Global village: Landfall Festival creates international stage in Cedar Rapids

By Diana Nollen

The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS - Legion Arts is bringing a world of music to Cedar Rapids, mostly free and mostly at Greene Square Park, beginning Sunday.

The only ticketed, indoor event will begin at 7 p.m. Sept. 27, when Hungarian band Parno Graszt takes the stage at CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE. Admission is $10.

Before that comes seven days of free entertainment in Legion Arts' second annual Landfall Festival of World Music. Featured are musicians with roots in Algeria, Mexico, China, Ethiopia, Australia, Israel, Canada's Prince Edward and Magdalen islands and the gypsy melodies of Hungary.

Bringing bands from far reaches of the globe is no simple task.

F. John Herbert, Legion Arts' executive director, goes to festivals and works with Midwest promoters to find the talent and bring it to Cedar Rapids.

“I do a fair amount of travel - New York, Minneapolis, next month to a world music festival in Copenhagen,” says Herbert, 57, of Cedar Rapids. “We've been able to coordinate activities with world music festivals that happen every fall in Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago and Bloomington, Ind. We're not able to bring groups from the other side of the globe on our own.”

Getting international artists into the United States can be tough, too.

“It's a difficult time,” Herbert says. One group that had been booked for Landfall couldn't get visas, three others canceled their tours and one group couldn't get the government funding promised to get them to America.

“It's kind of a high risk level of presenting,” Herbert says. “It's complicated. It's very, very worthwhile, but sometimes a fairly stressful kind of activity.”

Last year's inaugural Landfall Festival came on the heels of the epic flood and was spread over two weeks in various locations.

“Last year was a precarious situation,” Herbert says. “This year is more focused, with seven full nights of music, mostly in Greene Square Park. Many (concerts) start at 5:30 p.m. We're strategically doing that to make them accessible to people working downtown or letting them go home to gather up kids, then get them back home at a decent hour."

Funding from city hotel/motel tax, Rockwell Collins, Fidelity Investments and the National Performance Network allows Legion Arts to offer free admission.

“We do collect donations (at the concerts) and people tend to be quite generous,” Herbert says.

The festival's educational component isn't confined to the concerts. The multicultural Guy Mendilow Band, based in Boston, will spend the week working in area schools before taking the stage Sept. 25.

Mendilow, 31, who is English, Israeli and American and has lived in Israel, South Africa, Brazil and Boston, likes to pass on his overtone singing technique to students. Somewhat akin to throat singing, but without specific cultural roots, it's a style that allows the musician to produce two or more voices simultaneously.

“It's pretty horrendous when you're learning. I only practiced in the car - one of the places for sure no one would hear me,” he says with a laugh. “‘Experiment' (the opening track on his new “Skyland” CD) was written in a traffic jam in Detroit. It's easy to jam with road noises around.”

He likes to teach the technique in school workshops.

“It's a mixed blessing for their teachers,” he says. “It can be pretty horrendous when you're learning how to do it. This is our public apology for doing that.”

While most of the bands at a world music festival feature music from their homeland, Mendilow's band fuses the music and languages of many cultures.

The son of a political science professor, Mendilow's family moved every six months to a year to various locales.

“Hebrew is my first language,” he says, “English is my second, then Spanish, Portuguese and Ladino, which is similar to Spanish.”

His band brings that global experience to a world music festival.“We bring our own slant,” he says. “Because our group is integrated, we bring a unique international experience. Many groups come from just one place, like a Norwegian group that plays Norwegian music. Our music is a bit larger than one place. We connect with a diverse group. Even people who grew up with American music will find something familiar, because we live here, too.”

LANDFALL FESTIVAL OF WORLD MUSIC

Free concerts in Greene Square Park, downtown Cedar Rapids; donations accepted. Rain site: CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE. Final event: $10, Sept. 27 at CSPS.

Cheb i Sabbah (Algeria), 7 p.m. Sunday,  Sept. 20. Algerian-born DJ spins “Outernational Mix” of dance music from Arabia, Africa, Asia.

Los De Abajo (Mexico), 5:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21. Mission: Danceable and cathartic music, with a message about the political and social situation in Mexico.

Hanggai (China), 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22. Adaptations of traditional Mongolian songs, many with throat-singing.

Minyeshu (Ethiopia), with opener Rosie Burgess (Australia), 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23. ] Minyeshu Kifle exchanges influence from her traditional African upbringing with the genres of her current surroundings in Belgium.

Rosie Burgess (Australia), 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24. Rootsy guitar, harmonica and mandolin, combined with original songs.

Guy Mendilow Band (United States), followed by Vishten (Canada), 5:30 p.m. Sept. 25. Mendilow: Israeli peace songs and Sephardi cantinas meet Bahian street beats and blues. Vishten: Acadian roots, with Celtic sound, but the songs are French.

Full afternoon of music, 1 to 5 p.m. Sept. 26.

Parno Graszt (Hungary), 7 p.m. Sept. 27, CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids; $10. Gypsy songs of North Eastern Hungary.

Details: www.legionarts.org or (319) 364-1580