ROCKIN’ OUT: Eastern European style marks Tipsy Oxcart
Jul. 09, 2015 @ 03:18 PM
Cliff Bellamy
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In the music of Brooklyn-based Tipsy Oxcart, dance rhythms and melodies inspired by Eastern European folk music interweave with odd meters and improvised instrumental solos.
The sound might recall the world music fusion that Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington and John McLaughlin achieved in their sound and compositions.
Jeremy Bloom, who plays accordion for this five-member group, said Tipsy Oxcart’s sound is “a product of both the multicultural make-up of our band… [and] a synthesis of all the music we have grown up with and been exposed to.”
Violinist Maya Shanker grew up in Singapore. Ayal Tsubery, who plays bass, and Dani Danor, who plays drums, both are from Israel. Clarinet and saxophone player Connell Thompson grew up, to quote from the band’s website, on “the harsh streets of New Hampshire.”
During his high school years, Bloom was an exchange student in Turkey, where he first heard and became interested in Balkan or Eastern European music.
All of them now live in Brooklyn, New York, where their common interest in this music was the catalyst for the formation of Tipsy Oxcart, Bloom said in a phone interview. The group is touring Virginia, North Carolina and later Michigan, and will perform at 2nd Wind in Carrboro Thursday, July 16.
Tipsy Oxcart recently produced a full-length collection of mostly original compositions titled “Upside Down.” The compositions and the arrangements both reflect the strengths of the individual members of the band, Bloom said. In the writing process, a member of the band will bring in a rough draft of an idea, and the other musicians will contribute to refining and arranging it, he said.
One of the tunes the band arranged on “Upside Down” is titled “Homecoming,” which Bloom said represents the group’s amalgam of influences and travels. Bloom first heard the tune while in Turkey. He found out later the tune was also famous worldwide. While warming up before a Tipsy Oxcart concert, Bloom was playing the tune. Tsubery and Danor recognized the tune as the theme to a television show in Israel. Their recollections, and later arrangement of the tune, reflect the group’s “shared vocabulary,” Bloom said.
About half the band has a background in jazz music, which Bloom said audiences can sense during live performances, which are a mix of composed music and improvisation. In performance, there’s “a lot of mind reading that goes on. We’ve played together enough that we can anticipate what each other is playing.”
Like jazz, the compositions of this band have complexity and great rhythmic groove. “Definitely it can be challenging music,” Bloom said. “At the end of the day it’s party music, and I think anybody, whether they are familiar with it or not, they latch onto that,” he said. “There are some really fun and creative challenges within this kind of music. … There’s all sorts of complex ornamentation, microtones, notes between notes” that are fun challenges, Bloom said.
On “Upside Down,” one can hear those influences on the composition “Honey Dripper,” where Connell takes an adventurous solo on saxophone, and “Yalla Yalla,” where Connell and violinist Shanker trade phrases.
New York has an audience that is interested in Balkan music, but Bloom said he enjoys bringing the sound to new audiences. In addition to touring, Tipsy Oxcart performs in the New York subway as part of a city-sponsored cultural program. “We constantly have folks from Eastern Europe stopping to hear our music,” he said. “There really is not a greater audience than all of New York City commuting home….. The places we enjoy playing the most are places with an audience that is not initiated” with the music, Bloom said. “That’s sort of the goal with this tour as well.”
GO & DO
WHAT: Tipsy Oxcart
WHERE: 2nd Wind, 118 E. Main St., Carrboro
WHEN: Thursday, July 16, 9 p.m.
ADMISSION: Free. For more information, call 919-967-7922