{"id":5585,"date":"2025-02-20T21:23:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T02:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drdosido.net\/fiddleclub\/?p=5585"},"modified":"2025-02-20T21:23:01","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T02:23:01","slug":"jam-session-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drdosido.net\/fiddleclub\/2025\/02\/jam-session-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Jam Session Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A few days ago I had a moment of pure joy. While digitally surfing through my music collection I landed on a recording I made in 2012 of an improbable and memorable music party at Estonia House<\/strong> in Riverwoods, a village in Lake County, just north of Chicago. The musical performances that day were a bit rough at times, as the jam featured players from four countries and several different musical traditions. Nevertheless, while listening to it all 13 years later, the aural elation produced by the assembly was profound and infectious. In our current chaos, I willingly surrendered to the joy and let my heart be refreshed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was moved to share this instance of joy long after the fact for three reasons. First, there were moments of melodic and harmonic convergence that are just too good to keep to myself. Secondly, the array of humans that made up this gathering have all made immense contributions to my life. To tell these stories is a small effort at showing my appreciation for their friendship. And finally, it delights me to think of how our chains of relationships contribute to building more expansive and inclusive community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will start and end with Andres Peekna<\/strong>, but that means that I must also quickly bring in Mary Allsopp, who introduced me to Andres. Born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1937, Andres Peekna was a leading force in the establishment of Estonia House, a community cultural center serving Baltic immigrants now living in greater Chicagoland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Andres himself was displaced as a child by the Nazi German takeover of Eesti<\/em> and the subsequent Soviet occupation. Andres grew up in North America and became a highly educated citizen\u2014a physicist\u2014whose intellectual curiosity turned to the traditional folk music of his homeland, particularly to the construction and playing of the small kannel<\/em>, a plucked zither with 6, 9, or 12 strings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Allsopp<\/strong>, an avid student of traditional Nordic fiddle styles and and an accomplished player of Swedish polskas, ended up in the band that Andres assembled: Tuuletargad<\/em>, the Wind Wizards<\/strong>. I had met Mary through her involvement with Pickled Herrings<\/strong>, a local Swedish ensemble, and was becoming increasingly entranced with Swedish fiddle tunes through our annual meetups at the University of Chicago Folk Festival<\/strong>. In the early 2000 aughts, the academic side of me was teaching a college ethnomusicology class on Ethnic Music in Chicago Neighborhoods<\/em><\/strong>, when, in a used bookstore, I picked up an affordable copy of the US and Canadian volume of the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music<\/em>. I found Mary\u2019s name in the track listings for the accompanying CD, which included a cut from Tuuletargad<\/em>\u2019s first album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the community music side of me had started a fiddle contest at the Old Town School of Folk Music<\/strong>\u2019s summer festival, Folk & Roots<\/strong>. For the second contest in 2004 I made an effort to invite fiddlers and musicians from other traditions to participate, so that this event could better represent the Midwest\u2019s people. Mary Allsopp entered with a late manifestation of Pickled Herrings. She also convinced Andres to come to Lincoln Square from his home in Waterford, Wisconsin. They played two Eesti<\/em> tunes in our 2nd Midwest Fiddle Championship<\/strong>. Here is one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n