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KTNA is proud to join with the Denali Arts Council to host the famed world music band Baka Beyond for a concert and two days of workshops in Talkeetna.

 Photo by Matt Collins

The concert will be held at the Sheldon Community Arts Hangar in downtown Talkeetna. Doors open at 7:30. Further details about the workshops can be found HERE!. These activities are supported, in part, with funds provided by the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), the Alaska State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

If you’d like to read more about the band and its members, you can read this Baka Beyond biography. And below is a great review from Bristol Rocks of a recent Baka Beyond performance in Bristol, England.

Baka Beyond @ Fiddlers 15th May 2008; review by Leilani Winslade

Let’s be honest here…How many of you have actually heard of Baka Beyond? Seriously? You have? Well, I definitely had not. World music has never been my full cup of tea. If we are even more honest it’s never been my lukewarm, quarter dregs of a cup of tea either.

Before leaving for the gig, I had a quick review of their website, listened to about two seconds of the live video and I resigned myself into the idea that I would need a pint or two to get me through the cultural assault my ears were about to take.

Baka Beyond were originally inspired by Martin Cradick & Su Hart’s visits to the Baka Forest People in Cameroon. While there they played music with and recorded the Baka. Baka Beyond currently consists of musicians from 6 countries in the Celtic fringes of Europe and the West coast of Africa who have joined together to play the most energetic fusion sound I have ever heard. On their website they say, “The spirit of the music lives in the rhythm.” But after seeing them on stage, I’d say the spirit of the music is not only the rhythm and beat, but within the energy of all of the band members.

You can’t help repeating over and over that they were amazing. I challenge anyone to sit through a show of theirs and not want to dance. Before you know it you’re bopping along to the beat, feet wildly wanting to be set free.

The energy of the band, let alone the crowd was astonishing. I did wonder if we should have had some ambulances on standby just in case the aged got a little too worked up. As one young punter told me while gyrating and flailing about to the music, “Baka Beyond is a guaranteed good night out!”