Jaffna Music Festival 2013:

Palmyra beat

Anuradha ABEYSEKERA

Sounds of unheard harmonies will echo in Jaffna during the Jaffna Music Festival 2013, reawakening the Northern capital to its past glory as an international cultural hub when musical troops from different parts of the globe share the same stage with local folk, classical and contemporary music groups at the Jaffna Municipal grounds on March 1 and 2.

Bangladesh - Chirkutt

Brazil - Harmonia Do Brasil

Shifting the paradigm of Sri Lankan music to a new dimension, local and international artistes will experiment merging distant music – dance genres in their joint performances to create tomorrow’s music nurtured by rooted traditions of different cultures.

An interesting line up of musical-dance performances will unveil stories of distant communities of global village through universal language of music. The main stage concert from 5 pm to 10.30 pm on both days included rare local folk performances which are confined to certain areas and communities along with international delicacies of music ensembles from Bangladesh, Brazil, Norway, India and Palestine.

The Norwegian rock band Casa Murilo’s founder members, Chris Winfield and Dan Hesketh will re-unite with their Bangladeshi musical friends of Chirkutt, a famous group in Bangladesh for mixing Western and Eastern music instruments with the elements of fusion and folk genres. Casa Murilo is well known for their Oslo underground wild, energetic live shows. They released their second album “The Rise And Fall” in 2012.

The two groups will rock Jaffna audience in joint performance renewing musical ties they have established last year during Casa Murilo’s Asian Tour where they treated Dhaka audience with an unforgettable joint outdoor concert.

Palestine Sabreen Association is no strangers for Jaffna and they will keep the audience dancing into Arabic tunes.

The musical troop focuses on live and public performances, networking with musicians, public music productions among schools in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

The multi-instrumentalist Charlie Rishmawi will be accompanied by percussionist John Robert Handal, Saxophonist Joseph Duqmaq and their folk dabkeh dancer Mohammad Abu Hamdah in Jaffna.

The Indian troop Ila Arun will showcase Rajastan musical heritage in Jaffna.

The dedicated group of artistes have brought folk music and folk dance of Rajasthan into the mainstream of Indian music scene and made it popular around the world.

They will feature rare folk music instruments in their songs and dance performances.

Harmonia Do Brasil will keep the crowd on feat with their Latin American beats.

The Brazilian quartet with Nanda Garcia’s vocals, percussionist Netinho, guitarist Charles de Costa and Aiessandro Cardozo who plays the unique Brazilian guitar ‘Cavaquinho’ will bring samba, bossanova and choro thrill to Jaffna. Their 2005 album ‘Brasileirinho’ was featured at the Cannes Film Festival.

It will be interesting to watch three countries in a combined performance when Hat-tric and Fiddle, Nritya Nandan and Aru Sri Art Theatre merging traditions at the Jaffna main stage concert.

Outdoor Operatic music will be a fresh experience in Jaffna when artistes from the Khemadasa Foundation perform Phoolan Devi Opera composed by Gayathri Khemadasa, the daughter of acclaimed composer Premasiri Khemadasa. The foundation was established by the late maestro to foster the musical talents of low-income youth from all over the country.

Norwegian performers

India - Ila Arun

The Sri Lankan Folk Performers, rarely seen outside their communities will include Maarai Kaatha Maveerar a Catholic Koothu from Pasiyoor, reminiscing historic significance of Joseph Vaz, the Catholic missionary who travelled from Goa to Sri Lanka. Pakeer Baith, the traditional performance of Muslims in Ampara will narrate the story of a traditional Muslim wedding. Paparavahan Koothu from Chulipuram, based on a legend of Mahabharata where Arjuna, the great king was killed by his son Paparabahan and revived back to life with the help of gods will also capture the hearts of audience.

Ritual Songs of Batticaloa by students of Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies, Eastern University, Parai drummers from Kanakarayankulam and Mulliyawalai in Mullaitivu, Vezhalam Padutha Veerangani koothu from Vanni and Sanni Yakuma from Benthara are some of local folk performances to be reckoned at Jaffna.

Among the other bands, Colombo Brass Ensemble which is a group of musicians who are dedicated to promoting Brass Music in the island, Natharanjanee - a well-known group of classical Carnatic vocalists in Jaffna, Mangala Isai – Nathaswaram – Thavil, a group of popular Thavil artists from Jaffna, Oriental Music Orchestra- Sri Lanka's first multi-ethnic oriental music orchestra will feature in their musical creations.

Traditions Meet is a classical instrumental recital blending North Indian classical music with South Indian Carnatic music performed by veteran Hindustani and Carnatic musicians.

The contemporary groups will include Naadro, a percussion band who uses both Sri Lankan traditional instruments and other percussion instruments to produce their own signature style and the Ranwala Brigade, a Sri Lankan folk fusion band formed by the late Lionel Ranwala, archivist and developer of Sri Lankan folk music will show the beauty of local traditional music.

The Ravibandu Vidyapathi Drum Ensemble is widely regarded as one of Sri Lanka’s finest drum ensembles and Sapthami, a popular Jaffna band which plays a wide genre of music will also entertain the crowds.

Musicmatters Collective will show their experimental creations of improvisational jazz inspired by the Sri Lankan folk tunes.

The Jaffna Music Festival 2013 is brought to you by Sewalanka in collaboration with Rikskonsertene (Concerts Norway) and Aru Sri Art Theatre and is funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This time around the festival will be conducted in co-partnership with the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau and the Municipal Council of Jaffna.