BY BRETT CAMPBELL
E Muzeki plays Cozmic Pizza
Friday, July 30.
Eastern Sounds
Local venues host music from India,
Indonesia, the Balkans and more.
G
lobalization has its disadvantages,
but one upside is how it’s made it
possible for Westerners to study and
perform the music of Asia and other lands.
Take, for example, E Muzeki, playing Greek,
gypsy, flamenco, Celtic and other music and
hails from the exotic land of … Texas.
Employing bouzouki, fiddle, guitars, penny-
whistle and more, E Muzeki engagingly
crosses musical boundaries. They’re playing
at Cozmic Pizza on Friday, July 30.
— the violin masters the Mysore brothers,
with dummer Poovaluv Srinivasan (who’s ap-
peared with Bela Fleck, Yehudi Menuhin and
other great Western musicians). They’ll be
performing music in the South Indian classical
tradition, which emphasizes virtuosic improv-
isation and rhythmic intricacy. And on Friday,
July 30, the school hosts some local Indian
music players, Jaya Lakshmi on harmonium
and vocals, Deva Priyo on sarod and gypsy
guitar, and sharanam on tamboura. For fans of
T h er e’ s n o th i ng l i ke h ea r in g wo r l d m us ic
p l ay e d b y p e r fo r m er s bo r n t o t h e t ra d i ti on .
©2004 Pabst Brewing Company
THE ANXIETIES
Old school punk rock is the name of the game when The Anxieties
take the stage. This Eugene four-piece band takes its influences
from the first wave of British punk and the heyday of the California
punk scene. Keep one eye open for a 3-song vinyl single slated to
be out before summer's end.
If you're into songs about neurosis and dysfunction in relationships
and society then make plans to catch The Anxieties this Saturday
night. Check out Eugene Weekly’s clubs page for show information.
22 JULY 22, 2004
Eugene also boasts a number of groups
who study and perform music of ancient cul-
tures, and two of the most prominent are play-
ing at Café Paradiso this month. On Thursday,
July 22, Gamelan Sari Pandhawa performs
classical and contemporary music of Java on
bronze instruments hand-crafted in Indonesia.
Although most of the instruments in the game-
lan (orchestra) consist of gongs and other per-
cussion, most of the music is gentle, flowing,
and melodic. The group also uses fiddle, bam-
boo flute, voices, and more to weave a tapestry
of interlocking melodies, often used to accom-
pany dance and shadow puppetry. On July 30,
Paradiso brings the local Middle Eastern band
Americanistan, featuring Mediterranean
music played on zither, harmonium, flute,
bagpipes, harp and drums. And on July 31, the
club hosts local gypsy swingers the Café
Ramblers, whose repertoire ranges from the
Grappelli/ Renhardt hot jazz of 1930s Paris to
Western swing, blues and even tangos.
It’s great to hear Americans mastering
music of other cultures, but there’s nothing
like hearing world music played by perform-
ers born to the tradition. For the past few years,
Rhythm & Bliss productions has been bring-
ing intimate concerts by fine musicians from
India at the Far Horizons School at 2490
Hilyard, a space that permits relaxed concen-
tration on some of the most meditative and so-
phisticated music on earth. On Sunday, August
1, the school hosts a father and son team of
sitar masters, Shivnath and Deobrat Mishra,
from Varanasi, an ancient center of traditional
music and Hindu culture. Accompanied by
tabla and tamboura, they’ll perform evocative
classical North Indian ragas. The Mishras
have won many awards, including the Indian
equivalent of a Grammy, and are setting up a
music academy to teach children of all castes
and incomes. On Thursday, August 12, Far
Horizons will host another quite different
though similarly acclaimed Indian family duo
this ceaselessly melodic, deeply emotional
music (and for newbies), Far Horizons sounds
like a sympathetic venue — you can sit in
chairs or on the floor — bring a pillow or blan-
ket — not so separated from the musicians as
in a typical American concert setting.
It’s also great to hear some homegrown
music, and Sam Bond’s Garage is probably the
best place in town to find it. On Friday, July
23, the club hosts one of this town’s finest-
ever singer/songwriters, Mare Wakefield,
back for the summer from music school in
Boston. On July 24th, Sam Bond’s holds its
anniversary show with Ty Connor,
Cabinessence, Manishevitz, Los Mex Pistoles,
and more. And on July 31, it hosts one of the
best bands in Oregon, the Sugar Beets.
I’m still basking in the glow of some ex-
cellent classical music concerts at the Oregon
Bach Festival, especially some excellent new
music from up and coming young composers
at the biennial Composers Symposium. All
were well crafted and worth hearing, but I was
especially struck by three pieces by women
composers. Eugene resident Rebecca
Oswald’s “L’anniversaire” (inspired by a
Chagall painting) moved easily from lively to
wistful, while Carol Barnett’s string quartet
were energized by the Yiddish waltzes and
Hasidic songs. Most distinctive was Seung-Ah
Oh’s daringly simplistic “Two Moons” for
amplified violin and cello, an arrestingly aus-
tere setting of two old Korean songs. A couple
of otherwise impressive pieces based on com-
poser-in-residence George Crumb’s own
music couldn’t help but sound more conven-
tional than their models, but I was so enam-
ored by the humor and wit of Greg
Bartholomew’s “String Trio” that in that case,
I didn’t mind. Altogether, this was the
strongest slate of music in any of the
Composers Symposia I’ve attended; I just
wish it could occupy a better time slot — and
ew
happen every year.