Conjunto Jardín
Luna Park, West Hollywood, CA
August 2, 1997

One of the pleasures of living in a city with such a melting pot of cultures as Los Angeles is the wealth of diverse music one is exposed to. This night, the audience that was shoehorned into the cosy confines of the downstairs room at Luna Park were there to hear just the second performance of the son jarocho group Cojunto Jardín.

Conjunto Jardín is based around sisters Libby and Cindy Harding (the group name is a word play on the Spanish pronunciation of their last names), who have performed with Word of Mouth, Huayucaltia and Sabia. Libby plays the jarana, an eight-string guitar-like instrument, and Cindy is the only known female requinto (a four string guitar) player. Both have wonderfully expressive voices that harmonize as only siblings can. They were joined by Gary Johnson, who plays the harp parts on keyboard, bassist Rick Moors, and African percussionist Marcel Adjibi. The jarocho music they play is a style of music from the Mexican state of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. The music is a mixture of African, Spanish and indigenous, and is very lively, especially as performed by Conjunto Jardín. The majority of the hour-long set, all sung in Spanish, was traditional material, starting with "El Siquisiri" (a song that introduces all the musicians and welcomes the audience) and ending with "La Bamba." The sisters took turns on lead vocals, often in a call-and-response style, but always return to harmonizing together. Cindy's requinto and Johnson's keyboard harp took most of the leads, with Adjibi providing the beat on congas and high hat. People would have been up and dancing, had there been any room.

Perhaps two songs illustrated Conjunto Jardín at their best. "Cruzando en el Barco" ("Crossing by Boat") was learned from an album of Madagascar music and given Spanish lyrics with a jarocho treatment. It featured an African call-and-response between Adjibi, Cindy and Libby, which demonstrated the group's willingness to expand and experiment with the music. But it was their version of "La Bamba," which began in the traditional style, only to take on an Afro-Cuban rhythm halfway through, with the vocals taken up by Adjibi (this time in Wolof), that set the tone. The end result was probably a close representation of what it actually sounded like when it was first written by an ex-slave over 200 years ago.

With the audience on its feet (and how one could have remained seated with such powerful rhythms is beyond me), the group quickly returned for an encore, "La Guacamaya" ("The Parrot"), before leaving a satisfied audience to file out into the cool night air. — Jim Lee (Simi Valley, CA)

Guildford Festival
Stoke Park, Guildford, England
August 1-3, 1997

In Britain these days, it seems like folk music is defined as music that generates a sense of community. American folk music hasn't been hit as hard by the dance/trance music phenomenon as music across the sea. Two major genres are taking over the British folk scene: multicultural fusion and techno music.

At the Guildford festival, you couldn't escape someone's idea of music. The concession tents blared dance beats as we hammered in our tent stakes. Throngs of henna-tattooed, Indian-cotton-clad attendees meandered around Stoke Park with TUKA-tuka-TUKA-tuka incessantly urging them to keep going. It's not very relaxing to live your life to someone else's soundtrack. I missed quite a bit of the festival because of problems at the campsite. (A hint to future Guildford attendees: Don't pitch your tent next to anyone named Patsy or Edina.) I wasn't taking the right substances to enjoy myself as much as others around me seemed to be. But I'm glad I didn't judge Afro Celt Sound System by its dull name alone, or I'd have missed one of the most vibrant and organic meldings of world and dance music in Britain today. There was a tenor singing in sean nos style, there were uillean pipes, there were synthesizers, there were African drums. Somehow it all worked.

Transglobal Underground was equally danceable, but more obviously Eastern, with some excellent kora playing, including the requisite trippy solo. The lead singer was an enthusiastic belly dancer whose chants and fringes moved the crowd.

Is it cultural piracy to use these musics in a new blend? Also featured at the festival was London's own Richard Thompson, whose music has melded Cajun, rockabilly, and numerous other influences that were hardly pure to begin with. Thompson is an unapologetic musical eclecticist, and his set included polka, middle Eastern, and jump-jive elements. He introduced "From Galway to Graceland" as a song "designed to appeal to two very disparate audiences," thus, he hoped, increasing his popularity in the southern U.S. and the Emerald Isle. Guest Christine Collister sang backup on "Sweetheart of the Barricade," from Thompson's new Industry album, about the decline of industry in Britain. Thompson's solo set was not as flashy as those of some of his fellow performers, but it proved that fusion of various musical styles is neither new nor unappealing. It also proved that a single guitar, in the right hands, can synthesize myriad sounds as adroitly and enjoyably as a studio full of machines. -Pamela Murray Winters (Arlington, VA)