Monday, May 18, 2009
The ROOTs Cause
I pretty much use this blog as a reference site, as I recently started a fresh 'New Worldly Music' blog at The ROOTs Cause.
I will be updating there as often as I can, as I am unfortunately not able to sustain myself in the music industry alone, after we were forced to close down Peak Performances at the beginning of 2009 due to a whole stack of clients who didn't pay for the music after the fact. A sad state of affairs.
But the music continues, and so at The ROOTs Cause I will carry on the stories, giving the inside track to so many of our wonderfully talented musicians, and reminding you of some of our musical history.
The fat lady hasn't sung just yet!
I will be updating there as often as I can, as I am unfortunately not able to sustain myself in the music industry alone, after we were forced to close down Peak Performances at the beginning of 2009 due to a whole stack of clients who didn't pay for the music after the fact. A sad state of affairs.
But the music continues, and so at The ROOTs Cause I will carry on the stories, giving the inside track to so many of our wonderfully talented musicians, and reminding you of some of our musical history.
The fat lady hasn't sung just yet!
Labels: African, music, south africa, world music
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Zimbabwe crumbles, yet the music plays on
I received the following article from my dear friend Steve Sparx in Zimbabwe last week, and with all the news that we've been hearing about how Zim is collapsing, he gives us scary insight into what life is like that at the moment!
Well blow me down with a feather duster…. I got back to Zimbabwe and there it was…the extra nought. Perhaps at this point to talk of survival is almost too abstract , the facts on the ground are alarming.
It has gone stir crazy - just last Friday the price of petrol went up 4 times in a day at one service station - at the end of the day it was 50% more expensive than the start. Prices are changing as I write so to give too many examples would be worthless as they will be out of date before you can say “so how does the ‘simply add a nought’ school of economics work?”
I bought some CD’s for stock last week because the price was going up 50% the next day, the same amount it went up the week before and the week before that too. But I was lucky, they went up a further 80% this week.
Bracing for increases is a daily thing, there needs to be a move towards paying everybody daily - money needs to be disposable, spending what you have has become the order of the day.
One does not have to be a rocket scientist to guess who is being seriously affected - the poorly paid artist of course but still, the show goes on.
All the talk locally is about the upcoming album from the king of Sungura music - Alick “Razor” Macheso.
This particular style of Zimbabwean music is the “working man’s music”. You will hear it at every bottle store, and shopping centre and in the minibuses and on the radios all day, all over Zimbabwe.
The style was adopted shortly after independence in the ‘80’s and the groove appears to have been imported from Congo and Malawi, although the lyrics are all in Shona (and mostly proverbs) - it was the new style of music for a new era in the post independent country and was rapidly popularized by the likes of the late Simon “Chopper” Chimbetu and Leonard Dembo.
With it’s constant bass drum beat, chattering hi-hats and snazzy rolls, and rapid fire guitars; the music is characterized by a 4-5 minute introduction where the lyrics are introduced with the riff going along; thereafter there is a further 6-10 minutes of guitar/bass/drum lead section - during which time the dancing happens.
The groups normally comprise 2 or 3 lead/rhythm guitars, bass guitar, drums, lead singer, 2 backing singers and perhaps 3 dancers who have there own particular style of dress and hairstyle (sometimes bleached and with ‘nicks’ in their eyebrows). They lead the audience with the dance routines. The most popular dances are the “Borrowdale” (named after the local horse racing track where they imitate a horse running) and an offshoot “Razor” dance (something to do with barbed wire) - both of these have been made popular by Alick Macheso and both involve some natty footwork and body movement.
So to the new album… when Alick releases it is expected to sell hundreds of thousands of units - with a large portion of sales being made up of cassettes -still popular in households throughout the country. Every member of a family would want to own an Alick album so all ears are tuned to the new release which, for the first time , he has had recorded in South Africa and will be accompanied by a DVD.
This guy appeals to a legion of fans and his shows are a real blast. There are 2 launch gigs set for the coming 2 weekends - I will let you know how they go.
That’s the word from the Zimbabwe music scene - until next time gotta go I feel another “nought’ coming
Sparx
Well blow me down with a feather duster…. I got back to Zimbabwe and there it was…the extra nought. Perhaps at this point to talk of survival is almost too abstract , the facts on the ground are alarming.It has gone stir crazy - just last Friday the price of petrol went up 4 times in a day at one service station - at the end of the day it was 50% more expensive than the start. Prices are changing as I write so to give too many examples would be worthless as they will be out of date before you can say “so how does the ‘simply add a nought’ school of economics work?”
I bought some CD’s for stock last week because the price was going up 50% the next day, the same amount it went up the week before and the week before that too. But I was lucky, they went up a further 80% this week.
Bracing for increases is a daily thing, there needs to be a move towards paying everybody daily - money needs to be disposable, spending what you have has become the order of the day.
One does not have to be a rocket scientist to guess who is being seriously affected - the poorly paid artist of course but still, the show goes on.
All the talk locally is about the upcoming album from the king of Sungura music - Alick “Razor” Macheso. This particular style of Zimbabwean music is the “working man’s music”. You will hear it at every bottle store, and shopping centre and in the minibuses and on the radios all day, all over Zimbabwe.
The style was adopted shortly after independence in the ‘80’s and the groove appears to have been imported from Congo and Malawi, although the lyrics are all in Shona (and mostly proverbs) - it was the new style of music for a new era in the post independent country and was rapidly popularized by the likes of the late Simon “Chopper” Chimbetu and Leonard Dembo.
With it’s constant bass drum beat, chattering hi-hats and snazzy rolls, and rapid fire guitars; the music is characterized by a 4-5 minute introduction where the lyrics are introduced with the riff going along; thereafter there is a further 6-10 minutes of guitar/bass/drum lead section - during which time the dancing happens.
The groups normally comprise 2 or 3 lead/rhythm guitars, bass guitar, drums, lead singer, 2 backing singers and perhaps 3 dancers who have there own particular style of dress and hairstyle (sometimes bleached and with ‘nicks’ in their eyebrows). They lead the audience with the dance routines. The most popular dances are the “Borrowdale” (named after the local horse racing track where they imitate a horse running) and an offshoot “Razor” dance (something to do with barbed wire) - both of these have been made popular by Alick Macheso and both involve some natty footwork and body movement.
So to the new album… when Alick releases it is expected to sell hundreds of thousands of units - with a large portion of sales being made up of cassettes -still popular in households throughout the country. Every member of a family would want to own an Alick album so all ears are tuned to the new release which, for the first time , he has had recorded in South Africa and will be accompanied by a DVD. This guy appeals to a legion of fans and his shows are a real blast. There are 2 launch gigs set for the coming 2 weekends - I will let you know how they go.
That’s the word from the Zimbabwe music scene - until next time gotta go I feel another “nought’ coming
Sparx
Labels: Alick Macheso, world music, Zimbabwe
Monday, June 04, 2007
Zimbabwe: if in doubt add a nought
Steve Sparx here continuing the dialogue on “surviving an economic meltdown” - it’s been 3 weeks the only thing that changed was the extra zero on the cost of everything.The phenomenon known as hyperinflation has led to the introduction of the “simply add a nought” school of economics with the main rule being… “if in doubt add a nought“.
Predictions are that inflation will rise even more and pretty soon we gonna run out of “noughts” on the computer again… suppose we will have to start again from “nought”.
I said it before but the hour before dawn is the darkest and it is at these times that we closest approximate the truth - as the veils fall away the truth is revealed. Expression prevails and creativity emanates. The survival instinct is paramount in us all.
So despite the challenges of everyday survival it is our duty to look to the outcome we desire the most - recognition, success and bringing joy through entertainment.
I have been in England now for a couple of weeks, further promoting our musical cause - sending out promotional literature, talking to promoters and getting our music out to all the contacts made over the past years.
Hopefully this will translate to a tour here later in the year and we are hoping to make it something of a special one too. One of the strengths we developed in Zimbabwe was in utilizing our artists more practically so that by small changes in the backline we could showcase individual artists at the same show without having to move around with complete bands for each showcase act. A good example of this has been that Busi Ncube effectively uses the same backing band as Willom Tight and Dino Mudondo, whilst the same backing group (with a couple of extras) forms the backline for The Collaboration (left). We have made shows where we have showcased 5 different acts each with 5-8 artists using only around 20 performers.Our plan then is to put together a tour of Scandinavia for Busi and Band Rain in Oct/November and then to come to UK for a series of shows, at which time we will fly in Willom and Dino and then do “double headers” with a focus on the Zimbabweans living in the so-called ‘diaspora’ who would really enjoy that combination. Whilst for those ‘non-Zimbabweans’ in the house they get the chance to enjoy a wider spectrum of Zimbabwean music styles as portrayed by each act.
There are an estimated million Zimbabweans living in UK believe it or not, and they have been sustained on a diet on Oliver Mtukudzi (right) and Alick Macheso - the 2 existing “superstars” of the Zim music scene - they travel here 2 or 3 times each a year. There is definitely a demand for something fresh and that’s the gap we want to fill. But that's not to say we only want Zimbabweans - we hope our music will hold some wider appeal too.So that’s where we are up to so far - I return to Zimbabwe next week - expecting to be shocked by the changes - a month in one’s life here can truly be defining. Until next time
Sparx
Labels: Busi Ncube, The Collaboration, world music, Zimbabwe
Monday, May 07, 2007
The Collaboration's Urombo - Zimbabwe
It is my pleasure to be able to provide another installment from Stevie Sparx, our Zimbabwean music man, regarding a group that I touched briefly on before, The Collaboration. But I will let Steve explain more:
It was nearly 3 years ago that, with a rapidly deteriorating economy in Zimbabwe, and the flight of performing artists out of the country, we decided to bring together what might be called “the best of the rest” and look for new ways to enhance the music biz in Zim and find ways to promote our music to as close to an international level as possible.
Our first year was spent preparing material for a project under the banner “The Collaboration” - each member of the group is basically aligned to their own band and we encouraged the artists to pursue their own career as well as to participate in the project - what we ended up with was the album “Hupenyu Kumusha/Life at Home/Impilo eKhaya” which is an amalgamation of ideas from the contributors and features a variety of styles and grooves from Afropop to Zimjazz.
The album was launched in 2006 and a string of live performances followed, culminating in an appearance on the main stage during the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA - 2007 has just finished!).
The track Urombo - a traditional song (done earlier by Thomas Mapfumo) that we have revamped was released in Nov 06 on the Revolution album 4 U - done by the Mothiba twins, the album was nominated for a SAMA. The track talks of the poverty of life alone and the need to continue to strive and to work together.
Rather poignantly, track 2 on the album “Illusions” was inspired by the governments slum clean up operation in 2005 - 2 of our artists were personally affected - the bass player had his bedroom removed from the house as an “illegal extension” while the mbira player’s house was surrounded by rubble from structures torn down all around his home and he lost the income from a few “lodgers” too.
We continue to promote the grouping and our most recent performances have been at Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar and at Chimanimani Festival here in Zim.
The spin off of this album has been the recording and promotion of other groups of whom members of The Collaboration are party to.
Our latest release “Malaisha” from Busi Ncube and band Rain is starting to gain interest - I was in Norway recently to promote a tour for the group later in the year - this follows their appearance at Mela Festival in Oslo in 2006.
Busi is a founder member of legendary Zim band Ilanga - featuring Andy Brown, the late Don Gumbo, Busi and Keith Farquharson the group were leaders in the Afro fusion genre and produced a string of local hits.
Busi sings in 6 languages and her distinctive style has made her a firm favourite in Zimbabwe - she also plays mbira and percussion. We have also recorded material for Zimjazz trio Too Open, and have a couple of other projects at various stages of recording.
Stevie Sparx
Harare Zimbabwe
So here is a video of the track Urombo, from the album Hupenyu Kumusha/Life at Home/Impilo eKhaya - neighbour, I hear you in Zimbabwe!
It was nearly 3 years ago that, with a rapidly deteriorating economy in Zimbabwe, and the flight of performing artists out of the country, we decided to bring together what might be called “the best of the rest” and look for new ways to enhance the music biz in Zim and find ways to promote our music to as close to an international level as possible.Our first year was spent preparing material for a project under the banner “The Collaboration” - each member of the group is basically aligned to their own band and we encouraged the artists to pursue their own career as well as to participate in the project - what we ended up with was the album “Hupenyu Kumusha/Life at Home/Impilo eKhaya” which is an amalgamation of ideas from the contributors and features a variety of styles and grooves from Afropop to Zimjazz.
The album was launched in 2006 and a string of live performances followed, culminating in an appearance on the main stage during the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA - 2007 has just finished!).The track Urombo - a traditional song (done earlier by Thomas Mapfumo) that we have revamped was released in Nov 06 on the Revolution album 4 U - done by the Mothiba twins, the album was nominated for a SAMA. The track talks of the poverty of life alone and the need to continue to strive and to work together.
Rather poignantly, track 2 on the album “Illusions” was inspired by the governments slum clean up operation in 2005 - 2 of our artists were personally affected - the bass player had his bedroom removed from the house as an “illegal extension” while the mbira player’s house was surrounded by rubble from structures torn down all around his home and he lost the income from a few “lodgers” too.
We continue to promote the grouping and our most recent performances have been at Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar and at Chimanimani Festival here in Zim.
The spin off of this album has been the recording and promotion of other groups of whom members of The Collaboration are party to.
Our latest release “Malaisha” from Busi Ncube and band Rain is starting to gain interest - I was in Norway recently to promote a tour for the group later in the year - this follows their appearance at Mela Festival in Oslo in 2006.Busi is a founder member of legendary Zim band Ilanga - featuring Andy Brown, the late Don Gumbo, Busi and Keith Farquharson the group were leaders in the Afro fusion genre and produced a string of local hits.
Busi sings in 6 languages and her distinctive style has made her a firm favourite in Zimbabwe - she also plays mbira and percussion. We have also recorded material for Zimjazz trio Too Open, and have a couple of other projects at various stages of recording.
Stevie Sparx
Harare Zimbabwe
So here is a video of the track Urombo, from the album Hupenyu Kumusha/Life at Home/Impilo eKhaya - neighbour, I hear you in Zimbabwe!
Labels: Busi Ncube, The Collaboration, world music, Zimbabwe
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Remix Peter Gabriel for Real!
Fancy yourself to be a DJ – a real DJ? How about remixing some tracks by Angelique Kidjo, or Peter Gabriel? Do you want the big man himself to hear your creation? Well, Real World Studios is letting you do just that!All you have to do is register at their site RealWorldRemixed.com, choose a remix kit of one of the artists listed to download, get advice about which software to use, and gooi-malloy! Very, very cool.
The first artist featured on the site is Angelique Kidjo, & her track Salala featuring Peter Gabriel. They explain about the track on the site:
"The key was to build DJIN DJIN on a Beninese foundation. The heartbeat, then, comes from percussionists Crespin Kpitiki and Benoit Avihoue, both members of Benin's Gangb'e Brass Band. Details of their country's rhythmic heritage, specific in some cases to individual villages, feed the rhythms they lay down throughout the album.
The contributions of stellar guest artists illuminate Kidjo's concept. By finding a place for their distinctive talents within the marriage of African and Western influences, DJIN DJIN celebrates the beauty of diversity as well as the unity of cultures that Kidjo achieves through her music."
And how about this – to all you oldies out there – Peter Gabriel’s Shock The Monkey!Wouldn’t you like Peter to hear your version of this classic?
"Peter Gabriel's Shock the Monkey is probably one of the most recognized tracks from his fourth solo album recorded between spring 1981 and summer 1982. This was one of the first tracks to use sampling technology utilizing the ground breaking Fairlight CMI and and other classic machines such as the Linn Drum and the Prophet 5 synth. You can hear these sounds throughout the sample pack. "
"...people saw that as a sort of animal rights song, but it wasn't actually it was a song about jealousy."
This is really a way of embracing the power of the internet as a musician. People are always going to find ways of downloading tracks illegally, and so instead of just jumping up and down in frustration, Peter Gabriel is embracing his fans, and including their thoughts in tracks recorded at Real World. Awesome.So get over there, download some music, play around with it, and give it back – sounds like a lot of fun - after all there has been a warning about cold weather coming this weekend!
Here is a video of Peter Gabriel and Youssou N'Dour performing 'Biko', in memory of a great man.
Labels: Angelique Kidjo, Peter Gabriel, remix, world music
Friday, April 20, 2007
Cameroonian Della Tamin in Jozi
One of the greatest joys of working in the music industry, is when you get to meet & hear about lots of exciting new artists. And getting to know that artists work seems to broaden horizons – you can’t take that knowledge away, you can only add to it. That’s what its like having Robert Trunz as a music guru! He’s forever broadening my horizons!The latest artist that he introduced me to is the Johannesburg-based Della Tamin, originally from the Wouri region in Cameroon, where some of the great artists such as Prince Eyango and the late Kotto Bass were his immediate influences.
Della’s songs, which he pens himself, are in his mother-tongue, Medumba, as well as Duala, French & English, and he has been making a name for himself of late by performing at Moyo Restaurants in and around Jo’burg, following a very successful gig at the Bassline.
Della studied physics & chemistry at the University of Cameroon, graduating as a Civil Technician before coming to SA in 2004.
He is recording an album through MELT, which we can expect at a later stage of 2007.So here’s a little track to broaden your horizon! Della was joined on stage by some local artists, including the Kwani Experience & Live African Percussion duo Frank Magongwa (left) on Bass & percussionist Bafana Nhlapo.
Have an awesome weekend folks – we have a stunning start in Cape Town today!
1st Video from Zoopy.com... a funky little site!
07/04/23 UPDATE: I was waiting for a mail from Robert as I couldn't remember the back-up vocalists name - it's Laure Yolande Noongo, also from Cameroon, and this mama has a voice to listen to!Her range goes from Folk to Opera, and I am sure we are going to hear more of her!
I also asked Robert if Della's music would be classed as more World Music mix, or if it is a typical Cameroonian style, and he replied, "On the one hand he is a singer/songwriter who composes his own songs with a strong influence of the rhythmic patterns of the region of Yaounde (Cameroon) where he was born but Della also admires French chansons which comes out in his romantic and often quite dramatic song writing" - so there you have it.
Labels: Cameroon, Della Tamin, Kwani Experience, world music
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Vusi Mahlasela conquers USA
To my small contingent of American friends (want hierdie blok is meestal vir Suid Afrikaaners wat nie ‘Bos’ befok is nie, en ek praat nie van die Knysna bos nie - ok ok ok in English – South Africa has stunning nature, with lovely forests!) I would like to warn you of our newest South African Music Award winner Vusi Mahlasela (Best Solo Male Artist) whose May dates have just been confirmed.If you haven’t heard Vusi before, you have a spot in your brain that is still empty and waiting for the beautiful music that has made him this year’s top dog!
Vusi will be back on tour in the USA starting May 5. The tour kicks off at the Co-Existence Festival in New Brunswick, NJ.
05/05/07 New Brunswick, NJ Co-Existence Festival
05/06/07 Northampton, MA The Iron Horse
05/09/07 New York, NY Sounds of Brazil
05/10/07 Baltimore, MD Ram's Head Live
05/12/07 Jamestown, VA America's 400th Anniversary Celebration
05/13/07 Charlottesville, VA Starr Hill
(If you're a USA'er) Tune into your local NPR station Monday, April 16th to listen to Vusi on Morning Edition. Please visit www.npr.org to listen online or to find your local station. (Vusi's segment will be in the second half of the program and will also be archived online.) Vusi chats with Renee Montagne about his new album, Guiding Star, and discusses his upbringing in South Africa and his role in the struggle against Apartheid.Then, all my friends in Europe, these are the dates that have been confirmed so far! If you can’t be there yourself, I am sure you know someone who knows someone who will want to be there, so here are the dates:
05/16/07 Angouleme, France Musiques Metisses
05/17/07 Coutances, France Jazz Sous Les Pommiers
05/19/07 Lisboa, Portugal Casa de Musica
05/21/07 San Sebastian, Spain City Festival
Go Vusi! Another Proudly South African export!
Labels: Europe, SAMA, tour, USA, vusi mahlasela, world music
Thursday, April 05, 2007
I am Pops Mohamed
Pops Mohamed, an artist who has appeared and collaborated with some of the most interesting artists in the world, was in Cape Town on Tuesday and I managed to catch up with him for a quick chat.
He wanted to send out a message to all young musicians in South Africa, and across this vast and beautiful continent, about how important it is to know where you come from, to be able to know where you are going.
Having recorded with traditional artists such as the San of the Kalahari, cultural ambassadors such as Amampondo, Dizu Plaatjies, and even being backed by the London Sound Collective, or funky DJ's like Rudeboy Paul, Revolution, Blackcoffee, as on his new release The Fucha Rist.
Pops is an artist who embraces traditional sounds and makes them funky by modernizing them with electronica; such as appearing with the 109-year old !Gube Tee Tee and his family, and combining this most ancient trance dance with jazz and DJ’s for events around the world.
This is music from Africa, for the world.
Hope you have a good, and safe, Easter weekend!
He wanted to send out a message to all young musicians in South Africa, and across this vast and beautiful continent, about how important it is to know where you come from, to be able to know where you are going.
Having recorded with traditional artists such as the San of the Kalahari, cultural ambassadors such as Amampondo, Dizu Plaatjies, and even being backed by the London Sound Collective, or funky DJ's like Rudeboy Paul, Revolution, Blackcoffee, as on his new release The Fucha Rist.Pops is an artist who embraces traditional sounds and makes them funky by modernizing them with electronica; such as appearing with the 109-year old !Gube Tee Tee and his family, and combining this most ancient trance dance with jazz and DJ’s for events around the world.
This is music from Africa, for the world.
Hope you have a good, and safe, Easter weekend!
Labels: Pops Mohamed, shout-out, world music
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Peak is a 2007 Best SA Music Blog finalist!
We are very excited at Peak, due to the announcement that Peak People has been nominated as a finalist for the 2007 SA Blog Awards in the category of Best SA Music Blog! Now it comes down to votes! Go to the 2007 SA Blog Awards and vote for us!
Only one vote is allowed per email address, with a minimum of 3 votes in different categories, after which a confirmation email will be sent for you to reconfirm that you are real...
So send this link through to as many people as you can, and we will look forward to bringing you lots more stories about the exciting artists that come through our doors!
And, finally, thank you to all those who nominated us - it was totally unexpected, but thoroughly appreciated!
14h41 UPDATE: OK... it seems I have moved from Best SA Music Blog to Best SA Entertainment Blog - am still trying to confirm, but that shouldn't stop the votes from rolling in! Hmmm - always did want to stand for some kind of election! LET THERE BE MUSIC (and ENTERTAINMENT) for the MASSES!
15h52 UPDATE: OK... I am back on Best SA Music Blog folks! So feel free to vote - or have I already said that?!
Labels: classical, electronica, finalist, jazz, music, SA Blog Awards, Soweto Gospel Choir, traditional, world music
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Kalahari Surfers and Friends for Red Bull
Yesterday we stuck our heads in at the final rehearsal in Cape Town between Warrick Sony from the Kalahari Surfers, Dizu Plaatjies (Ibuyambo), Lulu (Lungiswa Plaatjies pictured right with Warrick)), Xolani Gongxeka and Xoliswa Tom for another very exciting international project. At a time when South Africa is once again making an impact on the international stage – congratulations to the Soweto Gospel Choir for their Grammy Award for Best World Music album – it is exciting to feel a part of marketing these exciting projects from our country to the rest of the world.
This South African world music ensemble had come together before setting off for Salzburg Austria today at 17h00, to perform at Red Bull’s Hangar 7, for three performances – on the 16th, 17th and 21st of Feb. They are going to be joined in Austria by artists from Zip Zap Circus, and will be collaborating for one spectacular Aerial Scarf act, bringing together all the South African influences.
They have been invited to perform there as part of the exhibition titled – Turbulence – Art from South Africa , with exhibits by artists Sanell Aggenbach, Conrad Botes, Nicholas Hlobo, Ledelle Moe (pictured left is Heads: Collapse II, 2004 - Concrete, steel, oil), Samson Mudzunga, Brett Murray, Johannes Phokela, Lyndi Sales and Joachim Schonfeldt (the exhibit lasts from 17 February to 11 April 2007). And there is some amazing material out on show! We naturally are very excited to be involved with the mixing of musical styles again; the Kalahari Surfers electronic sound combined with traditional percussion, drumming and vocals, bringing together the old and the new.
All these artists have incredible experience with this kind of project, having done similar things with Juno Reactor, the African Dope crew, and other genre’s like Jazz, Gospel and . Add to this ensemble Inka Kendzia, who as VJ will be projecting African images and animation to the music, and I guarantee that the audience is going to be blown away! (I will be doing a feature in Inka as soon as she returns!) .
This rehearsal video is a little dark and grainy, and the music is very much in its infancy stages, but it gives you a good idea of how these artists compliment each other. There is also a very interesting little interview with Dizu for French TV5’s Mondomix – and I will be getting some more footage later this week of other shows!
Take it easy folks!
Labels: Aerial Scarf, African, African Dope Records, Dizu Plaatjies, electronica, Inka, jazz, Juno Reactor, Kalahari Surfers, Soweto Gospel Choir, traditional, world music, Zip Zap
Friday, January 26, 2007
Tinariwen - from the deserts of Mali
Yesterday was so hot, it seemed like we had all gone to hell! It was impossible for any straight thinking; crazy to even try and move a muscle in the heat; and no matter how many times the office jumped in the pool, it just didn’t make it any cooler, or easier, to think. I did find a very pleasant place to spend the previous evening – we took the boys to the Spur at West Coast Village (right), where they had an ingenious way of keeping the customers cool. With a water-pipe, and small spray nozzles, a heavy mist would be sprayed into the air above us every 15-minutes, making us all feel like we were fresh produce at Fruit & Veg City – who use a similar method of keeping the veggies looking fresh! And it really works at keeping the air cooler, and us sitting at the table longer.
Talking about hot stuff, we had a great meeting yesterday with Heidi da Sousa – Craig da Sousa’s wife and manager – who has now taken over the management of one of our firm favourites, the sexy sounding Iridium Project.
They have had a slight change in membership, seeing Mario Parmeggiani return to Italy (for love) and Craig taking his place for local, and soon, international gigs. The group is planning a tour of Europe later in the year, with another Cape musical powerhouse, Goldfish (pictured left), and we will be assisting them in finding more gigs across the continent at club’s, festivals & of course all those S.A. corporate’s that are missing home so much! I am also very excited that Iridium Project is working on their 2nd album, expected around August 2007, which is pretty impressive; if you consider that it took almost 6-years to complete their first!
So, now, as it’s a wonderfully cool Friday, I thought I would feature something very funky, and well, cool!
Tinariwen (Tamashek for ‘empty places’), a group of traditional musicians from the deserts of Mali, have been making waves on the international performing circuit with their incredibly ‘hip’ style of music, called Tishoumaren – meaning literally ‘music of the unemployed’. Tinariwen was started in 1982, in Moammar al-Qadhafi’s camps for Tuareg rebels; their music’s main theme being of their desire for independence from the government of Mali, after almost a century of clashes with governments and colonial masters, who wished to control them.
As camel riding nomads, the Tuareg differ notably from most other Moslem cultures, in that it is the men who cover their faces with a veil, or Tagelmust – an indigo blue dyed strip of cotton that can be up to 10 meters long forming both veil & turban - when they reach maturity. Their society is also matrilineal – meaning that they draw decent from their mother’s line, as opposed to a patriarchal society.
Tinariwen released many cassettes in their first 18-years, but released their first CD outside of Africa in December 2000. Since then they have appeared at a number of World Music festivals around the world, having been one of the highlights of the 2004 WOMAD Festival in Reading, U.K. (where Amampondo also appeared), and I am really looking forward to their 2007 album ‘Aman Iman’ – already being touted by BBC Radio 3’s Andy Kershaw as 2007’s album of the year (and that was in 2006!).
So enjoy this little video – Tinariwen is the only Tuareg musical group to make use of the electrical guitar – and remember that this is just another slice of the wonderful African music cake! Tinariwen - Amassakoul 'n' Tenere & Chet Boghassa
Labels: craig da sousa, goldfish, iridium project, mali, tinariwen, tuareg, world music
