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.