Honk Your Horn: Taking Music to the Streets
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By Mark Traphagen on May 11, 2009
In a previous post I wrote about my encounter this past weekend with the Scene of the Crime Rovers, a Durham community street band. I had never seen anything quite like this before. I was instantly mesmerized and hooked. What I didn’t realize is that the Rovers are not an isolated case, but part of a semi-spontaneous movement of such bands in cities across the country:
Across the country and around the world, a new type of street band is emerging. Acoustic and mobile, borrowing repertoire and inspiration from a diverse set of folk music traditions – New Orleans second line brass bands, European Klezmer, Balkan and Romani music, Brazilian Afro Bloc and Frevo traditions, as well as the passion and spirit of Mardi Gras and Carnival– these “honkers” all share a commitment to several core principles. Metaphorically speaking, they honk their horns for the same reasons motorists honk theirs: to arouse fellow travelers, to warn of danger, to celebrate milestones, and to just plain have fun. (source)
The movement even has its own “Woodstock” called HonkFest, held each fall neat Boston.
I’ve decided to take the step from interested bystander to active participant. Honking just combines too many things that I love for me to resist. (I would have started last night, but practice was called off for Mother’s Day.) Stay tuned to these pages as I will chronicle my adventure (descent?) into honking.In the meantime, enjoy this video of San Francisco’s Brass Liberation Orchestra turning a city plaza into an impromptu Starlight Ballroom.
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Mark Traphagen (aka Foolish Sage) is a lover of dark beers and darker music, of things that are but are not as they seem, of contexts taken out of context to become new contexts, of stories that point to a bigger Story. Mark lives in Durham, NC, with his wife and pet Macbook Pro. He has two married daughters and six grandchildren, and works by day for
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