For over 20 years, the Iowa City-originated funk-fusion worldbeat band EUFÓRQUESTRA has captured the hearts of music fans across their home state and beyond. Over the past decade or so, its members have scattered across the United States, but their winter homecomings have sparked an annual tradition: the “Home for the Holidays” concerts.
Every year, proceeds from EUFÓRQUESTRA’s “Home for the Holidays” shows benefit local food banks. This year, the band will play the Englert Theatre in Iowa City on Friday, Dec. 19, to support CommUnity Crisis Services, and Wooly’s on Saturday, Dec. 20, to raise money for the Food Bank of Iowa.
“We're all going to be back for Christmas time, and it just felt like, ‘Hey, why don't we try to get together and play some music again?’” EUFÓRQUESTRA guitarist and vocalist Mike Tallman said. “We can do some good for the community and partner with the food banks in these places and have a good time doing it.”
“A portion of ticket sales go to each [food bank] and then we're also doing a food drive, canned goods and nonperishables. We'll also have some special merchandise. The proceeds from that will benefit the food banks each night as well,” Tallman said.
Community is not only central to EUFÓRQUESTRA’s philanthropy; it’s also at the core of the band’s identity.
“Our band exists because there's such a great community, both in Des Moines and Iowa City,” EUFÓRQUESTRA saxophonist and vocalist Austin Zalatel said. “For 18 or 19 years, we hosted a music festival where that community came together and supported each other and had a really great time. We've always wanted to give back to that community, and we also feel like this year, more so than ever, the need for us to support the community is greater than it ever has been.”
EUFÓRQUESTRA’s latest record, While We Still Got Time, explores the band’s connection to the global community, especially to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Members of EUFÓRQUESTRA visited the DRC as part of a cultural exchange trip through the U.S. Department of State in early 2020.
“We spent about a week traveling around the DRC, primarily in Kinshasa and Goma. We got to see the huge metropolis that is Kinshasa, and meet some musicians there and do some workshops and play music all together. And then we got to fly to the other side of the country and do something similar in the town of Goma, which is just gorgeous, right on Lake Kivu. We played a music festival there, the Amani Festival, which is a giant music festival that centers around a message of peace in that part of the world,” Tallman said.
“Just connecting with these musicians in these different places, it had a big impact on all of us. That was February of 2020, so we came home, and then the world changed just a few weeks later. Partway through the pandemic, Matt Wright, our keyboardist, secured a grant for us to make a new album. When it was time to start to figure out the ideas for what to do with that record, a lot of us were leaning back on what had been our last big creative experience before the world shut down, and that was the trip to the DRC. We enlisted some of our friends from Kinshasa to play on one of the tracks, and it was just a really special thing for all of us.”
The energy of EUFÓRQUESTRA’s performances has been likened to jam band shows, but their music is unlike any other. Their worldbeat sound defies genre, combining elements of jazz, funk, afrobeat and many different influences. Concertgoers are in for a unique treat this weekend at “Home for the Holidays.”
“We've been really working hard to put together a show that we're excited about, and we're looking forward to having our time together and seeing our bandmates that we love and miss, so it's going to be a really fun weekend. We can't wait to share it with everybody,” Tallman said.
Tickets for this weekend’s Euforquestra shows are available on the Englert Theatre and Wooly’s websites. Attendees are encouraged to bring nonperishable food donations and an appetite for a good time!
