Genre
Basque trikitixa and jazz fusion. A recording full of colour and different textures where trikitixa, jazz, fandango, and swing dance together in a spirit of "mestizaje" - Kepa Junkera's trikitia accordion confronting and transcending the instrument's traditional associations with the rural "caserío", demonstrating its full expressive range in a cosmopolitan context of improvisation and formal experimentation alongside electric guitar, saxophone, bass, and drums.
Release
Released in September 1990 by Elkarlanean Records. It was the second studio album of the Kepa-Zabaleta partnership, following Kepa, Zabaleta eta Motriku (1987).
Production
Musicians and collaborators: Kepa Junkera on trikitixa and trikitixa MIDI; Iñaki Zabaleta on trikitixa; Imanol Urkizu on vocals and pandero; Aitor Landeta on drums; Carlos García on bass; Javier Alzola on saxophone; Bixente Martínez on electric guitar, mandolin, and MIDI guitar; and Alberto Rodríguez on electric guitar.
Reception
The album was so far ahead of its time that it barely registered on the Basque music scene upon release - a fate that only enhanced its subsequent reputation as a pioneering document. "Triki Up" is regarded as an outstanding example of a blend between jazz and trikitixa dance music and as the album on which Kepa Junkera first fully demonstrated the trikitia's potential as a serious, versatile instrument capable of engaging with the full range of contemporary music.
Kepa, Zabaleta & Imanol
Kepa Junkera (born 1965, Bilbao) is a Basque musician, composer, and producer, widely regarded as the foremost innovator of the trikitixa - the Basque diatonic button accordion - of his generation. His first musical dream was realised when Oskorri became interested in the boy who played the trikitixa with such extraordinary skill; from 1983 onward they shared an uninterrupted musical friendship. He launched his solo recording career in 1987 alongside Iñaki Zabaleta - a fellow trikitilari - and Imanol Urkizu, a singer and pandero player from the Basque oral tradition. "Triki Up" was followed by "Trikitixa Zoom" (1991) and the European trio project Trans-Europe Diatonique (1993) with John Kirkpatrick and Riccardo Tesi. International recognition came with the celebrated double album Bilbao 00:00h (1998), featuring over 40 musicians. In October 2022, following a serious stroke, Junkera appeared in public for the first time in a wheelchair at the screening of Berpiztu/Renacer, a documentary about his life before and after the illness. Iñaki Zabaleta and Imanol Urkizu continued their respective careers in Basque traditional music.
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