Tradition You Can Dance To: Balkan Beat Box and "Shushan"

Today's random tune is by Balkan Beat Box, founded in 2003 by Tamir Muskat and Ori Kaplan in New York City. An Israeli band, their goal is to take ancient and traditional music and combine it with hip hop to create a more modern sound that would appeal to people in dancehalls and clubs. They cite as influences Boban Marković, Rachid Taha, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Manu Chao, and Charlie Parker. This song, Shushan featuring Shushan, is from their 2005 eponymous debut release.

Doing the Dance: George Acosta and "Someone"

George Acosta brings the dance to the random tune today. A Cuban DJ and producer who was raised in Miami, he has been described a force in the genre of dance music. He began as a DJ spinning tunes at high school dances, house parties and the like but then a trip to Germany changed his perspective. He started working in dance music and produced Planet Soul, which had a major hit called Set You Free. He gradually began changing his focus into progressive house music in the 2000's. He continues to produce and create, and has started his own label called AcoMusic. This song, Someone, can be found on his album of the same name.

At the Big Dance: Nakoda Nation Tribal Drummers and Singers Accompanying Women's Fancy Dance Competition

Today's random song of the day is a treat! From the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2010, drummers and singers from the Nakoda Nation of Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Colombia and Montana accompany the Womens Fancy dance competition. The song can be found on the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow: A Spirit's Dance (2015).

Dances: Mexican Institute of Sound and "La Kebradita"

"Come on baby, let's do The Twist." One of the first songs I think I remember in my life was The Twist. As I did a little reflecting on today's random song, which is named after a dance called La Quebradita, I started tallying up some songs in my head. I was amazed at how many I could think of that were named after dances. The Twist, obviously but then there were others. I can remember the Loco-Motion, the Hustle, the Electric Slide, the Boot Scootin' Boogie, the Watusi, the Time Warp, and the Macarena, to name a few. There are a lot. Just listen to the song The Land of 1000 Dances and you can hear Wilson Pickett go through a whole list of them. It seems like we like to sing about dancing and styles of dances almost as much as we like to sing about love, or women.

And what is La Quebradita? It is a dance that requires a lot of strength to perform. It's name refers to a "little break," in which the male partner lowers his female partner almost to the floor and then jerks her back up. However, there is a lot more going on there. The dance is very fast, and the examples I've seen make it look like the male partner whips the female partner around on her feet, with lots of acrobatics such as throwing her in the air and catching her. Sometimes she is thrown into spins, sometimes into flips. It's not an old person's dance by any means.

In La Kebradita, the Mexican Institute of Sound slows the beat down a bit. The Mexican Institute of Sound is Mexico City-based producer and DJ Camilo Lara's electronic music project. Fusing Mexican folk music with modern sounds, MIS is part of a growing movement in Mexican music. Lara started with mixing music for holiday mix tapes, and after getting enthusiastic receptions for his creations, began making musical collages under the moniker Mexican Institute of Sound while relying on samples of Mexican classical music. He has released four albums, with a fifth due next year. La Kebradita is from his 2007 CD Piñata.

A Nice Vintage: Ian Oliver feat. Eastenders and "Vino Vino (Lukas Lehrmann remix)"

I love wine...but I can't drink much of it. Well, let me restate that. It's not that I can't, it's that I shouldn't.

That's tough for a native Northern Californian who grew up just north of wine country and who therefore has had ample reason to enjoy a few vintages in his lifetime. But there it is. The problem is not the wine. The problem is that my body has more than two glasses of wine, and then decides it's time to go to sleep. A third glass, especially on a warm afternoon, will put me to complete sleep. This is a problem if I'm at a party. I can ameliorate the effect by sipping the wine but even that works its toll sooner or later.

But here's the thing about wine for me that doesn't work with any other libation: wine (especially red wine) is the only alcoholic drink where at some point I go from completely sober to that delicate balance of feeling completely at peace and good with the world for a few minutes to a half hour. The problem is that either I don't drink anymore and the feeling goes away, or I drink another one and tip the balance into sleepy time. That being written, it's that peaceful feeling I crave. A good glass of wine with friends in a relaxed atmosphere is the perfect tonic for pretty much everything. A glass of wine on my front porch as the late afternoon sun provides its gentle warmth is an experience I can have over and over again. It's a good thing that I can always revisit that feeling for the rest of the time I'm on this earth. And occasionally, I know that I will end up sleeping away the rest of the evening on a bed because of one glass beyond that perfect balance.

One doesn't necessarily associate the Balkans with fine wine, though recent reports indicate that it's star is rising in the world of appellations, but in terms of vintage brass instrumentation and accordion the Balkans are about as exciting as it gets. And one of the amazing things that has happened has been a cross of the old with the new, almost like a blending of traditional grapes with some new hybrids to create something completely new. In the past decade or so Balkan brass and accordion has become more popular, and with it experimentation in turning these tunes into danceable club music. And to my surprise (though perhaps not the surprise of people who have listened to this music for a while) it works marvelously. There is something about Balkan brass and accordion being sampled and looped, augmented by electronica, and put to a beat that never fails to get the body moving.

To that end, Vino Vino (Lukas Lehrmann remix) is a remix of a Balkan dance tune by Ian Oliver featuring Eastenders, which in itself uses a lot of sampling. Unfortunately, I can't find much information about Ian Oliver or Eastenders (please feel free to comment and provide some information), but this remix is infectious and makes you want to dance! You can find Vino Vino (Lukas Lehrmann remix) on the compilation CD The Balkan Club Night #2, Disc 2 (2011) Enjoy! I've also included the original, below, with the official video so you can compare it with the remix.

Dancing Fool: Liana and "Estrela da Tarde"

Way back in 1995, my bride was embarrassed. It was our wedding night in Milwaukee, it was our wedding dance, and we didn't know how to dance. We faked it. Shuffle shuffle shuffle, kind of like two junior high school kids draped on one another like leaning trees. Megan declared at that time that we would learn to how to dance.

Fast forward a few months. We have moved to Texas, and Megan came home from work and told me that she'd enrolled us in ballroom dancing lessons. No discussion. We went to the classes, where a nice couple told us that they would teach us foxtrot, box step, waltz, two-step, swing, and even a little tango. I learned that I didn't have two left feet, could do the steps, and even look reasonably good doing them. Megan had to learn not to lead me, but to let me lead.

The hardest one was the tango. We only had time to learn a few moves, and I've since forgotten them. Those I didn't feel like I was very good at doing. I've spoken to my co-worker Adam, who has taken tango lessons and attended tango dances on a weekly basis. He assured me that it takes a LONG time to learn tango, and that at the dances, it is difficult to get practice because the good tango dancers don't want to dance with the beginners, and therefore the beginners are stuck trying to teach each other, like the blind leading the blind. I can still tear up the floor on a swing dance, though I'd like to learn some more moves, and I enjoy waltzing also. In fact, I try to tell all of my younger, single guy friends that if they want to have more dates than they know what to do with, they should learn how to dance, but they don't believe me. That's fine...I don't mind being the rooster in the henhouse that all the hens admire!

Today's song, Estrela da Tarde (Evening Star) is an interesting hybrid between a fado and a tango. You may remember the fado from past posts as being a melancholy song about longing for the sea or about those who are poor. Fado has a particular structure and therefore resembles tango in that way, which also has a particular structure. Both tango and fado can be associated with the underclass, in the case of the longing of fado for the simplicity of the poor life and in tango, the rise of the music and dance from the poorest sections of society, into organized crime, and finally into its association with sexual sophistication.

The person who sings Estrela da Tarde goes by the name of Liana, a young and rising singer in Portugal who started singing fado professionally at age 9 and has won 11 first prizes in fado competitions. In 2004 she released her first professional album, Fado.pt and followed it up in 2005 with her second, Sombra, in 2005. In 2007, she teamed up with Reem Kelani in a concert titled From Palestine to Portugal where she sang in Portuguese and Arabic. Not only a singer, she is also an award winning stage actress. She sponsors a child in Mozambique, is an animal rights activist and vegetarian and volunteers with the elderly in Lisbon. She currently has released five albums. Estrela da Tarde blends the very similar elements of fado and tango with electronica into a song of longing:

My love, my love

my evening star

The moon is rising and my body is waiting for you

My love

I am not certain

if you are my joy or my sorrow

Estrela da Tarde can be found on Liana's 2004 release Fado.pt, and is included on Putumayo Presents: Tango Around the World (2007). This video is from her appearance on a Portuguese television show.