Merging cultures

Katie Dolac / Culpeper Star Exponent
Published: May 24, 2007

Isn't the point of music to bring people together, build relationships and bridge social gaps-

Kantara, a group of musicians from the United States and Tunisia, is attempting to do just that through a cross-cultural merger of music - traditional Arabic rhythms and Appalachian bluegrass.

Kantara, widely publicized in North Africa and Europe, performs for the first time in the United States Sunday at Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville.

Kantara means bridge, oudist Riadh Fehri explained in the subtitles of a YouTube documentary on the group's Web site, " - the bridge between two cultures, which are very far from each other geographically and socially."

Like, say, an ancient Muslim nation steeped in rich cultural history and the hillbilly mountain regions of the Virginias and Carolinas-

Arab meets Appalachia

Kantara began two years ago when Fehri, a renowned Tunisian composer, met Brennan Gilmore, a Virginia bluegrass musician serving as a U.S. diplomat in Tunisia.

"They started playing together for fun," guitarist Brian Calhoun said during a telephone interview. "They started showing each other their different kinds of music and it sort of evolved."

Gilmore enlisted three Americans from his experimental bluegrass outfit Walker's Run, including Calhoun, bassist Zack Blatter and violinist Ann Marie Calhoun, a former science and strings teacher at Woodberry Forest School known for her work with the Dave Matthews Band and Jethro Tull. Fehri called on two Tunisian friends - percussionist Lassad Hosni and vocalist Amel Boukhchina.

Within a group divided by three languages - Arabic, English and French - the barrier doesn't seem slow them down.
"Within an hour of meeting we were throwing spit balls and goofing off like we'd known them forever," Calhoun said.

Music is the common denominator.

A bigger picture

More than just fusing two genres separated by ocean, Kantara seeks to unite people.

"When you see these musicians, who come from all over the world, and who are unified by the music, it's a very beautiful mixture and a beautiful message," Boukhchina said in the subtitles of the YouTube video.

The group has played in areas where relations between Americans and Muslims are strained.

At a government-sponsored gig in France, a teenage Muslim boy approached Gilmore and told him Kantara was the first positive experience he had with an American, Calhoun said.

"From the audience's point of view, they say that when they hear something with warmth, something familiar they don't sense any division between the cultures," Fehri said in the documentary.

The group is currently in the midst of recording a full-length album in the United States, and plays the first of its non-government sponsored shows Sunday in Charlottesville.

"Music is like the wind," Fehri said. "You can't contain it. It crosses all the waves … it crosses despite everybody. And I think that it's the best thing that remains these days - that between this type of communication between people we can have renewed ties through art."

Katie Dolac can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .