought it with him all along. “This isn’t retro-minded,” Watson asserts frankly. “It’s hopefully a natural progression of what country music would have been if it hadn’t been polluted by the ‘80s and ‘90s.”