|
contents | jazz | |||||||||||||
| HONK! Festival with 13 Brass Bands The Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band presents the HONK! Festival featuring Revolutionary Snake Ensemble & Stick and Rag Village Orchestra (from MA); The Hungry March Band & Rude Mechanical Orchestra (from NYC); Brand New Orleans County Brass Band (from VT); What Cheer? Brigade (from RI); March Fourth Marching Band (from OR); Brass Liberation Orchestra (from CA); Environmental Encroachment & Black Bear Combo (from Chicago); The Carnival Band (from Vancouver); and the Leftist Marching Band (from NH) Saturday-Sunday, October 7-8, in and around Davis Square, Somerville. MA. The first-ever HONK! Festival is a Fall gathering of activist brass bands from across North America. Acoustic and mobile, these street bands all support the actions and aspirations of the progressive community, providing the soundtrack for peace rallies, social forums, relief benefits, community fundraisers and joyous reclamations of public space. All of these bands honk their horns — or beat their drums or wave their flags — for the same reasons motorists honk theirs: to arouse fellow travelers, to warn of danger, to celebrate special occasions, and to just plain have fun. Across the country and around the world, a new type of street band is emerging. Acoustic and mobile, borrowing repertoire and inspiration from a diverse set of folk music traditions — New Orleans second line brass bands, European Klezmer, Balkan and Gypsy music, Brazilian Afro Bloc and Frevo traditions, as well as the passion and spirit of Mardi Gras and Carnival - these "Honkers" all share a commitment to music as social action. The HONK! Festival in Davis Sq. is a stop-over where well-known roving bands, such as the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, March Fourth Marching Band, Brass Liberation Orchestra, and The Carnival Band, can join forces and share their sounds with such emerging groups as the What Cheer? Brigade, The Hungry March Band, Stick and Rag Village Orchestra, Rude Mechanical Orchestra, and the Brand New Orleans County Brass Band. For the first time ever, Honkers from across North America will unite for a weekend of camaraderie and righteous music. The HONK! Festival sets the stage for the emergence of a new musical force. The HONK! Symposium will discuss the "Philosophy of Honk, " including the background and implications of street music as activist community performance, and will bring Honkers from across the continent together with significant Boston-area musicians. The Symposium panel will include Marcos Amaya-Torres of Vancouver's Carnival Band; composer Mark Harvey of Boston's Aardvark Jazz Orchestra; Leslie Wacker of Chicago's Environmental Encroachment; Ken Field of Somerville's Revolutionary Snake Ensemble; and moderator John Bell of the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band. The HONK! Festival provides a unique opportunity for participants to compare notes, publicize the values and goals of the Honk movement, and perform for a diverse, sophisticated and open-minded audience. The members of these types of street bands vary widely in age, class, ethnicity and background, and although they often wear some kind of uniform, there is also always an emphasis on individuality and a DIY sensibility to their instrumentation and attire. These bands play music that is by, for, and of "the people." The distinction between performer and audience, just like the distinctions between different musical genres, is just one more arbitrary social boundary they aspire to overcome. Spectators often think "Hey, I could do that!" and, indeed, these bands often recruit new members right off the street. As often as they honk in protest, they also perform to celebrate the causes and institutions they support: multicultural festivals, peace conferences, social forums, artists' collectives, community gardens, block parties, neighborhood fundraisers, relief benefits and homeless shelters. In every case, the Honkers' ultimate goal is to have fun, to relish the art of making fun as a form of individual and collective transcendence, and to encourage others to see and do the same. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |