Word: folke
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...Forum at the Kennedy School seems an unlikely site for a rock concert. Nonetheless, the venue welcomed renowned Israeli musician David Broza to its stage March 22 for a night of trilingual folk music called “Concert for Peace...
With a pair of conspicuous flags—one American, the other Israeli—at the back of the small round stage and masses of plastic chairs arranged in the auditorium, Broza’s concert of Hebrew, Spanish, and English folk music threatened to swallow itself in maudlin tokenism. The Caucus gave Broza an ominously exoticizing introduction: “We want to give you a taste of what Israel is all about.” Fortunately, Broza, a disarmingly charismatic performer, proved that he and his acoustic guitar have universal appeal—although a little knowledge...
It’s easy to classify Broza as a folk singer, but that label is ultimately too restrictive. He sees the guitar not as a piece of machinery, but as a living body that can produce music in varied and frequently surprising ways. Broza opened the set with a hailstorm of frenzied flamenco-like sequences that rose and fell in intensity and speed. His musical relationship with flamenco is complex and profound (Broza spent much of his childhood in Spain), with even his gravelly voice bearing a striking resemblance to that of Gipsy Kings front man Nicolas Reyes...
...course, good poetry doesn’t always make good lyrics, and the lyrics he chooses (at least in Spanish and English—I can’t speak to his selection of Hebrew lyrics) often show the kind of over-wrought balladeering that is endemic to folk music. To try to give you an idea, a sizeable chunk of his songs are in alternating quatrains; the hook to one song is, “Somebody make me laugh, / Somebody make me cry, / Somebody tell me something / That my heart can’t deny...
Other Tudor-era folk are getting their moment in the sun too. In this fall's The Golden Age, Cate Blanchett reprises her role as the steely Queen from 1998's Elizabeth. The very busy Johansson is scheduled to start filming a biopic of Mary Queen of Scots this summer. Even Sting is getting in on the Tudor buzz, popping up on chat shows with a lute to promote Songs from the Labyrinth, a CD of tunes by 16th century composer John Dowland. And fat Henry hasn't been left out. A just-closed exhibit of work by the King...