For beach getaways, Taitung can’t be beat, says reggae musician Red-I. “You’d think you were in Tahiti, ya know?”
Red-I, aka Patrick Chen, is among a handful of artists performing at the Taitung Music Festival (東海岸音樂季), which starts tonight and features live reggae, Aboriginal and jazz music at a scenic beachside area in Taitung County.
The festival, now in its third year, presents some of Taiwan’s most prominent Aboriginal musicians along with accomplished music groups from Japan and the Philippines.
Performers include Japanese musician Oki, who plays the tonkori, a traditional stringed instrument of the Ainu, an aboriginal group of northern Japan.
Oki, who plays the tonkori backed by a reggae and dub
band, tours internationally and has participated in major world music festivals such as Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD.
Other international acts include United Creation, a jazz group from Okinawa; female singer Machaco, a pioneering figure in Japan’s reggae scene; Stoned Rockerz, which Red-I describes as one of Japan’s top backing reggae bands; Filipina singer Phatty Maria, who was the 2008 Japan Dancehall Queen Champion; and Papa U-gee, another veteran singer in the Japanese scene.
The lineup of international performers was organized by Red-I, who grew up in Canada and honed his musical skills as a young adult in Belize and Mexico.
He says the event is a rare chance to catch some top-notch bands from the Pan-Asian reggae scene. “I don’t care where you go in Taiwan, but you’re not [normally] going to get to see half of these bands for free.”
Even though Caribbean sounds dominate the evening program, it’s “not a reggae festival per se,” said Red-I.
Almost all of the local performers in the lineup are Golden Melody Award winners from the Aboriginal music scene: Atayal singer Inka Mbing (雲力思), singer-songwriter Pau-Dull (陳建年), the Nanwang Sisters (南王三姊妹) and folk legend Kimbo Hu (胡德夫).
There’s new, young talent, too. Matka and De Hot, which won the battle of the bands at this year’s Ho-Hai-Yan Rock Festival, performs a blend of reggae, rock and Paiwan music tomorrow night.
Red-I’s previous group, the Riddim Outlawz, disbanded, and he now spends much of his time touring the reggae circuit in Japan and the Philippines. But he promises a spirited show on Sunday. “I got a lot of tricks to pop out the hat, man,” he said.
Last year the festival attracted 25,000 visitors over nine days, according to the Taitung County Government, which sponsors the event. Red-I estimated that the crowd on Saturday night last year was 5,000-strong.
He says the event’s location is reason alone to go, being one of the few places in Taiwan that doesn’t resemble a “Chinatown.”
“It’s the last piece of real Taiwan … Taitung is the last piece,” said Red-I. “People that don’t know this place, man, you’re missing out.”
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