This Week at the Mishawaka
KAN’NAL
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27TH
7PM
Explosions of fire. Thrumming, primal rhythm. Dancers swirling in whirls of diaphanous white. Machetes spinning and clashing. Ancient instruments and futuristic technologies. Mythic archetypes – skeletons, deer, wondrous female warriors – coming to life. Seduction. Danger. Freedom. And we’re only talking about the first minute or so after Kan’Nal takes the stage.These performances surpass what people expect. You can’t exactly call them concerts; instead Kan’Nal has created its own ”Shamanic Rock” – personal ritual that stirs the emotions – fear, desire, ecstasy – in a way that makes this group much more than just a band. For that matter, you can’t even call Kan’Nal a “band.” These seven individuals have drawn together into something that goes beyond family; they’re more like a tribe, united by ties more binding than birth.
Audiences have sensed this. In the beginning they drew the curious; these became converts, and the word spread. When Kan’Nal would return to the same venue, the crowd would typically have doubled. A few months later the attendance would have tripled.
The music of Kan’Nal alone – documented on their debut CD, Dreamwalker – conveys the power of these spectacles. What’s perhaps strangest of all is that these visions, these sounds of color and shadow and light, trace back to a place of complete darkness, deep in the Guatemalan jungle, where the idea of Kan’Nal erupted in one abrupt, life-changing flash.
Fate had brought Tzol here, far from his hometown of Austin, Texas. He’d been singing with bands there since he was fifteen years old, but after five years of doing standard gigs he felt the call to seek greater meaning than he’d found in local clubs. His intstinct drew him to explore Mexico and Central America where adventure, ancient culture and mysticism became the focus. On one particular night, deep in the jungles of chiapas, he discovered the vision of Kan’Nal.
Over the next few years each piece of the puzzle that is Kan’Nal found its place. First, in the village of San Marcos, near the sacred Lake Atitlan, Tzol met Tierro, a fellow wanderer drawn also by forces not easy to understand. They began writing songs and performing together, though even at this point a sense of exploration channeled through their music.
“We played mainly in courtyards behind people’s homes,” Tzol remembers, “which we’d decorate before each show with flowers that we’d picked and anything else we could find to create these extravagant displays. And while we were playing we’d have people walking around and feeding everyone with juice or grapes or wine, and we’d burn copal or sage or incense.
“It was never about just standing onstage. We wanted to go beyond that, to stimulate all the senses and raise them to some other level.”
After a short visit to Tierro’s home in Toronto, where they recorded the first Kan’Nal CD as a duo, the two returned to Guatemala. At their very first show there another traveler, Rodolfo Escobar, met the two and they invited him to play along on bass. He’d come down from San Antonio, Texas, where he’d established himself as a guitarron virtuoso. With his addition Kan’Nal moved decisively into a stronger groove feel … and with Teresita, his traveling partner and musical associate, they gained a visual, even mystical, dimension.
Living together near the lake, all four drew inspiration from the beauties and hardships that surrounded them. “You could spend all day lying in the sun, swimming, and eating fresh fruit that’s just falling from the trees,” Teresita says. “At the same time there’s no running water or electricity, so you have to make a fire every time you want to cook. You pull the beans from the ground to make your salads. It takes all day to prepare your meal. To get anywhere you have to follow paths through huge mountains, so your body is challenged but it also comes to life and becomes strong.”
One by one the group encountered the others destined to join their community. Aaron Jerad, another passenger on “La Ruta Maya,” came into the picture while they were visiting the Mayan ruins in Tulum; his percussion wizardry and mastery of the didgeridoo drew Kan’Nal into rhythm’s embrace and broadened their cultural range. Leaving Mexico for Texas, they met Gilly Gonzalez, a longtime musical partner to Teresita and Rodolfo, whose ferocious drumming had made him a figure of legend in and around San Antonio. One rehearsal was enough to usher him into Kan’Nal and off on a series of appearances throughout the Southwest and along the West Coast.
Joined by Akayate, whose gift for costume design enhanced the visual and storytelling elements that Teresita had introduced, Kan’Nal began to draw notice beyond its home bases of Guatemala, Mexico, Texas, and eventually Boulder, Colorado. With multimedia expert Boris Karpman recruited to reflect their intensities through the mirror of live video mixing, they achieved an unprecedented synthesis of prehistoric and visionary elements in writing and performance.
The fire … the dances … the story-songs that proclaim “we don’t need your lost religions to tell us who we are … bring down the fire and walk as one” (“Gypsy”), or demand that the fates “shake my bones ‘til they shatter/shake my soul like a rattle” (“Desert Flower”), or reflect on the passing years as “the enemy… I just hope there’s time for everything” (“Time”) …
These are the summons that have flown over the Nevada desert at Burning Man, or sounded from the Rockies at Dreamtime in Colorado, or echoed through the High Sierra Festival above the Feather River Canyon in California, drawing thousands of listeners now to join with Kan’Nal on its journey.
“I see us going even further,” Tzol insists, “to Europe, Australia, Asia – anywhere and everywhere — because we’re all travelers at heart. And to be able to do this as part of a project like Kan’Nal is a great privilege. I really believe we are just at the beginning.”
For now, though, the mission is clear… One people, one color, one earth. This is Kan’Nal
It has been awhile since our last update and we would like to thank everyone who has visited us these winter months. As the snow continues to blanket the canyon, we have been busy at work putting together our 2008 Summer Concert Series. We have some great surprises and are getting really excited to announce our initial line-up for the season. Stay tuned to MishawakaConcerts.com or sign up for our email newsletter to find out what we have in store for 2008!
Hello! We want to thank everyone for your support in 2007. We have had some terrific shows and would like to thank everyone for staying safe and responsible. As a reminder, when you arrive, please be sure to check that your car is parked outside of the white lines (off the side of the road) to avoid being ticketed or towed. Also, please be sure to stay out of the road at all times when walking to and from your cars.
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The rushing yet melodic flow of the Cache La Poudre River, vast canyon terrain, brilliant blue skies and sunshine, and multi-sensory concert experiences under the blanket of a starry night—these are all things one can expect at the historic Mishawaka Amphitheatre, just out side of Fort Collins, Colorado.
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