Junkanoo an ‘infectious’ blend of music, dance, costumes

What better way to get the American Folk Festival started than the sauntering party that is the Bahamas Junkanoo Revue?

The Miami-based troupe will be featured in the kickoff parade for the inaugural festival on Bangor’s waterfront. Its members weave a tale told by frolickers, full of sound and color, signifying revelry. Junkanoo is a blend of music, dance and costumes that promises to rivet the attention of festival-goers.

“It’s an infectious music,” said Langston Longley, who in 1993 founded the revue, an offshoot of Miami’s legendary Sunshine Junkanoo Band. “Once you’re exposed to it, you never want to leave it alone. We exert a lot of energy, but we get a lot of satisfaction from being involved.”

The origins of junkanoo go back to Christmas season celebrations held in the Bahamas during the pre-emancipation era in the 16th and 17th centuries. Slaves from Africa were given a special holiday when they could leave the plantations to be with their families and celebrate with native music, dance and costumes. Once popular throughout the Caribbean, the custom went into decline after the abolition of slavery, and only the Bahamas continues the tradition in a magnificent annual spectacle of national significance.

Junkanoo emigrated to the United States along with South Florida’s Bahamian community. The music is growing in some parts of Florida and Texas as well, Longley said. He estimated that 50 percent of junkanoo practitioners were born in the Bahamas, another 30 percent are of Bahamian descent, and the remaining 20 percent had been turned on to junkanoo. His troupe ranges in age from 12 to 65.

The revue, 12 members of which will be coming to Bangor, are more a sashaying than a marching band. There are brass musicians, followed by those on cowbells, then the rhythm drummers (or beaters), with bass drummers bringing up the rear.

The instruments used fall into three categories: handmade, imported or modified. The drums are made of goat or cow skin stretched over cut-down metal drums. The cowbells are imported from the Bahamas. (“It’s amazing how they get such melodious tones,” Longley said.) The horns are doctored to produce a much louder sound.

Although there is some rehearsal involved, Longley said many of the tunes come from the Bahamas, where they have been passed down through generations.

“You have to have a feel for the music,” said Longley, 55. “You can really feel what every instrument is doing.”

Wed to the music is the dancing, or however it can be described.

“It’s the move,” Longley said. “We never look at it as dancing. It’s moving with a rhythm, going forward, backward, spinning.”

The third element of junkanoo is the costumes. These feature elaborate skirts and shoulder pieces fashioned from cardboard and decorated with crepe paper, paint, felt, satin, Mylar, beads or colored plastic jewels. These fit over the traditional pants and shirts.

The revue uses costumes made by several individuals, some based on traditional costumes from the Bahamas.

“They’re competing for large prizes in the Bahamas, so it’s important to look different,” Longley said. “Here, we’re just being creative.”

Longley is glad to be a part of continuing this cultural touchstone.

“It’s a very gratifying feeling,” he said. “It’s great to see an interest expressed by those outside your family, to see there’s truly an appreciation. That gives us the inspiration to carry on.”

Longley isn’t worried about bringing the Bahamas Junkanoo Revue from sunny South Florida to often-stormy Maine.

“We tend to bring a little bit of sunshine with us,” he said.