Cankisou

Czech band Cankišou was established in 1999. The musicians in the band had until that time played in various other bands. They came together and decided to play ethno world music. They found their own original way. The band dug up an old legend about Canki people, learnt their language and collected musical instruments from all around the world — didjeridoo, djembe, yabbara, flutes, saxophones, percussions, mandolin, bass guitar, drums, etc. The band is influenced by many ethnic styles — Arabian, African, Balkan. All these influences put together with the rock history of each band member created a new genre: ethnobigbeat brass band. Cankišou music is based on positive energy and substantial wind instruments which force everybody to dance. Concerts are often accompanied by belly dancers.

The Canki people (the single-legged) are only vaguely recorded in legends handed down in sacred texts. We can find notes about them in some records from the Middle Ages too, such as a Mandevill's travel book (John Mandevill, about 1300-1372, an English doctor, mathematician and traveler). He writes there: "In that country there are people on some hills who have only one leg but who are more handy than the others. The leg is so big that, when lifted, it gives shadow to the whole body when the person is lying down." It is possible to draw conclusions from these documents that the original place where the Canki people lived was in a small area in desert fields in the mountains between today's Turkey and Syria. They used their big and developed leg not only to move but to create shadow in open sandy areas.

This makes clear why they carried a crutch all the time. Stuck in soil it was used as a support for their big leg. Nations migrated a lot in that time as we can read in the Mandevill travel book. The Canki people migrated a lot because they were undesirable at various places.

We can say the Canki people were a multicultural nation and their ethnographical placement isn't exact. Due to the migration, many people died and even Mandevill considers them as a human exceptionality — monsters.

The Canki people, as other nations in that time, spoke (sang) so-called original language, called "Syrian" or "Sun" language. This rhythmical language by which, according to the legends, life was delivered to people, can be traced only with difficulties today, maybe only among the oldest Arabian-African tribes. —Courtesy Calabash Music