Musical Clubs

Musical Clubs

Finally managed to get that last post out. I tried doing the remote email posting thing with the picture and it just never arrived. Hmmm, I'm told mercury is in retrograde, but whatever, digital bugs are digital bugs and when it's user error it's just that - user error.

So, this last post is a bit late. The session with Mahsin that was to happen on Saturday never happened. I called to confirm and he said he was on his way to do a workshop in Pemba, a neighboring island and that he'd be back in 2 weeks. Good thing I called to confirm.

The big recording of Safar that I was so excited for that was meant to happen today was cancelled as well. I got the heads up from Hilde, the director of the music academy, who brought good and bad news - no recording and sorry for them not contacting you, but would you like to have dinner? Yes. Of course.

So, last night I had dinner with her at her incredible rooftop apartment in Stone Town. We drank red wine and listened to Werner Graebner's 2004 recording of the Ikhwaani Safaa Musical Club (also informally known as the Malindi Musical Club) and many other choice bits. I got to hear lots of interesting gossip and insider info on local personalities, music, and the "place that is not as it seems (famous quote from Livingstone commonly seen in tourist brochures and such)." Long story short, there is a lot that goes on behind the veil so to speak. She also gave me a tip for a place to buy music and more specifically, cassettes of old school taraab. So, my promise that I'll post some music is slowly coming to fruition.

Aside from being the director of the music academy and a well known figure about town (it's so small here that you can't do ANYTHING without EVERYBODY knowing it), she is a violinist and has played with the Malindi Musical club off and on. She invited me to go and check out one of their rehearsals sometime soon. I'm very curious. A Musical Club. Hmmm..first impressions are from Buena Vista Social Club. That is a fairly apt comparison, but the main difference would be that although the Malindi Musical Club is the oldest club (founded in 1905) in Zanzibar, it is not in fact, composed of professional musicians (there are a few exceptions though, which I'll get to later). It is a Musical CLUB. Meaning, it is a social occasion. Normally, they rehearse every night. They have a starting time, but really people just show up when they show up. They go there for the music, but they also go there because they want to see friends, gossip (this has got to be one of the most important things there is to do here. for example, the greetings totally encourage this: "mambo vipi? habari yako?" how are your affairs? What's your story? and then on and on....asking about work, home, family, wife, children, whatever else), maintain an affair with the singer or whoever.

Eventually, I found my back to my new digs. I moved to a dingy little place with lumpy, uneven beds (I have 2) and too small mosquito nets. At least here I can have musicians come over to record. That is, if I can ever actually get anyone to record. ;-) My last place, although clean and nice was loud and didn't allow guests. so, I've sacrificed puritanical family regime and spotless tile floors for cracked, dirty nastiness and autonomy. it's best to be independent, me thinks.....

when I got home my friend Star (Klaus over at Out Here recordings hooked me up with him) stopped by and invited me to go with him to Bhawani, the one and only club in Zanzibar. I hesitated, but decided I had had enough wine and that if I was gonna go, this was the time, so I said yes. We hopped in a cab and in 5 minutes we were there.

Weird. Weird. Weird. It's a big place. almost like and amusement park. Tons of youth roaming around outside. Not what I had in mind for a hotel. anyway, we went up the big curved walkway that led up to the pool area. An enourmous inverted cone balanced itself over the bar area where a DJ spun modern taraab to a dancefloor that had no one on it. The pool was deep, but empty and lined with ropes. nearby was the bar with its standard caged in bar area. you have to reach through the bars to pay and get your drink. People swarmed around the pool area and the bar. We circulated. I ran into a Belgian pilot who has lived pretty much everywhere except Belgium. I ran into my new landlord (not a good sign). eventually, we decided to go down to the club. We made our way back down the curving walkway and a girl yelled out from behind me, "hey! excuse me! Rasta!" Then someone grabbed my wrist. "I want to dance with you. I like you." I still hadn't seen her yet. I said thank and see you later. I wriggled out of her grasp. never saw her again.

At the bottom of the walkway we found ourselves in front of yet another cage. This time the ticket booth. We struggled and pushed to get to the front and pay and then struggled and pushed again to get past the bouncers and inside. it got darker. Big doors. A woosh of cold air conditioned air. Smoke from a smoke machine. Lights. Loud music. Strobes. I can't really even tell you what was being played there. It was a competent sound system, but unfortunately, the music was just plain shit. Not sure how else to put it. The lyrics were always about "I want to get closer to you baby." or "Other people want to be with me, but I only want to be with you." or, "I'm gonna spend the whole night with you." Slowly, I just kind of faded that out. Still, people bumped and grinded and jived. oh yeah, my favorite was some jamaicanesque one that said something like, "I'm young and at my peak and I'm gonna shake it like that." The beats were reggaeton/bongo flava. Maybe it's me, but I hear a lot of that - loud - and it leaves me flat and empty. Like there's just no energy from the heart in there. I sat down and watched people for a bit. there were some very sexy girls there grinding mostly on white guys. not really sure what the arrangement was there. Decided I didn't give a fuck and then just closed my eyes and reclined on the couch and tried to get into the music. Couldn't do it. Not even to feel the bass in my stomach. So, I left.

today, i went to meet with my other new contact, Matona. he is lovely and super enthusiastic. Aside from being a teacher at the music academy, he is a member of Malindi musical club, has his own quartet, plays in Safar as well as various other projects. He is totally down with blending hip hop and ragga with taraab and arabic music. I played him my 73 bpm rugged beats with a little hesitation. he just seems so nice and I thought he might take it a little strangely. On the contrary. He starting singing on top of it and I envisioned a chorus of women singing. he agreed. yes, that is the chorus. we can get call some women to sing for us. Well. Okay! That's what I'm talking about. He liked my idea of a taqsim and distorted drones. they rehearsed a little bit - some old taraab tunes with vocals toward the end. Damn! I found my peoples! So, we'll be hooking up tomorrow late afternoon.......this week should be interesting.

Figurative Hiccough

Brazilian vessel in Stone Town Harbor, Zanzibar. ;-)

This week has been a bit of a figurative hiccough. Set up recordings with Mahsin and then had to cancel. First, because I was laid low by a food poisoning gut wrenching diarrhetic (is that a word?) bout of nastiness and then when we rescheduled, we were competing with a rehearsal of an 8 piece taraab orchestra in an adjacent room. So, it's been rescheduled again for saturday.

However, all of this confusion has given me lots of time to hang around the music academy and meet people and make some connections. As I've already mentioned in a previous post, there is only one recording studio on the island, which I still haven't visited yet. It seems that the fact that I am a recording engineer has slowly gotten around and I've been asked to record a demo for the band Safar, which is composed of students and teachers from the academy. The ZIFF program (where they recently performed) says, " Safar means 'journey' in Arabic, and reflects the diverse musical styles represented in the group. Visit the changing landscapes of afrobeat, ngoma, taraab and arabic styles. Enjoy the encounters as style complements style, never dominating each other [sic]." I'm quite excited for this. I'll be working with Excel, who is the in house music technology guy and who will be my assistant engineer. We've managed to assemble a bit of a mish mash of equipment to get 10 separate channels. We're making due with what we've got.

I also met with a Jhiko Man, who is a musician/singer based in Bagamoyo. I got a really nice vibe from him. The more he said that he didn't want to "put in a box," the more I felt like I identified with him. I hope to connect with him in Bagamoyo eventually. I also met Adel Dabo, who is a bass player and teacher at the academy. He plays both with Safar and Jhiko. Super nice guy who's been all over the world playing music and has decided to base himself at home in Zanzibar.

At the last night of the ZIFF, I met Fid Q, who I was referred to by Ralph from Nomadic Wax. I didn't understand anything he was saying in his lyrics, but he had a really good stage presence and a tight flow. We exchanged greetings and telephone numbers. I sent him some beats via the internet to consider. He lives in Dar es Salaam, so if something works out for us to work together, we'll have to do some travelling.

The last little bit of news is that I met a guy named Matona who is a multi-instrumentalist, an instructor at the academy and a member of Safar. It seems that he is the person most oriented towards making recordings for release that is based at the academy. We had a short meeting today and he seems pretty interested in working together. I was happy to hear of his idea to make new renditions of old taraab tunes because I already had that idea and he said it before I said anything. Sometimes, life is like that....we'll be meeting on saturday to listen to music and exchange ideas.

Another thing I'd like to mention is that I've heard from many different people (totally unprompted) that they admire Senegalese hip hop and especially Daara J. They performed here a while ago and it seems to have had a really big impact on a lot of people. Their work really stood out when compared to the majority of bongo flava because they make a point of using traditional (oooh - i know I'm using that word a lot.....What is traditional? I think that word could merit a whole post...but that'll be for another time), acoustic instruments. Some people know about Didier Awadi (formerly of Positive Black Soul, now minus Duggy T, PBS Radical), who is a prolific producer and record label owner based in Dakar (I've heard he also owns a security company as well, so I guess enterprising young business man could be added to his list of hats).

The general consenus is that it's next to impossible to get this "interesting" kind of music played on the radio. The radio runs on the jabá or payola system. Musicians, singers, composers, and producers are paid a pittance for their work which is produced extra quickly and is put directly into rotation on the radio and distributed on CD and cassette. If you're not inside this system, your music doesn't get played. Because the general public isn't very well educated about the realities of this (not to mention having access to information about other alternative music), it's even harder for "interesting music" to get out there.......hmm, sounds familiar.

"We know we shall win, as we are confident." Spray painted on a wall at Jaws Corner, Stone Town where I go to have my morning coffee from an old man with a charcoal stove and BIG kettle and lots of little cups (obviously, originally, it's from Bob Marley).

PS, Blip - sou americano de Seattle, mas moro no Rio há 7 anos e ainda estou (e vou continuar há muito tempo) aprendendo português. :-)

Beat Making.....

Been busy making beats these past few days. Just cranking things out to have as bases for future recordings and hopefully for future tunes. Base (pronounced bah-zi) is a word that I am borrowing form portuguese that means anywhere from a basic drum loop to a fully mixed instrumental. There isn't really a word in English that means the same thing. Track is a bit more general and can mean a song with vocals in it, but it also leans toward being a more finished piece. Base is like a foundation. It can be built on.

so, I've been busy making bases. I finally got a copy of Reason 3.0 (was using 2.5 before) and have been really enjoying some of the new features. I like that you can change a sample in the browser window while the beat is playing and it'll let you hear the sample you're auditioning. Man, that saves time! Also, the mastering suite is very nice for my work flow. It makes bases sound better more quickly. That's especially cool when I'm out showing my work to people I don't know that I want to work with.....

Like today. I met with Mahsin who plays qanun and darabouka. He said he liked a few of the bases and so we'll be meeting tomorrow to record some stuff. He's still pretty reserved with me, so sometimes, I don't exactly know how or what he's thinking. Anyway, he's down. So, we'll just let the music do the talking.

Today I hung around the music academy. Mostly just sitting making beats with my headphones on and saying hello to almost everybody that passed by. I guess people will get used to seeing me around. I'm still trying to connect with musicians.

I think the musicians at the academy have a bit of an aversion to electronic music and especially to bongo flava and modern taraab. (I promise I will eventually post some examples!). the modern taraab is a very diluted, pale comparison to "traditional" taraab. Everything that I've heard sounds like a conglomeration of preset synth patches and no acoustic elements and singing on top. Usually, the singing is quite nice. I don't understand the llyrics, but as far as I can tell, it's usually about love......

Bongo Flava can encompass hip hop, rnb, reggae and ragga and can be rapped, but is more likely sung. From what I've heard so far, it's super electronic. Pretty much nothing acoustic (aside from voice). Mahsin told me he thinks it's all bad music. Why? Because it's not original and the lyrics are all the same and they're not saying anything. so, what does he like of hip hop? He likes american "real" hip hop. Like what? Lil Bow Wow! Oh my god, I couldn't quite believe it. Well, to each his own. this guy is an amazing musician. Somehow, Lil Bow wow is good and ALL Bongo Flava is bad because it rips off american hip hop and rnb.........

I also saw some hip hop yesterday at the ZIFF. I met Sweet Ray there. A young female rapper. She pretty much stole the show. I talked to her after the show (she only did one song) and we traded numbers. Her song was about AIDS. Her english wasn't that much better than my swahili, but I got the idea that she wants to make people aware of AIDS and its dangers. My intro to Zanzibar hip hop......I'll be meeting up with her later this week.

My first day in search of connecting with musicians.......

I went to the Dhow Countries Music Academy where I had already gone and introduced myself to the director. I think she was a bit dismissive. She told me that a lot of mzungus come to Zanzibar hoping to collaborate with musicians here. Most things never see the light of day. She asked if I was interested in working on music as a hobby. I said no, that I take it very seriously and that I have every intention of releasing the work produced here. Although she didn't specifically introduce me to anyone (although I asked her to), she did say that I was welcome to come and hang around to meet people.

So, that's what I did. There was a student group in the middle of a rehearsal for a concert they were to give later in the day. It was actually rather amusing and not at all what I had imagined I would hear. They were being conducted by 2 foreign instructors leading them in a samba! Samba played with violins, qanun, darabouka and the instructor playing cajon. Interesting......

After the rehearsal, I chatted with the director (who I'd met previously) and told her I'd like to meet the qanun player. He played a solo during the samba and it was totally clear that he knows his shit. I told her that and she said that he was the son of a famous musician (no longer alive) and that he also played darabouka, was a student at the academy and is a beginning darabouka teacher. I went and introduced myself to him. We agreed to meet today.

Today, I passed by again and chatted for 5 minutes or so. He seems interested. He is very quiet and it's a little hard to tell how he's reacting or how much he's understanding my english. I try and speak slowly and clearly.

He likes hip hop and bongo flava and we share the lament that popular music doesn't use much in the way of acoustic instruments. I was very clear in saying that I have no money to pay him. I proposed to give him my recording and production services in exchange for playing on my music. He has some experience recording with Bi Kidude in Norway and a few other things here and there. But, he's never done anything on his own. I asked him to think about it. I left him a CD of original material to get to know my work. Hopefully we can work something out.

I think part of the reason that there is not more of a connection between electronic based musics (hip hop and bongo flava specifically) in Zanzibar (and possibly Tanzania in general) is because there are very few recording studios and very few people with experience in production and working with these different elements. In Zanzibar there is only one recording studio - Heartbeat recording studios (you can find in on the internet - sorry, but I'm not online to get the link...maybe later). I hope to visit in the next few days.

Still in search of a suitable place to record/work/live......

Okay, so here I am. In Zanzibar. I got here because i got hired to work as sound recordist for a documentary already in progress (the other sound recordists got too sunburned/drunk/sick with malaria and had a baby respectively). I read an ad announcing the need for a sound recordist on mandy.com, submitted my resume and got the gig. I had 5 days to get a ticket, pack my shit and get from Rio de Janeiro to Zanzibar. Cool, I thought. I'll go, do my job (which I really enjoy and arguably has everything to do with my "real" work as a producer/dj/musician), get paid and then stay for a while to make music.

I've been to Zanzibar before back in 1994 on my super long, blurred, aimless, wandering journey from Cairo to Cape Town alone with a backpack, a cassette recorder and a disposition to ride on every and any form of public transport. At the time, it was expensive. Everything was priced in dollars for foreigners. I stayed 3 days and moved on. I'd spent months in Lamu, Mombasa, and plenty of other towns on the coast from northeastern Kenya to Mozambique. I schooled myself with a teach yourself Kiswahili book. Eventually, I went back to the states and dreamed of coming back to Tanzania. Time passed by and my tentatively conversational grasp of swahili turned into "can't remember shit other than the greetings." Then I learned portuguese and it was all over. I think I might just be a 2 language person........still not sure, but in the process of finding out.

So, I got myself another teach yourself swahili book and have been dutifully studying. The hard part is that when I don't know how to say something, the word in Portuguese just jumps right out of my mouth. As though it might make sense in Swahili....like when you don't know the word in Spanish and you put an O at the end or in japanese and you put -san on the end. Stupid, yes. Swahili actually does have quite a few words on loan from english - teksi, dereva, benki, posta, gari, and of course, many from Arabic as well. It's been fun listening and being able to identify words, but it's still hard as hell to say much beyond the greetings, but, I press on.

Now, my task is to connect with musicians. On my other trips to places which are (for me) far away and new, I have always tried to contact everybody I know who has any knowledge of/friends/connections/experience/etc. there that can help me. In the 5 days before leaving and during the very few lulls in action while filming, I managed to connect with a few people. Massive thanks to the Nomadic Wax and Outhere recordings crews for helping making connections. I had connected with them via my trip to Senegal last year and they helped hook me up with some good people there. It seems that the Africa hip hop massive is massive and well-connected.

So, I've got a nice little list of people to contact, 6 weeks, my laptop, mic and headphones. My goal is to produce 4 to 6 tracks with musicians, singers and rappers from here (Zanzibar and possibly Dar es Salaam). Of course, the sound will be Maga Bo Flava and not Bongo Flava (if you don't understand that, then read the previous post), but may contain elements of Bongo Flava. The most important element and Flava, however, will be taraab. I'm really into the acoustic classical sounds - things that are almost completely absent from Bongo Flava. So, qanun, ney, darabouka, violin, double bass and voice.

Aside from making connections with musicians, I'm looking for a suitable place to live/work. Stone Town is loud and living conditions are cramped. It's hard to find a truly quiet place. So, I'm counting on close micing and luck. Also, I don't so much mind if some ambient sounds get in. Personally, I think it makes it that much more interesting and textured.

At the same time, I'm working on beats which will become the basis for the tracks. I work in Reason and Live synced together. I like to work fast and trust my intuition. Some things work and some don't. It's better to find out quickly. When I have a 2, 4, 8 or 16 bar loop that's working pretty well, I'll export it into Pro Tools and do a quick mix so I'm ready to record instruments on top. Then I make bounces so that when i meet with musicians, I can show them what I've got. I just show everything and let them pick what they're feeling.

when we record for the first time, I usually give a little direction, but always try and leave it really open and free for them to express themselves. We record. Usually, keeping first and second takes and then moving on. That way it's quicker for them and we get more material covered. Then, the work really begins for me. I got over everything - listening and editing. Then, more instruments and slowly the song emerges. It's kind of a sculpture. Eventually, I call in vocalists. I am aiming to do rough mixes here before leaving to pass out, but the main mixes will be done in Rio on studio monitors (I only have headphones and my built in laptop speakers).

Anyway, that's the general gist of things. I'll be plugging back in to post on progress. Salaama.

The beach in front of the venue.

Booed of the decks at Kendwa Rocks

i was pretty excited - go out and play a gig on an idyllic white sand beach with a good sound system in Zanzibar. My friend, colleague and camera man from the documentary I'm working on and I rented a jeep and set out across Unguja (the real name for Zanzibar island) after finishing a long day doing several interviews. It was my first time out of town proper (aside from our daily jaunts to Bububu for at the coach's house) and I loved it! Coconut palms, banana trees, red earth, sky, sun, lots of people out on their way home, Tanzanian soukous on the radio. Work was done, life was good and we were going to a party.

We arrived about an hour and a half later, parked, walked down to the beach and said hello to DJ Yusuf, the resident DJ. Actually, he is the director of Busara Promotions and does this party in different places on a monthly basis. Then it was out to the beach, which is all of 2 minutes walk away, to check out the sunset. If I've ever been to a stereotypical tropical paradise - that was it. Totally transparent turquoise water, white, fine sand, dhows anchored a short way off, palm trees stretching out over the beach, a huge sky with a few clouds to make the sunset interesting. seemed like all was in place for a great night.

I played a one hour set of some kind of chill stuff that I never get to play in any other situation, like oumou sangare, the cotton belly remix of "by your side," by Sade, some dub from African dope records, "eu sou favela," by both Seu Jorge and the original by Berra da silva, ursula rucker, gnawa diffusion, Daddy Ous, Khaled. Then I had to stop to get some dinner. then people started showing up - tourists and locals and people from Stone Town and Dar es Salaam as well. It seemed like that was the most happening event that night and everybody was there. An interesting mix. Mostly locals.

Yusuf played tons of Bongo Flava, some new school rai stuff, blinged out american hip hop, a track or two of kwaito, a few reggaeton tracks, soukous - basically all of the elements of Bongo Flava. The crowd knew the majority of the tracks. He didn't really mix tracks, but selected them - well. He really knows his crowd well.

i got a bit worried that things weren't gonna go well for me - it was starting to seem like the time that I played in Dakar with Gee Bayss from Pee Froiss. There, they alternate between sets of techno/trance/hi NRG, Mbalax, reggae, ragga and hip hop. but, there are tunes that work....and his responsibility is to play those songs that work. Not the most inspiring scene. The women starting showing up around 2 am and then men a bit later. That was even late for Rio standards. Eventually it was kind of sort of full. The women danced alone and watched themselves in the floor to ceiling mirrors that lined one wall of the dance floor. Weird. Really weird. The men tried to step up to them, but they weren't having it. Then the music would change and the dance floor would empty or fill, depending. I managed to keep a crowd for 2 tracks and then I changed (! Oh my god, a new style!). They never came back to dance and eventually I had to give it back to gee bayss. and he knew just the tracks to play to make it work.

The other night was similar. Here is my set list (this set lasted about 25 minutes):

Set List
1. Funk n Lata - Lata's Groove
2. Team Shadetek - Brooklyn Anthem
3. Digitaldubs Sound System - Babylonia feat. M7
4. Daara J - Bopp sa Bopp
5. African Beat Riddim
6. Black Alien - Estilo do Gueto
7. Tata Pound - Badala
8. A Filial - Truth and Rights Riddim
9. Pompidou - Synthesizer Voice
10. John Wayne - Call the Police
11. Beelow - Call the Police feat. David Banner
12. DJ Shadow - Walkie Talkie
13. Afu Ra - D & D Soundclash
14. Barrington Levy - Collie Weed
15. Admiral Tibet - Leave People Business Alone
16. Freddie Cruger - Runnin from Love (Instrumental)


The venue and yours truly (sweating).

The crowd had commentary for each and every one of my tracks. So did the lone Brazilian guy who came over talking to me about his computer and this and that (all in portuguese) and was I using live and just kept talking and talking, but at least he liked the music. One guy asked me if I was playing music for myself or for the crowd. Hmm, good question. But, I'll get to that later. Then, he made it his duty to let me know whether or not he liked each and every track. Others gestured or said things I didn't understand in Swahili, but that I knew weren't elogies. These guys were the Bongo Flava/blinged out set. the dancefloor emptied and people seemed to be observing me with very much less then benign looks. It seemed like there was a vacuum that was sucking people out of there. The vibe came down a huge notch in energy. I tried to work with it and give them what they might be able to identify with...but still within my sphere of aesthetics. After all, I was the DJ, wasn't I? But, the possibilities seemed to narrow down to a small handful of tracks and even then I'd just plain lost the attention of all but the drunk guys who hadn't even noticed that the DJ had changed.

At least there was the small crowd of reggae guys who were all peace and love. But even that was pretty silly. Sure, they liked some some of the tracks that I played, but was it for the right reason? Surely it wasn't for how well I mixed from one song to the next seemlessly or my clever use of EQ and FX. Or was it that I connected tracks astute lyrical references, killing de sound bwoy dem wid it? I have a feeling that their reaction would have been the same had a jukebox been randomly selecting the tracks with a pre-set cross fade on default. They shouted, "Yes Dread I DJ," or some such nonsense and skanked away with their bottles of beer. the complaining guy said that Afu Ra wasn't really reggae. I told him it's reggae mixed with hip hop. He said it's not hip hop either. I just shrugged. I couldn't win. Barrington Levy was just okay. Play something different. Why don't you play the music that we want to hear? Admiral Tibet was too old. To make matters worse during the whole time, the sound dipped in volume and half of the sound system went out. We never did figure out what caused it. But, that went on for my whole set. Another guy asked me if I didn't know how to work the equipment. Finally, Yusuf came back and asked if he could put the next rack on, as people were starting to leave and asking what was going on with the DJ. I happily agreed. He put on some soukous and returned to playing a track from its start to finish and everybody was magically dancing and enjoying the party once again.

So, really, what happened there? Is it that I suck as a DJ? Is my taste just plain bad? Or was it the wrong party for me to play at? Do they just not know how to appreciate good music? All of that and more? Am I just way off? Do I have no idea what the fuck I'm talking about/DJing?

It is interesting to note that many of the modern urban international ghetto favela shanty town barrio beatbox whatever the fuck you want to call it kind of musics that are principally created and consumed in low income pockets around the world tend to lack sophisticated production techniques. They are produced on computers with minimal external gear - flat reference monitors, quality microphones and preamps. or, fuck, for that matter even a microphone stand. One studio I know of in Rio uses a refridgerator and masking tape as a mic stand (I wonder if he turns the fridge off when he records?).

Yet, this "low quality" music sells like crazy and is enjoyed to the utmost by tons of people. so, why do so many from the west, or the "developed" world, europe, america, japan wherever, go on about how unrefined it is and IF they mixed it with their traditional roots sounds, it would be more interesting. But, why the hell should they learn to program their Yamaha DX7s beyond selecting cheesy preset flute sounds if everyone is buying it in loads and everybody is shaking their ass to it? Are even more people going to shake their ass if they have a real flute and a few variations in the drum loops? I don't think so.

But, just for the sake of argument, if audiences were educated about the existence of music outside of their comfort/acquaintance zone wouldn't the array of musical offererings in the market/radio/tv/film/disco/minivan/bus/other modes of public transport be much wider, richer, deeper? I don't know........

Honestly, I can't stand to hear that fucking rimshot or that reggaeton all purpose drum loop one more time. So, yeah, I guess at the core of it all, I'm playing for myself......or at least staying as true to myself as I can. If that means that I get booed off the decks, well, then, so be it. Does that mean I'm selfish? Geez, I even played that gig for free.........

Video game (only football) parlor, Zanzibar, Tanzania.

I was bummed that Brazil lost to France - especially after the 1998 world cup when they lost.....but, as a couple of friends who wrote to me said, they played like shit and they deserved to lose.

Last night, a big cheer went up at the bar next door late at night. Later, I found out that Germany had lost to Italy. I guess that's what the cheering was about. Now that Brazil is out, most people don't have anyone to root for here, so they're rooting against whoever it is they don't like. Portugal/France is going on as I write this.

Later......Portugal is out. Jeez, seems more like a European cup than a World cup....

Here is a Bebeto track, "Manda Vê Menino," about a torcedor doente (sick fan - or somebody who is just seriously fanatical) rooting for his team and equating a football game to love and that he just can't lose - it's his team after all. There's a killer breakdown with tamborim and horns toward the end - worth waiting for.

Sorry for the sporadic posts....the work load is heavy and time is short. I do like to eat and sleep now and then......more soon about music in Zanzibar.