17 Hippies

Flights & Sounds of Summer

September 5, 2009, 8:00 PM
Free Admission, $8 Parking (Map)

For the past 12 years Berlin’s very own “orchester spezial” has been playing its whirling, crashing, diving, bobbing and weaving mixture of music that morphs French songs, English ballads and international rhythms into a captivating cocktail of sound. An eclectic band of virtuosi, the17 Hippies are variously masters of the accordion, trombone, trumpet, violin, cello, woodwinds, mandolin, ukulele, banjo, Irish bouzouki, guitar, double bass and harmonium. And then there are the stellar vocals, in German, English and French…

Citing influences as disparate as the Romanian Gypsy band Taraf de Haidouks, composer Johannes Brahms, Ireland’s the Pogues and California’s Los Lobos and Captain Beefheart, 17 Hippies make music that is simultaneously intricate, raucously free-form and highly habit-forming.

The group was formed 14 years ago and has released 12 albums since then. Their Great Park performance is their only scheduled Southern California appearance, but this year they’ll be seen in such diverse venues as the new music hotspot Le Poisson Rouge in New York City, the Big Sur Spirit Garden, and a regional conference for performing arts managers in St Paul MN. And that’s only their US dates; they tour extensively in Europe. Artist Website