Happy new year...

happy new year to you all out there.. hope 2012 brings you all you may need and more..

so. once again, time has flown and it's already mid-january, mid winter (i think -1 degrees this morning here in london?!) and i'm almost mid way through the first year at guildhall. phew! since i last wrote i've been on a grand musical venture...

the gambia, west africa.

for two weeks during december, as part of a cross-arts and trans-cultural elective at guildhall, 8 of us (and rather an international bunch.. aussie of course, dutch, mexican, american and english) travelled to the gambia, west africa to learn about four very different west african musical traditions. we spent our time drumming rhythms, singing and dancing through the days, absorbing the cultures and music of Susu, Mandinka, Wollof and Fula. every few days there were different visiting artists who would teach us various things about their respective tradition and style. 

day 1 we were taken to a hotel in bakau, just outside the main city of banjul. quite the introduction really. the atmosphere of the beach and ocean breeze, the sun, the horizon of the deep-blue and man-made sailing boats, certainly made for a fresh slate, leaving the icy cold, stressful and bustling city-scape behind us.

day 2 we were soon shuffled off, piling into a rickety van, luggage precariously bumping around on the top, travelling to out next destination, our home for the next two weeks. 

it was a fabulous and intense couple of weeks, with temperatures in the mid-30s. we lived in huts, making up a small camp just outside a small village called berefet, with a crew of locals that cooked up delicious traditional food. we were right on the river gambia too, where we could swim every day, escaping the heat. there was a few hours of electricity in the evenings only, run by a generator. and if we were lucky and the sun was shining brightly, we'd have running water too! i've never loved a shower so much as when you're covered in red dirt from dancing all day, mud remnants from the river and layers upon layers of citronella mosquito spray to escape the malaria carrying pests.

we worked hard absorbing all we could..  and it felt like a holiday at the same time! here's a bunch of pics from the two weeks: our teachers and few of us as well!

our susu teachers...

 

here's liza teaching the balafon (the african wooden xylophone with gourds) master how to play violin...

and some village shots: washing day under the boabab tree... 

and some entertainment by the local village women and children... soon after these images, the whole village turned up pretty much, around 150 women and children, absolutely going crazy dancing and singing. what a memorable occasion it was!!

mandinka lessons....

i was very inspired by our teacher Jaliba (meaning 'great musician') Momodou Suso, from the mandinka tribe. his vocals are hard to hear in this video (this one is the only one i could upload for some reason.. more coming next time!), but his playing of the kora makes up for it.. what a beautiful instrument. i'll find another video for next time where you can hear his vocals too..

amazing really, the importance of music and musicians in west africa. the stature that musicians have  traditionally in society, the respect for them, as well as the reverent messages behind the music that they create, is incredibly different to the western world. all music is taught aurally from generation to generation, they create and perform music to exchange messages, to resolve conflict, to influence political leaders with messages from the people. many of the songs we learned had a profound and respectful meaning behind them. 

we had a day off after our mandinka jaliba came to berefet.. we went on this boat... which was quite an experience!

to this island, kunta kinteh island, or james island...

which is an historical island.. i think actually a UNESCO world heritage site, that was used for the west african slave trade. it still has the ruins of administration buildings and cells on the island.. as well as some boabab trees (great fruit by the way..!). it was kind of eery, but certainly amazing to hear of its history. apparently it is now 1/6 of its original size due to erosion as well. 

ok, back to the music...

wollof music:

the wollof drumming was fantastic.. i bought a talking drum! yes i'm excited about it.. i'll dig out some more pics and videos this week too, as what i have here is very limited and i can't seem to upload any more videos today... crap internet!!!

then there was the fula musicians.. this is the only photo i found! more coming soon, i promise!! from the fula musicians, i bought a pair of lado lado's (i think they're called!), which are hand percussion shakers, make from sticks and cut out sections from a calabash.

and here's kat (our english gal, on the left), kabba (our local guide, who took a lot of convincing to come and dance), and maiike (one of our dutchys from the course) dancing with the musicians...

apologies for the lack of videos and music clips here.. i'll get the internet and videos sorted and will be back soon!!! thanks for reading.. any comments or questions welcome!

and coming next time also, are perhaps some photos form the guildhall.. who knows.. 

settling in to london...

ok. sorry for the delay. i've had an eventful 6 weeks or so, settling into london, world's end and guildhall. the 1st term of school is coming to an end though, so i can take some time over the next month to assess the first 3 months here and start planning for an eventful 2012.. yay!

the most exciting thing is yet to come.. on december 6th i fly to west africa, the gambia, for just over 2 weeks for a collaboration with local musicians.. i'll be immersed in their music culture & rhythms: drumming, singing and dancing.. i'll be taking plenty of photos and music clips so i'll definitely update this blog with lots of things to look at and hear!

recently, as you all know, the memorable day of 11/11/11 was upon us. it's the first time in 17 years (except for 2009 when i was in brazil!) that i have been absent from the buninyong rsl's annual commemorative service in regional victoria, australia, where i play the last post and reveille on the trumpet (ditto for anzac day too). this year, alongside my fellow masters companions, i was involved in a special project with inspiration from http://11elevenproject.com/   we created eleven, one minute compositions with 11 musicians, making a deadline for ourselves of recording each and collating them for upload to the 11eleven project. the first and last tracks were of 1 minute silence.. 6 others being composed in 11 minutes each, and the final 3 of them were made in 33 (11+11+11) minutes. thanks goes to detta, natasha, rené, evi, mirjam, liza, kat, cris, afla and chiel for making this happen... each track has a context and concept for/by all involved, which  proved challenging with the limitations of time for composing and recording. it was a great day, with loads of laughter.

on november 17 i was involved in another project i wrote briefly about last month.. i arranged an orchestral work based on julian nott's wallace & gromit theme (i've still got the tune running through my head!). it was performed at the roundhouse theatre in chalk farm, london, by the young person's concert foundation orchestra, who are pro muso's from around london. the foundation is a charity for kids... the musicians lead workshops and perform for children all around the united kingdom. for this particular concert, each work was arranged by a different composer/arranger and we had the option to conduct it.. of course i jumped upon this opportunity and absolutely loved it! after a crash course in orchestral conducting i managed to do pretty well (i think!). so my head is a-buzz with inspiration to write another orchestral work and conduct it myself... i'll keep you posted on my progress!!

mmm so i'm going to pause there so i can get back to some work.. i'll sort out some recordings this week from another group i've been playing with and upload some before i head off to the gambia.. happy ventures out there to all who read this! rae :)

A New Beginning...

so. i've arrived in london. this first month has flown by and i really wish i'd written before now coz by golly it's been an interesting, busy and crazy time.

after i said goodbye to my 'stuff' in the storage units, i closed the door and walked away with a refreshingly free feeling. it was kinda weird tho, as i've been quite used to having just enough space & things around me to create music and make my life progress.. my piano, vibraphone, my office of business tricks and pieces, books, never ending stand of hats to wear.... now however, i'm limited to a bag of clothes, a lap-top, my mellophone and my conducting baton. literally yes, my baton came with me and i'm looking forward to the first time i use it in a few weeks time, conducting an orchestra who will be performing an arrangement i'm orchestrating of julian nott's wallace & gromit theme. but more about that later...

so my first surprise came at the melbourne airport when i was astonished that the beers were cheaper than the northcote social club. wowweee! how things change and we just accept (the story of my life in the past month!!).

to cut a very long story short... don't try looking for a place to live in london in september. i can't explain it really, but it's a million times worse than what i imagined. the novelty of moving around every couple of days between hotels and friend's places wore off after a week.. believe me there's some really awesomeful hotels here.

i knew it would come to an end tho.... and now i find myself looking at a view like this, from my place in world's end... this is first light on saturday morning.





world's end (great name huh!) is south west london city.. it's a bit of a trek to school, but transport is good (waaay better than melbourne) and with a view like this it really feels like i can escape the city (kind-of) with some perspective anyway. here's another pic of the main city zoomed in a bit, later in the day...