While at the Compose Yourself Music Lab
When I got an invitation to the NEWF Compose Yourself Music Lab, I was as scared as I was excited - from everyone’s reaction, this is by far one of the coolest NEWF labs ever! Though I'm not a musician, I too have been through the musical training ground of at least 80% of the world’s most famous musicians - the church band! I get over my imposter syndrome and say yes to the invite and then I remembered that as a storyteller, I have often needed the help of music and sound to say what my visuals and my words could not say.
We take a short trip to KZN but a long drive to St Lucia. I have been here once before on a school trip in primary school. When we arrive, the small town charm still fills this place decades later and grows the anticipation of what might lie ahead.
We arrive at the lodge and immediately I want to meet the music lab fellows; the 5 young musicians from all over the African continent, breaking new ground in their respective hometowns and trying new things through their gift of music. I haven’t yet learnt all their names but immediately I’m struck by the humility of the group. Most probably have a following of fans where they are from but here, they are just musicians trying to make music…that’s it. “There are no egos.” says Marcia, the sole South African participant, “we all do what we do and do it well with no egos”. Marcia is one of the vocalists in the group who when I ask her, doesn’t admit to playing official instruments (read: any classical instruments) but during the course of the week, I would see her expertly playing a Jembe like a drum set, shakers and various percussion instruments; her voice she also alters to make fantastical sounds only her mind could conjure up. “ I beat box” she says, simplifying how she just fluidly uses her mouth as an instrument.
Her fellow collaborator, Labdi, who’s also a singer and songwriter from Kenya, plays a forbidden, traditional Kenyan single-string instrument called an Orutu. “The Orutu is complex and beautiful… Women are forbidden to play it ” Ladbi casually mentions. She still gets flack as a female for playing it so publicly. She taught herself to play the Orutu 7 years ago and mentions how intimate an instrument the Orutu is - if it is mistreated or mishandled in any way, it will offer the player no sound. The Orutu is an intriguing instrument. With one string, a harp-like bow and the right flicking of Labdi’s fingers, it can go from sounding like an eerie wind to sounding like a high-pitched cello. Labdi, a familiar face in the Kenyan music scene, plays this strange, beautiful instrument and sings effortlessly in her silvery, mezzo-soprano tone at the same time.
The Mbari is easier to play than the cello-like Orutu. The Mbari is played by the Mozambican Muhamago, an enlightened, modern day hipster with Jimi Hendrix vibes about his personal style, “I came here empty, ready to receive” he says enthusiastically. Muhamago is the funny one in the group. Muha as he is affectionately called, missed his flight and had to take a packed bus to get to the lab - He had a whale of a time on that hour ride on the Bus! He floats around, going where he needs to and periodically disappearing, but when it’s time to create music, his head, heart and ears are all in. A multi-talented individual, he is an astute musical professional who has decided to embrace and experiment with the traditional rhythms and musical instruments native to his home country. Muha is fluid in his music, easily creating crowd-pleasing popular electronic music and intimate and moving traditional sounds.
His playing is complemented by Michael’s rich and robust voice. Michael is a politician in the making who when he sings, feels like he’s giving you a hug. He too started singing at the training ground of all training grounds, church, leading worship sessions and in the group, easily leads the impromptu vocals during the jams. At first it started as just sounds but now it has moved to full sentences. I ask him what language he sings in every time he breaks out into song. He tells me Yoruba. He tells me about the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, how they are the least but how they are also the most. He also tells me of the changes in Nigeria, “the country is breaking up”. But he says this in the most positive way, “This is a good thing.” He proudly announces that he will run for mayor someday soon in his town. I look at his hopeful spirit and imagine him running for president in a future Nigeria. A soulful singing president.
“When we had our first zoom meeting, I could just feel, things are going to be alright” says Neil, an incredible guitarist and “musical genius” as Muhamago describes him. Neil is an unassuming Moroccan musician who picks his words when he speaks like he picks his chords - carefully. Every day of the lab he counts down the time until it is over - I strongly rebuke him for it. “I’m sad for tomorrow” he says about the day of parting. “I have played in many bands but I have never been with people like this.” He says with pathos. What takes years and much heartache to find as a musician, these five have found in a week. All the participants reiterate Neil’s sentiments in one way or another. “When we met, within 10 minutes, we were jamming” says Labdi, speaking of their first experience of meeting each other in Durban. “We just gelled. We have been jamming since”.
As they rehearse, their connected energy and careful consideration of each other is witnessed. They are also so respectful and trusting of their mastermind of an instructor Sam Safa. Sam is based in France, speaks only French but at the invitation to come to South Africa and teach for the first time, he just said yes. “I said yes and immediately found 2 English teachers” he chuckles while giving a perfect interview. He learnt English for two months to prepare for the lab and the engagement with the international participants who also all spoke varied languages. “I have always loved music, since I was a child” Sam recalls his humble beginnings and not knowing if his family could afford his draw to music. Decades later, now an accomplished and sought after composer, Sam would bring his whole family on this trip to Southern Africa; his wife who plays Keys, would be engrafted as the 6th band member as she is also African and from Algeria. “I’m not really a musician, I’m a storyteller” Sam says of his role as a composer, even though I would see him easily jump from playing keys, to the guitar to a Jembe. He conducts like a wise director, looking for the musicians own ideas and strengths and helping them build on that. He brings those trying to hide into the spotlight and balances the group with a common goal. “When I met them, I said to myself, they have some power but they just don’t know” he says of meeting his first group of African musicians, “So my job is to tell them you have this power and you are great.”
On the last night, a mini concert is held in an intimate setting in this Lodge in the middle of St Lucia. The room is quite affected by this live African orchestra; people are moved. “When you can’t express yourself only in words or just images, the music is there” says Sam. I amen that. The music transcended such beauty in this diverse space. “After the Looting, I was quite ready to pack it up and move to Australia and then you come to an evening like this…” a guest who heartily requested an encore describes the pull of Africa being born within you, “You’re reminded of home” she says. Indeed you are.
It’s quite surreal how 5 people, from very different parts of the continent, all speaking very different languages and playing very different instruments can all find what they are looking for in community in the most unexpected way. “They were hand picked… we sent our feelers out and waited to see what would come back,” says Pragna Parsotam-Kok, one of the directors of NEWF and the operational brain behind the lab. Her Husband, Noek Kok, the lab visionary and ex-music producer turned filmmaker cannot hide his excitement as the African orchestra plays a big-band sounding number from their humble intimate instruments. “I could not have imagined this in my wildest dreams” he says as he witnesses the merging of his three big loves: music, film and nature. It has taken his whole life and all of his various experiences to get here. Indeed the entire conception and perfect execution of the lab is surreal. The gelling and immediate connection and comradery of the musicians is what dreams are made of. “I feel blessed.” says the Moroccan guitarist after the success of the evening. There are murmurs of regrouping and starting a kind of collective. He speaks of his relief of possibly seeing and meeting everyone again. The day of parting need no longer be so sad.
By Yolanda Mogatusi
