Thank you all for your observations! They mean quite a lot to us and will definitely guide future events. BG you are right about the Dueling Banjos segment being too short. It was not deliberate, but forced on us by the musicians who were very unfamiliar with the method I wanted them to adopt. We spent hours trying to rehearse that segment and the performance you heard was the best they could do. They simply could not grasp the concept. During the rehearsal, I noted that when they converge -- ALL the instruments -- they remain in the SAME tune till the end -- and that was really boring! I repeatedly told them to raise the pitch, vary their tonality, create new harmonies all within the performance -- but they could not do it. I am pretty sure if we had say more than one week of intensive workshop, we would have created a Duelin' Banjos segment that would last for 40 minutes (my initial concept). But this is the first time this concept is being tried in traditional Hausa music and we will definitely work on it for the future. I am hoping to get them into the studio and do a proper recording of the Duelin' Banjos -- a 30 to 40 minute single track of dueling, and then three other compositions of individual instruments. Time is what is not on my side. I am the only one doing these things, and being an almajiri means I have to keep going up and down neman na naman miya
.
Yes, you are right about Nasiru Garba Sufa recyling his papa's songs. The reason is that the boy is simply too afraid to come up with his own tunes! He is under the impression that he will always be judged by his father's catalog, and in order to be safe, and also keep his father's memory alive, he sticks to the same old groove. Older member of the audience would know that he was playing his father's back catalog; younger members of the audience are meeting the songs for the first time.
In the initial conception of the concert, he had very little role to play. This is because during the rehearsals, I discovered that his kukuma's catawailing did not fit in with the more melodious tunes of the gurmi (my favorite, actually) and the kuntigi. But because we don't want him to feel shut out, we included a 20 minute segment for him (to enable him to earn the money we paid him, too!).
I will definitely talk to him to compose new tunes, and get them to practice them. We even made it possible for the group to get a hefty grant to support rehearsals, purchase of new musical instruments, collaborations, etc. But of course they don't do any of these things. Sigh.
I doubt, though if in the future we will be relying too much on them as
a group -- we will be breaking them up; for instance the combination of the
gurmi,
sarewa and
duman girke worked so well that we are thinking of staging THAT segment of the concert at FCE Kano one day. The gurmi musician has also recorded a song with the Kano Riders rap group as a result of this collaboration. As soon as I get hold of the song, I will make it available to anyone who wants it; but I need to know who may want it. I have heard it (they played it AFTER the concertos) and it is just SUPERB. It
will even blow away Dan Kauye clean off his sneakers!. The entire concert was recorded and is being cleaned up in the studio. We may make it available to those who want it -- dunno how to sort out the logistics, or maybe just upload the load into our server and ppl can then download from there. There was the idea of making the Duelin' Banjos segment a ringtone!
I am still not sure what to do for the next event (I have two more budgeted). But my thinking is to make it a "woman affair" and re-invite Barmani Choge and her Calabash Orchestra. For the Finale, I might think of an Amada Rap -- getting some female vocalists, such as Fati Nijar to jam with Barmani to the tune of the kidan kwarya! I also want to experiment with kid rappers (pre-adolscent rappers making serious rap recordings, even though I know I might be in the firing line from the culturalist establishment -- we have them (some featured on stage during the Gurmi finale section) Watch this space for more craziness!!!!
BTW, there were FOUR or FIVE K-Onliners at the event; FOUR met -- myself, Kitkat, Salisu and young Muhsin. BG, you shoulda have ID'd yourself to me -- I was quite prominent, what with pot-belly and Kenyan shirt and all
; then I could have taken you to the rest who were sitting close to each other at the front row.
The oyinbos did enjoy it and promised to come back for more! I am overall happy that a good time was had by all and that the concert jelled and the experiment worked. To be frank I was nervous throughout the concert and relieved when it was over!!!!
BTW, BTW, What on earth happened to Husnaa? Shiru ka ke ji kamar Malam ya hadiyi shirwa!! Or maybe she has taken that cheap cut-price ticket to visit her Pestalozzi friend in NZ? Helloooooooooooooo?Abdalla
