Haitian-American band Jo. L. & Friends started their Thursday evening set on the Green with a barrage of drums, tight and pounding beats. An hour and a half later, the Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha announced its presence on the stage by ripping out rhythms on multiple drums.
Both musical gestures had the same effect. They were calls to gather. They set the tone for each band’s set. And they were a promise, that each band would stir the feet and heart, even as the sources of their musical traditions were over 5,000 miles apart.
Jo. L. and Friends.
The bands’ performances were part of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, which runs nearly continuously on the New Haven Green and other locations throughout New Haven through June 29.
Jo. L. announced his lineage proudly as a Haitian-American and invited the audience to connect in as many ways as possible to the music and dance he presented. “In Haiti we say ‘strength in numbers,’ ” he said, in encouraging people to get up and move.
The band — a supple, driving blend of bass, drums, and keyboards — eased into a kompa beat, a style of music that originated in Haiti in the 1950s, related to merengue and redolent of a few adjacent West and Central African musical genres. “We got to teach them how to do it,” the drummer said. Jo. L. obliged with a quick lesson, counting out two beats and moving his feet in a few different patterns. “You don’t got to be Haitian to give me a two-step,” he said. As people in the audience tried it, he poured on more encouragement.
“I see you!” he said. “I like it, I like it! Give yourselves a round of applause.”
He continued to emphasize the importance of unity, which began with putting arms around those close by, friends and family. In telling people to explore the dance further and perhaps improvise a little, it sounded like a life lesson. “Do what you have to do,” he said. It turned out the sense of the music being practice for the rest of life was intentional. Just as the audience was moving its collective feet together, “if we put our thoughts together, then together we stand,” Jo. L. said.
DakhaBrakha.
Wildly creative Ukrainian group DakhaBrakha blended together elements of traditional Eastern European folk music, rock, and hip hop so integrally that it was possible to think they had created an entirely new style of music. Nina Garenetska on vocals and cello, Marko Halanevich on vocals, accordion, and guitar, Iryna Kovalenko on vocals and keyboard, and Olena Tsybulska on vocals and drums constructed deep, spacious rhythms that lended a sense of propulsion to even the slowest numbers, grounding a wide panoply of sounds that encompassed keening harmonies, grinding and plucked cello, long raps, and tremolo electric guitar. A series of animations, played on the screens next to the stage, dipped equally into folk tales and surrealism to amplify the songs’ effect.
They explained that a few of their songs referred to the ongoing war in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, thanking people for standing in “solidarity with our country” and dedicating a song to “people who fight for freedom and stand for Ukraine.” Other songs had a more humorous bent. “Sometimes life is too complicated,” Kovalenko said, “especially when you try to find a husband.”
As the set progressed, it took on energy like a huge boulder rolling down a mountainside faster and faster. The crowd had grown steadily throughout the evening, and before long people were dancing in the front near the stage. DakhaBrakha kept the energy high even when returning to slower, moodier numbers, keeping people on their feet. With their voices, they began imitating trumpets and birdcalls. The sounds Garenetska pulled out of her cello got more guttural. Through music, DakhaBrakha connected Ukraine’s current crisis to something much older and more elemental, a tapping into and acknowledgement of human suffering. In the end it felt most like a plea for empathy — and from there, action.
Visit the International Festival of Arts and Ideas website for a full calendar of events.