TEDxDAR: Sanaa Sana

Time for the post-lunch musical interlude. Sanaa Sana are performing a few numbers, on stage there are: three drummers, one guitarists and dancers/singers. It's all about The Beat, isn't it :)

So there's that thing about Africans having some kind of innate dancing ability. As I type this it is hard to keep from moving my body to the music, actually, which must be quite funny for the folks sitting behind me. Innate, though? Not so much. It's just a skill that, like many others, can be learned from childhood. And of course, practice only makes perfect... so never be shy. Just dance.

Dunda, dunda, dunda, eh!

Unexpectations

I have a lonely ticket sitting in my room, for the Hugh Masekela concert that was supposed to take place on Saturday. Took the folks out to celebrate the fact that they have now been married almost as long as this country is old. Besides, it was Hugh: only the man that God had in mind when She invented the trumpet. All around, I was poised for a stellar night of serious jazzical entertainment. I had my bourgeoise on, knowwhati'msayin?

But I only got a third of a night of excellent jazzical entertainment. Props to Sauda Simba who frontlined for Hugh- nice selection of standards, and I would be interested to hear her personal take on a few more of the classic tracks. But by 9:30 the songstress was done and the concert that was supposed to start at 8:00 was beginning to look a little flaky. Then the rep from the main sponsors strolled up to the microphone and told us that the concert was cancelled. Haha, we responded. So funny, joke yes?

Not so much, no.

The concert, which was full to capacity with people who had forked over between 50,000 TShs and 100,000 TShs (that's real money, folks), had been summarily cancelled. Just like that, my lifelong dream to see Hugh perform live, my deep pleasure at the thought of listening to him riff while enjoying the cool breeze off the Indian Ocean, the anticipation of treasuring that memory forever- pouf. Up in smoke.

Yeah, I was disappointed. Even worked up a modicum of anger. Some more cynical friends had held off their excitement with the argument that they would believe it when they saw Hugh on the stage. I spent weeks in a fever of anticipation. Guess who had it right? But I wasn't nearly as disappointed as I thought I would be, and finally figured out why: this is Bongo. Everyone expects to get swindled at some point by a service provider. Because it happens. All the time. With this particular producer, I believe I still have a ticket for Freshly Ground hanging about that I did not get a refund for... knowwhati'msayin'?

Anyways, listened yesterday to the EA drivetime show where the DJ was explaining what happened and sort of asking the audience whether it was Hugh's fault or the producer's fault. First up: DJ couldn't pronounce the man's name. How can any working African DJ in East Africa not know who Hugh is?! Second, half the callers thought that Hugh came from Zambia or Uganda or some such nonsense. Made me want to kill myself.

But most importantly: Soweto String Quartet: mishandled. Freshly Ground: mishandled. Hugh Masekela: manhandled. We seem to be earning a reputation here, knowwhati'msayin'? Mh hm.

Pen&Mic II

No point in lying about it dear reader: I had a long detailed post all drafted up for your consumption about Pen and Mic II. And Blogger lost it all during it's recent maintenance fiasco. I just want to have a moment of silence here in order to embrace the realities of being a social media user when you don't own the means of production.

Alright then. Pen and Mic was just as good as advertized and a lot more diverse that I had expected to see. Case in point: where else are you going to have a violinist solo for the opening act, meander through feminist poetry and listen to Mzungu Kichaa back up Kwanza Unit within the space of a couple of hours?

The talent in the room was inspiring and fearsome. If this is just a sampling of the culture we have lurking around this city, well we're sitting on something very hot. Actually, I am not in the least surprised- I am old enough to remember the emergence of BongoFlava and East African Channel Five through we've been exporting our brand of Bongo Cool to the neighborhood for a couple of years now.

But don't get me wrong: this is an open-mic kind of event. Which means that after the scheduled programming, we got to listen to some rawer talent. Some of it was magnificent, such as two singer-songwriters who can obviously compose rather well (no beat box!). One of them even has a voice that is pure Motown gold. But then there were others, some of whom I would very lovingly encourage to head back to the drawing board and explore what lies beyond the rhyming couplet.

That said, a major shout-out to those who got up and performed. I know from experience how incredibly hard that can be for writers, which is why I don't demand it of myself*. But I want to send vibes of love, encouragement and inspiration to every single one who faced the mic. I also want to big up the gang behind the event: the organizers, the hosts, the volunteers who supported performers and took pictures and video footage and the audience who put something in the collection plate. Art should be free and accessible. Our government can't do it, so support your local scene where possible.

The event is free, quarterly and if you are interested follow them on Facebook.

Break Time!

So I didn't get my act together in time for Sauti Za Busara 2010 and I don't have an excuse. Pernilla did, and you can get great pictures of Zenj and Busara on her site without having to buy the coffee table book ;) As for me, I offer you some paltry snippets of live music gleaned from last weekend's concert. Clip one is Maia trying to get upper-middle class Tanzanians and expats to show some enthusiasm. Poor woman:

I was going to put up a clip of Thandiswa as well but do you have any idea what it takes to upload video with this internet connection of mine?! Suffice to say, Thandiswa was very very awesome and accompanied by fantastic musicians. Thank goodness for the Busara spillover (and at the door price of a ticket its a damn good thing they offered three performers). The quality of original video clips will hopefully become better over time...