MAKING MELODIES DANCE WITH A BASQUE ACCORDION
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NY Times, Making Melodies Dance With a Basque Accordion, 08/27/02 >>
WORLD MUSIC REVIEW | KEPA JUNKERA
Tuesday, August 27, 2002
By JON PARELES
The smaller the accordion, the feistier the sound. That rule of thumb applies to the trikitixa, the two-row button accordion from the Basque region of Spain that Kepa Junkera played at Joe's Pub on Friday night. Like the accordions used in Irish and Cajun traditional music, the trikitixa puts a bite behind each reedy note, and Mr. Junkera uses that bite to make melodies dance.
Mr. Junkera has recorded widely with traditional Basque groups. But on his own, he is an updater of tradition who is well aware of music beyond his home. His 1999 album "Bilbao 00:00h" (Alula) included collaborations with musicians from Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Canada and Madagascar. His band at Joe's Pub included guitar, bass and drums, and he used them the way British trad-rockers do, to underline the muscularity of the tunes and connect old dance beats to new ones.
His pieces were medleys spinning out tune after tune. Some were akin to amiable Celtic jigs and reels; others, from Basque traditions, were built on stark modal scales and a six-beat pulse, with stuttering notes and sudden bursts of speed. At times the music grew predictable as Mr. Junkera repeated each melody twice, but the arrangements kept up variety. Tunes bounced from the accordion's low notes to higher ones, with single-note runs suddenly adding hefty chords; strict dance melodies gave way to brief, flexible bursts of improvisation. By the end of the set, the drummer was using the thump and cymbal patterns of trance music.
Mr. Junkera also did untraditional things, like playing an entire melody with the left-hand bass and chord buttons, and using the huffing sound of the accordion bellows alone as percussion. Knowing his tradition so well from the inside, he's confident about looking beyond.
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