The Conical Glass: Kyrgyzstan

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Kyrgyzstan

How often do you have the chance to have dinner at midnight at an Irish pub in Albuquerque with 15 visitors from the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan? I had that experience just last night!

Joe and I happened to fly into New Mexico on the day our friend Neal was promoting a show by Ordo Sakhna -- their first-ever U.S. appearance. It was sort of the luck of the draw and wouldn't necessarily have been my first choice of show, but I have to say that I was completely bowled over by them and would strongly recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to catch them on the rest of their tour (including dates in Berkeley and Sacramento!) do so. It will be an unforgettable experience.

The huge band features a variety of instruments, including a six-foot-long horn that I'm sure was a lot of fun to take on a plane halfway around the world. Three of the musicians were virtuosos on the komuz, a three-stringed lute. The showstopper of the evening was when all three of them played in unison, spinning their instruments around and playing them from different angles, including over their shoulders and upside down. Several of them also played the jigatch, which looks kind of like a little stick with a string coming out of it -- it's related to a jew's harp and is the oldest Kyrgyz instrument. As with the komuz, it's amazing the variety of sounds they coaxed out of what seemed like a fairly primitive device.

The music is kind of hard to describe -- if you've ever heard Tuvan throat singing, some of the sounds were similar, although played on instruments instead of made by the human voice. The evening's repertoire was evenly split between vocal and instrumental selections. One nice triptych of songs was a salute of sorts to horses, a valued part of the Kyrgyz culture, including clip-clop percussion that mimicked the sounds of hooves. The first song was dedicated to Alexander the Great's horse, the third to Genghis Khan's, but the second was a salute to the mustang and had some touches of American Western music thrown in.

In another nod to the land they were visiting, they did an interpretation of the song "Strangers in the Night" which garnered a lot of appreciative applause.

I always admire Neal for booking this type of show, because it's a hard sell. It's not like there's a ready-made fan base of Kyrgyz music the way there is, say, with music from Ireland or Western Africa. But while the crowd wasn't huge, it was incredibly enthusiastic -- there were three standing ovations. The next afternoon, someone approached Neal while we were out to say that she'd heard some ladies in a locker room talking about what a fantastic show it was. The people who did take a chance and went to see Ordo Sakhna were richly rewarded.

The group's rider stated that they were to be provided with a full meal after the concert, which is how we ended up at O'Niell's Pub. Lonely Planet declares that "the Kyrgyz are renowned for their hospitality and guests are often treated to fermented mare’s milk and bowls of fresh yogurt," but the Irish fare on offer consisted of fish & chips, shepherd's pie and chicken kebabs. Despite the fact that most of the musicians spoke no English, their road manager helped get everything sorted out and they seemed to enjoy the food.

While their onstage attire consisted of colorful, beautiful folk costumes, offstage, they wore pretty average-looking clothes by American standards, and several of them had digital cameras, iPhones and iPods. Ah, globalization.

If you're near Berkeley, Ordo Sakhna will be performing at Ashkenaz on Feb. 19.

posted by 125records @ 11:12 PM

1 Comments:

At 10:47 PM, neal said…

I'm so happy you and Joe could attend the concert. Thanks for a fun visit!

- Neal from the other room :)