The curious case of Korean pansori-reggae
Korean reggae band NST and the Soul Sauce perform with pansori singer Kim Yul-hee at their CD release in Mapo-gu, Aug. 10. / Photo by Jon Dunbar
By Jon Dunbar
Korea isn't the first country you'd think to go to for reggae music. Originally a Jamaican musical genre, its roots run deep. Likewise, Korean music has its own unique heritage. When Korean reggae musicians try to express their own musical roots, something interesting happens.
The best example of this is when reggae meets pansori, a centuries-old narrative vocal tradition. Traditionally performed by a sorikkun (singer) accompanied by a gosu (drummer), adapting pansori to a full reggae band takes a lot of talent.
It sounds something like this:
That's NST & the Soul Sauce,
Korea's latest breakout reggae band
, performing with sorikkun Kim Yul-hee. The song is "Madame Ppaengdeok" from Shimcheong-ga, one of the five existing original pansori plays. Here is a
more traditional performance of the same material
for comparison.
Pansori singer Jang Goon performs with the famous dub music producer Mad Professor at Cake Shop in Itaewon on Dec. 19, 2013. / Photo by Jon Dunbar
This collaboration apparently came about at the
Muju Film Festival this year through a project with director Kim Tae-yong
, and it has swept audiences. The band, basically a supergroup led by former Windy City bassist Noh Seon-teck, has toured overseas, performing at this year's
. They also toured South America, as seen in this video of the song "Jungtaryeong" (Monk Song).
Amazingly, this isn't Korea's first pansori-reggae combination. That falls to I&I Djangdan, which was active from around 2008 to sometime early this decade. Their dub sound was distinct, and rather than performing pansori to reggae, they had original compositions, as well as "Arirang."
Jang Goon, their sorikkun, had already been collaborating with other bands including Kingston Rudieska. After I&I broke up, she and her husband continued making
"future pansori" music as Ninano Nanda
.
Although pansori is still seen as old-fashioned, there are countless young practitioners and many are experimenting with modern music. Somehow, reggae has been their best fit.
Jon Dunbar (
jonghyundunbar@gmail.com) contributes to The Korea Times.