Witness Racine's MidEast Beat. The band's repertoire is largely Armenian but also includes songs of Arabic, Assyrian and Greek origin. Melody and rhythm easily pass through barriers of language and walls of separation. Not unlike the old South, where black blues and white country were often mixed by musicians looking for a good tune, the traditional party music from across the Middle East shares many common elements.
MidEast Beat has been active since 1982, playing at Armenian events throughout the Midwest, as well as at restaurants, clubs and wider cultural festivals at UW-Milwaukee, UW-Parkside and the University of Chicago. The band began casually, according to clarinetist Jim Hardy, and soon became a labor of love as members tried to recreate the music of their ancestors.
"Without much formal musical education, the group began to put songs together, all learned by ear off old 78 recordings," Hardy says. "We were energized and spent countless hours listening to as many old recordings as we could find, learning the songs and writing down the lyrics as best we could."
Music lessons for guitar and clarinet followed, but for Middle Eastern instruments such as the dumbeg, a relative of the Indian tabla drum, and oud, the ancestor of the lute, the members had to learn by ear from records. Along with Hardy, the current lineup of MidEast Beat includes Mark Gavoor (oud, vocals), Vahan Kamalian (dumbeg), Kai Kazarian (guitar, vocals) and sometimes Stepan Froundjian (keyboards, vocals).
The sonic texture of Middle Eastern music has found its way into music that is familiar in popular culture, from Led Zeppelin and the Beatles in the '60s to the club music and rap of nowadays. Some current performers from around the world have linked the region's traditions to trance, trip-hop and electronica. But the members of MidEast Beat are curators rather than innovators. What they play is not unlike the sound of a wedding or other social event in an Anatolian village a century ago.
"Our passion for playing now is to pass the music on to the next generation in hopes that the Midwest will see another group of young kids starting their own Armenian band and keep our rich musical heritage alive," Hardy says.
MidEast Beat performs during the afternoon of Sunday, July 26, at Armenian Fest, 7825 W. Layton Ave.
