Eight years ago, island drummer Korum Bischoff took his music to Mexico. On Saturday, he brings Latin music here.
Bischoff and the recently renamed Island Music Guild present Northwest Latin orchestra sensation Yerbabuena in an outdoor dance party – the first step toward the young drummer’s dream of bringing “world music” to Bainbridge.
“I had been wanting to up together some kind of music festival on the island for a while,” he said.
“It seems like every town has a jazz festival or some kind of a traditional music festival, but no…world music festival.”
The 28-year-old musician first encountered Latin music on a two-year sailing trip to Mexico.
When Bischoff was 10, his family moved aboard a 37-foot cutter moored in Eagle Harbor. For the next decade, his mother Nancy, who works as an office manager, and his father Kurt, a printer, planned and saved for a dreamed-of south-of-the-border boat trip.
In August of 1995 the family left on the long-awaited junket, arriving in Zihuatanejo, a town on the west coast of Mexico, in time for Christmas.
Bischoff and his brother Jhered had brought bass, drums and keyboard.
The brothers approached restaurants in the coastal towns where they laid anchor.
“Usually we’d try to find some kind of ‘mom and pop’ restaurant. We’d say we’d like to play, and if we do all these other gringo boaters will come. Then they’d have 60 people on a night when they might only have three or four.
“We’d become good friends with the owners and their families and we met a lot of people that way, so it was nice.”
In La Paz, Bischoff says, the brothers played a weekly engagement for two months at Barba Negra, a local restaurant.
From Zihuatanejo, the Bischoffs sailed south to Panama, stopping and playing music wherever they could. They sailed through the canal and up to New Orleans.
“We really didn’t stop too much on the Caribbean side,” he said. “That’s the dangerous side, just because of drug running.
“The east coast ports are a lot nastier.”
Island echoes
The family found that music south of the border was as varied as the terrain. In Guatemala, they heard marimba-style music, and in Panama, accordion music.
Bischoff absorbed a Tex-Mex style of acoustic guitar and accordion of northern Mexico.
Yerbabuena, which plays in town square Saturday, is a Cuban-style “charanga” orchestra, reminiscent of the soundtrack from the movie “Buena Vista Social Club.”
“There’s lots of violins and it’s salsa music, but it doesn’t have a big horn section like New York or Puerto Rican salsa music,” Bischoff said.
If the dance party is a success, he notes, the potential for a world music festival here next year gets a boost.
“We thought we would try this and see if there’s enough interest,” he said, “so that next year we could take it up a notch and bring two or three bands.”
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Island Music Guild hosts an outdoor dance party with Seattle-based Latin band Yerbabuena July 19 at town square, between the Playhouse and City Hall.
The event is supported by a grant from the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council Fund and co-sponsored by Bainbridge Island Park and Recreation District.
The evening begins with a free half-hour beginning Latin dance workshop at 7:30 p.m., followed by the dance at 8. Information: 780-0494 or see www.yerba.com.
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Island Music Guild, formerly the Island Music Teachers Guild, now serves island musicians as well as music teachers. The $25 yearly membership fee gets booking referrals for performers, among other services.
IMG also focuses on youth events, including an open mic night for teen musicians, writers, and other performers, 7:30 p.m. July 26 at Pegasus Coffee House.
The guild is also seeking youth performers for the summer concerts at Pegasus. Rock to classical, and everything in between, is welcome. Information: 842-5485.
