On Saturday, November 24th, Huun-Huur-Tu, throat singers from Tuva in Central Asia, will perform at Symphony Space with Hazmat Modine, a pan-ethnic roots and blues band from New York City.
Huun-Huur-Tu has emerged as the foremost international representative of Tuva’s remarkable musical culture.
Hazmat Modine draws from the rich soil of American music blending elements of early Blues, Hokum Jugband, Swing, Klezmer, New Orleans R & B, and Jamaican Rocksteady.
Bandleaders Sayan Bapa (HHT) and Wade Schuman (HM) have been friends and occasional collaborators for the past fifteen years. They share an esthetic vision, which has led both of them to incorporate the most eclectic musical borrowings to their own work – yet both have remained true to the spirit of the traditions they emulate. The result, in both cases, is music bold enough to sound new and exciting, with roots old enough to have immediate and universal appeal.
For this historic evening Huun-Huur-Tu and Hazmat Modine will perform individual sets and then will perform together for the very first time in a live setting.
Huun-Huur-Tu is the foremost representative of Tuvan music and did much to popularize the ‘throat singing’ style of xoomei, in which the vocalist produces two or three notes simultaneously. Tuvans have a long tradition of imitating and re-interpreting the sounds of the natural world through throat singing, whistling, and other vocal techniques.
Huun Huur Tu have collaborated with artists from all over the world, including Frank Zappa, The Chieftans, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, The Kronos Quartet and L. Shankar as well as Ry Cooder’s soundtrack to the film Geronimo. Their sound has been called “peculiar, haunting, and hypnotic”, and their songs “jawdropping.”
Hazmat Modine plays the kind of blues that could have only evolved in New York City: a clash of rhythms and instruments that reflects the constantly evolving and stimulating collective that is American culture. The band is driven by a pair of harmonicas, backed by tuba, guitars, trumpet and sax and, at any given time, can incorporate the Sheng (ancient Chinese mouth organ), the Claviola (cross between a wind instrument and an accordion), the Cymbalom, the bassoon or the Zampoña (South American panpipe). Hazmat Modine‘s critically acclaimed CD Bahamut featured three songs in collaboration with Huun-Huur-Tu.
Saturday, November 24 at 8pm
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre @ Symphony Space
2537 Broadway @ 95th Street
NY, NY
212-864-54000
www.SymphonySpace.org
Tickets $30/advance and $35/day of concert
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central