Category Archives: Music

Pintxatu: Basque Music and Cuisine in one book!

Delphine Pontvieux, author of Estimated Time of Arrest and featured in this interview, has a new book out combining Basque music with Basque cuisine.  A collaboration with Fermin Muguruza (of Kortatu and Negu Gorriak fame), the book has recipes, all of which are in English, Spanish, French, and, of course, Euskara.  From Delphine: Wondering what […]

Oreka TX and the Txalaparta

If you haven’t ever heard the txalaparta, you are missing out.  Originally an instrument of communication, the txalaparta has become a central part of modern Basque folk music. The txalaparta is a set of planks, often about 5, that two people play together.  As such, it is billed as the only instrument in the world […]

Memories of Jaialdi

The title of this post may strike some as romantic, but really it’s just that it has been so long since Jaialdi and taken me so long to do this post, that indeed I’m working on memories, and I don’t have the best of memories in the first place… For those that don’t know, Jaialdi […]

Altxor Bila by David Cox: Gaueko Lan Musika: Basque music and links with kindred peoples

It is interesting to compare the role that music plays among peoples who are considered national minorities. Given the obvious commonality of interest, it’s surprising how few of these links are easily uncovered. Basques have survived because of their historical cultural isolation, which is now changing. The situation of being outnumbered in one’s own land, […]

Recital by Amaya Arberas, Soprano, tonight!

QUEEN SOFIA SPANISH INSTITUTE cordially invites you to a recital by Amaya Arberas, Soprano accompanied by Antón Armendariz, Tenor Ana Ruth Bermúdez, Cello & David Shenton, Piano Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. Amaya Arberas began her professional career in 2002, performing recitals throughout her native Basque Country as a lyric coloratura soprano. She […]

Altxor Bila by David Cox: Gernika – a history in music

David Cox is a frequent contributor to Buber’s Basque Page. Today marks his first article in a new column entitled Altxor Bila (Looking for Treasure), inspired by a Pirritx eta Porrotx song.  This series will examine various aspects of Basque music, from current bands to musical history.  Ongi Etorri David! A few years ago, I got […]

The new millennium in Basque music — a decade of delights

Euskal Musika, (Basque-language pop, rock and folk) has flourished for four decades, but the past 10 years have seen a musical and lyrical maturing. With the end of the era dominated by Negu Gorriak, Hertzainak and Itoiz, Basque music searched for a new touchstone identity and came up with a multitude of them. In this […]

Whiskey Daredevils, Berri Txarrak and Bilbao

I just saw this on Google Alerts and thought it was great.  Whiskey Daredevils, a band out of Cleveland, I think, just toured Europe and their last show was opening for Berri Txarrak in Bilbao.  They posted about their last show in Bilbao, which was a while ago in May, on the Cleveland Scene website […]

Mikel Laboa: First notes for a march…

One of the pioneers of modern Basque music, Mikel Laboa, recently died (Dec 1, 2008).  Beginning in the 1960s, Laboa was a cornerstone of much that followed, from the rediscovery of traditional Basque instruments such as the alboka and the txalaparta to influencing even some of the hard rock and heavy metal bands that the […]