| MusicFrom Many Lands |
Gypsy Music From Rajasthan In March, 2006, I recorded the music of Munganyar and Kalbelia "gypsies" in and around the ancient desert citadel of Jaissalmer in Rajasthan. I was looking for evidence to support my theory, and I believe I found it, that many of the basic melodic sequences in Russian, Celtic, Turkish, North African, Malian blues, American blues, flamenco Cuban son, and Brazilian samba originate in Rajasthan. See my article about this trip in the April, 2008 issue of Travel + Leisure Magazine, and the documentary "La Cho Drom," which made me realize this. I had already confirmed the strong connection between Malain music and American blues; see Dispatch #25; the question was where did the Malians get this bluesy sound?" Click here to listen to and read about their music. I wrote and copyrighted this song in l970, and sold it along with a batchof other songs to Manny Greenhill, whose Folkore Entperises managed JoanBaez, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Doc Watson, my guitar teacherand guru, Reverend Gary Davis (see my Rolling Stone story about him inthe Past Dispatches), and many other fine country blues and folk artists,and still does, although Manny, who was a lovely man, passed away a fewyears ago, and it's now run by his son Mitch Greenhill (who is a one hellof a fingerpicker in his own right). In those days, I was living in WestchesterCounty, and I used to sing it with Penny Cline, a big woman from West Virginiawho has a gorgeous voice and later became a follower of Swami Mukdanandaand changed her name to Nada, under which name she has recorded, I've heard,some hauntingly beautiful Hindu devotional songs. Nada/Penny and I havebeen out of touch for decades, and I'd like to get together with her andsee how we'd do the song now. I originally conceived of it as a kind of gospel song, but over the years, as I've been absorbed other influences,it's become more African. The chord progression is D A G A, the oppositeof La Bamba (D G A G) and the same as in many Zairian rumbas, althoughI play it at a slower, more soul tempo. The first version was recorded in the winter of 2003 in Mario Sinai'sstudio in Montreal. I sing and play my sweet Mexican classical guitar,made in Paracho (the town in Michoacan devoted to guitar-making), in twointerweaving tracks, and the kids in the chorus are sons Oliver and Zachary,and a girl named Kayleigh Choiniere (with an accent grave on thefirst e), who lives up the street from us in the arrondissement of MileEnd. This spring we are hoping to record the song properly and make a videoof it with my old friend Kate McGarrigle producing and Abbey Neidick andIrene Angelico's DLI Productions filming and Borza Gomeshi recording. This March, 2004, I was in Bamako, soaking up the extraordinary music sceneand reporting a Dispatch on Mali, which is one of the world's poorest countriesbut actually one of the richest, with one of the richest musical mosaicsand ancient traditions in wood-sculpture. But the Sahel is desertifying.This Dispatch, which I am in the process of writing, is about both themusic and the desertification. I stayed with Toumani Diabate, the greatmaster, the Ravi Shankar, of the kora, the West African 21-string harp,and one afternoon, his fabulous guitarist, Fantamady Kouyate (acute accenton the e), and I recorded a Malian version of "One Morning Soon," whichis on the second cut. Songs are in MP3 format,to save to your hard drive, right click and select SaveAs.
One of the missions of the Dispatches is to record and post as many versions of "One Morning Soon" from around the world that we can, and eventually to put them out in a cd. This summer Alex finally recorded his debut album, "Suitcase on the Loose," in Kate McGarrigle's studio with Kate producing and some of Montreal's greatest musicians. Now (October, 2007) in the finally stages of mixing, it should be out early next year. Those who stumble onto our site and this song are welcome to record theirown version and e-mail it to usat AlexShoumatoff@Shoumatopia.com,and if we like it, we'll put it up. Craig Lapp is a Montreal-based soundman who went to the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) four times over 2003 to do a documentary on the U.N. peacekeeping mission in DR Congo for the National Film Board, when he took these pictures. They are accompanied by the music of Franco, le Grand Maitre, the founder of the OK Jazz band and the B.B. King of Afro-Cuban rumba guitar-picking, with its glissading silver runs high on the neck and its endless variations and syncopations of a couple of insistently repeated chords. Click here to read the Dispatch. During Alex's stay in Botswana in 2007, photographer David Hampton was able to record the tribal dance of local Bushmen.Take a look. ____________________________ This section remains under construction as we are beginning to re-record some of ReverendGary Davis's unreleased songs and some of my songs. We are beginning toprepare for posting a l970 tape of Reverend Davis, a l970 tape of a Jamaicanwoman named Cinderella Robinson singing religious songs, a l976 tape ofMenkranoti Indian women in the Amazon chanting in the dawn in the Men'sHut, and a l980 tape of Efe pygmies in the Ituri Forest For now, you can tunein to the Past Dispatches' Music From Many Lands Section and read the RollingStone Profile of Rev. Davis Clickhere to see it. |