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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 27, 2000)
Thursday July20,2000 Volume 102, Issue 11 Emerald Tarika drops tropical sounds at WOW Hall By Tonya Alanez Oregon Daily Emerald Local guitar soloist Paul Prince will kick-off an evening of international sounds tonight at the WOW Hall. Tarika, a quintet from Madagascar, headlines the show. Prince recalls recently tuning into KLCC’s “Tropical Beat” — a Friday evening program maturing world music — while driving his car. A song came on the air with a compelling and distinct sound which tempted Prince to call the station and ask who it was. It was Tari ka. “It stood out in the set,” Prince said. Specifi cally the arrange ment, the melodies and “the overall high level of interac tion among the musi cians,” Prince first en countered Tarika at the 1998 Seattle area WOMAD Festival where he was performing with “the Lion of Zimbab we” Thomas Mapfumo. He de scribes Tarika s sound as “a ' unique blend of influences: African, Polynesian, Filipino and more. It’s very unique and bright. It has a lot of depth to it.” The band plays primarily original mu sic written and arranged by lead singer and songwriter Hanitra (interestingly pro nounced Ansch) Rasoanaivo. She sings, dances and plays percussion along with her sister Noro. In addition to guitar and bass, the group’s unique sound is support ed by a variety of tra and jejy voatavo (gour dulcimer). “I write songs that are in my head,” Ra soanaivo said. “It may depend on all dif ferent inspirations, cir c u m s t a n c e s itei.:..... and sit traditions, ceremonies, gender questions, women’s roles, etc. I talk about quite a lot.” The band’s latest CD entitled “D,” stands for dihy, which simply means dance in the Malagasy language. An ap propriate title considering this CD “is a compilation of all different sorts of dance music from Madaeascar.” where everv one of the island’s 18 tribes has its own unique style of dance. Rasoanaivo objects to the notion of Madagascar mu sic and culture resulting from outside influ ences. “Madagascar is one country that doesn’t have outside influ ences,” Ra soanaivo said, stating that her island home is completely cut off from the rest of the world. And al though the first settlers, some 2,000 years ago, were from Southeast Asia and Indone sia, soon joined by Arab traders, Indian traders and African slaves, she believes that the culture has developed more as a transformation and an amalgamation. “The word ‘influenre’ annnvs Mala easv instru ments including the marovany (box zither), valiha (bamboo zither), kabosy (small Malagasy guitar) hard I write about. There are mil lions of messages in my music: everyday life, people’s attitudes towards situations, me,” she said. “To me, when you have been influenced you had something and somebody else’s thing has covered your thing, i.e. person, identities, cultures, tra ditions, etc. We all evolve, things develop. “It’s almost like a parallel life, rather than one is dead and the other lives, and that is why I don’t like the word influ Turn toTarika, page 10 ‘Schoolhouse’ performance makes fun of learning ■The live revival of the animated lessons is a hit with the youngsters at the Mad Duckling Theatre By Rebecca Newell Oregon Daily Emerald Saturday morning cartoon watching children of the 1970s and 1980s are familiar with the educational classic, “School house Rock,” which would air be tween cartoons. And now, Mad Duckling Theatre is bringing the tradition back to the current gen eration of youngsters. “Schoolhouse Rock Live” sets the scene with a young teacher on the morning of her first day of school. Her imagination is per sonified into five parts of her per sonality — romantic,' goofy, sweet, cool and mature — which emerge to give her some pointers to make it through the day. “Schoolhouse Rock Live” is the second of two interactive musical comedies aimed at children and families to be performed this summer by the University’s Mad Duckling Theatre. The show opened Tuesday and will contin ue through Saturday, and then play again August 1-5. Shows take place at the amphitheater outside Robinson Theatre. The performance is created in a manner most appealing to chil dren, complete with singing, dancing and audience interac tion. The play is not only fun to watch, it’s fun to perform, actor Lindy Anderson said. “There is always something go ing on — dancing, singing, a lot of eye candy,” she said. Besides the “eye candy,” the play teaches ba sic elements of grammar and arithmetic. The catchy musical — based on the “Schoolhouse Rock” ani mated shorts broadcast on ABC from 1973 to 1985 — was written by the original cast members of tbe Emmy Award-winning series. "We wanted something high energy. This has a great revival Turn to Schoolhouse, page 10 Azle Malinao-Alvarez Emerald The cast of “Schoolhouse Rock” comes alive with a lesson on grammar, (from left to right) Sarah Tumquist, Giovanni Bliss, Jo celyn Fultz, Amanda Dumler, Jon Sharpy, Lindy Anderson.
