Jutta & the Hi-Dukes™ / Modal Music, Inc.™

Description

Boogie around the world without leaving town! This slammingly fun, acoustic World Music band, with its ever-changing spectrum of sound, transports souls of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds across cultural borders.

These eclectic troubadours of ethnic music play everything from medieval Danish songs to Danubian grooves, painting powerful pictures in their own colorful way on mandolin, Bulgarian flute, guitar, and percussion accompanied by one to three singing voices. Wolves and rabbits, ravens and nightingales all abound in this magical tour that includes Balkan, Gypsy (Roma), Klezmer, Scandinavian, Greek, and traditional American music.

“[Their] music is exciting and listeners will find it hard to keep from leaping up to dance.” (Evanston Round Table newspaper) The band loves to lead audiences through fun yet simple traditional circle and line dances that go with the music.

Michael Frank, who signed this delightful group as his Roots-Blues label's first World Music act said: “Their enthusiastic and authoritative approach to music convinced me to sign them to the Earwig Music label. I imagine you will find Jutta & the Hi-Dukes as exciting as I do!”

"Amazing repertoire, authentic chutzpah that makes the music come alive, knows how to reach everyone, regardless of age or background." (Michigan's BlissFest)

Work Sample

"L’Shana Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim" Run time: 3:20. Recorded April 7, 2020 for our "Lockdown" video series. Sung in Hebrew, instrumentation includes kaval (Bulgarian end-blown flute), darabuka (Balkan hand drum), and tupan (double-headed Balkan drum), alongside guitar.
When performed in concert, we invite audiences to sing-along on the chorus and drum-along on band-provided percussion. This is the band's own arrangement of a traditional song for Passover / Pesach. 

"Aseară Ți-am Luat Basma" Run time: 2:28. Recorded May 20, 2020 for our "Lockdown" video series.
This playful, well-known Romanian folk song we learned for our second concert tour of Romania. Instrumentation includes mandolin and tupan (double-headed Balkan drum) alongside guitar. When performed in concert, we invite audiences to sing-along on the chorus.

"Erdelezi" Run time: 4:15. Recorded Oct 29, 2010.
This live recording (the theme song for  Emir Kusturica's award-winning movie, "Time of the Gypsies") was one of our first music videos. It features Zoi Doehrer on cornet and lead vocal when she was 14. It documents the special connection that she had with famous Serbian Gypsy flugelhorn maestro Boban Markovic and that Terran Doehrer had with famous Macedonian Gypsy singer, Esma Redzhepova. Additional instrumentation includes kaval (Bulgarian end-blown flute) and darabuka (Balkan hand drum), alongside guitar. 

With a repertoire of over 400 pieces drawn from over 25 cultures and with a core duet that plays nine instruments with two vocals, representing our work in just three samples was a stimulating challenge. With a band size ranging from a duet to six pieces (depending upon a performance's needs), that challenge was intensified. Consequently, we chose videos that demonstrate our five most-used instruments and three cultures. We included "Erdelezi" for its historic value, showing our deep connections to the Balkan Roma (Gypsy) culture. We, obviously, would have loved to also show our work with the Special Needs community, our education programs, our Fine Arts concert performances, our larger band ensembles, our international tours, and, of course, how we get audiences actively engaged with cultures other than their own. Thus, to fill in the gap, we ask you to recognize that we have been able to stay in this difficult business for over 32 years as full-time musicians because we deliver an experience that touches and inspires audiences of all backgrounds, ages, and abilities.

History

Founded in 1990, Jutta & the Hi-Dukes evolved from Terran Doehrer's two bands, N.A.I.R.D. award-winning Balkan Rhythm Band (1980) and Ensemble M'chaiya (1983), Chicagoland's first revival Klezmer band. Performances include Winnipeg Folk Festival (Canada), Taste of Chicago, Illinois State Fair, University of Missouri (St. Louis) International Performing Arts Series, and Folks and Roots Festival (Old Town School of Folk Music).

The eclectic group tours internationally, performing at concerts, festivals, private parties, and at schools / universities / libraries presenting interactive cultural lectures, residencies, and assemblies focused on ethnic music / dance.

Since 1990, the Hi-Dukes have worked with Special Needs communities in Denmark, Switzerland, France, Romania, and America.

In May 2020, the group was to work for a third time at a Gypsy (Roma) school in Romania but the Covid Lockdown canceled that.

The Hi-Dukes is the only World Music act on Roots-Blues record label Earwig Music Company.
Multi-instrumentalists Terran and Jutta taught dance for four years at the Da Vinci Waldorf School (Wauconda, IL) and teach dance at the Waldorf Teacher Institute of Chicago (2010-present).
Terran was a guest artist with internationally famous Macedonian Gypsy singer Esma Redzhepova. For ten years Terran was a member of clarinetist James Stoynoff's band, the Greek Lads.

Artistic Vision

Our primary goal is to create a cathartic experience for our audiences by presenting a wide variety of ethnic music styles in an interactive manner, encouraging folks to sing, drum, and dance along with us. We share the beauty that we have discovered in ethnic music to inspire our audiences to fall in love with cultures other than their own and to better understand how we are all fundamentally connected. New communities form when we get people to hold hands as we lead them through traditional line and circle dances. We bring people together: in 1999 we persuaded high-level government representatives of Israel, Greece, and Turkey to sit together at a dance / concert we organized at Northwestern University to raise money for earthquake-torn Turkey. 

Programs for Specific Audience(s) Expertise

Since 1980 Terran Doehrer has performed and taught traditional dance to all age groups. Jutta Distler and he teamed up in 1990, eventually becoming staff dance teachers at the Chicago Waldorf School, the Da Vinci Waldorf School, the Waldorf Teacher Institute of Chicago, as well as presenting workshops and residencies across America and in Europe at schools and universities.
In 1990 a Danish live-in residence for adults with disabilities requested our dance program. That relation has lasted decades. A similar Swiss residence heard about that and has invited us multiple times, because: "With the magic of their live music and clear body language, Jutta and Terran connected with the pupils so that everyone could participate in their own individual way, full of enthusiasm, where physical and mental disabilities were, in a way, no longer visible." Consequently, they twice took us to participate in a week-long Bucharest, Romania conference for people with disabilities. (2016, 2018)
The Evanston Arts Council gave us multiple grants to work with Evanstonians with disabilities. The Ridgeville Park District now sponsors our program.
We have worked many times with a Holocaust survivor organization which led to also working with Senior citizens.

Traditional Folk/Ethnic Artform Statement

Victor Green (Prof. History, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) stated in his book, "A Passion For Polka: Old Time Ethnic Music In America", that ethnic "crossover" bands are an American tradition, where a band playing its own culture's music will add repertoire pulled from surrounding cultures. A Sicilian band is asked to play some northern Italian folk music. Then a Croat (neighbor to Italy) requests some Dalmatian music, a Bosnian asks for Sevdah songs, etc. German bands naturally play Czech and Polish polkas. We stand solidly inside that historic American multi-ethnic music tradition. Terran started the Klezmer revival (Jewish instrumental dance music) in Chicago. Danish national Jutta brought in her traditional music along with Swedish and Norwegian. Klezmer originated in Eastern Europe / the Balkans so playing Sephardic (Balkan - Spanish Jewish) and Gypsy music slid right in. "Dixieland", "Tin Pan Alley", and "Swing" are all styles played / written by Klezmer musicians which makes traditional American music a natural addition.
We introduce the beauty of ethnic music to people from other cultures, purposely crossing ethnic lines because music and dance foster understanding between cultures. What we've played for decades is now termed "World Music".