Save Barton Farm - protest march - Winchester

A short video documenting the march held in Winchester to protest against the proposed building of 2000 houses on farmland on the edge of Winchester. It's a long story, best understood by going to www.savebartonfarm.org.


The proposal needs to be understood in the context that the land was formerly owned by Winchester College, who sold it for development to Cala Homes, so that the College could continue to 'educate' the sons of the wealthy upper class (OK - there might also be a few girls, and a few scholarships, and the kids of a few working class people) - but largely its a class thing. They don't mind sending there kids to Winchester, but they usually don't live here themselves so they don't car if they f%&ck it up for us residents.

Thanks to Rob Berry (who just happened to be busking on the High Street as the march went past) for supplying the musical background to the second half of the film. Films work so much better with music, and, as many of my regular viewers know, it's what mainly motivates me. It's really appropriate that the lyrics he's singing is "You've got to help me - I can't do this all by myself". I'm sure that's just how Gavin Blackman (the chairman of the Save Barton Farm Group) feels sometimes.

Thanks also to the lovely lady from the CPRE whose name I forget to get. Passion will out!

earport Amsterdam, 2009

I'd planned a short week-end in Amsterdam, and on the Thursday evening googled for some live music while I was in town. I stumbled upon earport, billed as a post fusion symphony , created by Paul Oomen. Fusion it was, but not like I'm used to in Essaouira. This was altogether more refined, more planned, but just as joyous and just as fulfilling. I recorded the whole evening - some four hours or so of music - from the balcony of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. My thanks to Maartje from earport, for making it all happen.

I don't have time to list all of the musicians now, but I will be posting lots of the music, and will have a mp3 player available here pretty soon.

Here's a piece written and played by Jan Wouter Oostenrijk with his Maghreb Jazz formation. It's called Feel cha' aby (Track 2),named after the Moroccan chaaby rhythm, according to JWO.



I'm in the process of building an mp3 player, but it will take a little while to get everything posted.



Artist details
Track 1a - Diego Nicolas group

www.marcosbaggiani.blogspot.com
www.celanobaggianigroup.com
www.themeetingpoint-impro.com
Fra Fra Sound on MySpace

In England, one tends to think of the recorder as a child's instrument, so, be prepared to be disabused of any such preconceptions, when you listen to Raphaela Danksagmuller playing with Jalliya Ensemble and them with Nello Mirando and co. Not on the palylist yet, but will be there soon. In the meantime, take a listen to her on her MySpace profile

Eboman - the human mixer / splicer - maybe not how he would describe himself. I'll be adding one of his pieces to the mp3 player, but you really need to watch him in action to get the whole picture. So, take a look at some of his videos on his MySpace profile: Eboman at MySpace

Who would have thought it. DaftNotStupid is an old romantic. Something about the group that closed earport on Saturday afternoon really got to me. If you've listened to any music that I've recorded and talked about, you wouldn't have thought that this was my style at all. Anyway, take a listen to the final track on the mp3 player and see what you think. Amsterdamse Zeedijkkoor - the Amsterdam Zeedijk Choir - put on a great show - visually and aurally.

I've been going to Amsterdam, off and on, for nearly 40 years now, since my early days as a Dam-slaper, so maybe I'm starting to think like a native. Zeedijk is just around the corner (or across the gracht) from the Dam, so maybe that's got something to do with it. Whatever, take a listen and enjoy. Learn more about this well-hatted choral group on their web-site.

More info at earportamsterdam.nl, myspace.com/earportamsterdam, myspace.com/janwouteroostenrijk

All music copyright of earport and / or its owners.

Musicians and composers will be credited. Write to john@daftnotstupid.com

Essaouira 2009

I've just seen that they have posted the dates for this year's Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival - 2009

George Brooks Summit with Zakir Hussain at SJ Jazz Festival 2008

Here's more from the SJ Jazz Fest

Essaouira 2008 - Interim report

So, its now about a month since we arrived in Essaouira. That long, slow drive down the sea front. Cecking it at the hotel and seeing old friends again. Our first nous-nous and caffee cassee Chez Ben Mustafa, God rest his soul. The excitement and anticipation is tangible. Looking back, was it all worth it? Yes, for sure. I don't think it was a great festival but it was a very good one. Great moments spring to mind: Omar Hayat with his flag holders and the great wailing woman, Hamid El Kasri, Ky-Mani Marler, Samulnori Molgae and their great drummers, but no Band of Gnawa, no Ray Lema, no Mehr Ali and Sher Ali, no Youssou N'Dour. Well, you can't have everything, and it was pretty good.

I took about 20 hours of video and quite a bit of audio and II captured all and have processed some of it and posted it to Youtube. It's given me the chance to listen again to all of the msuic, some of it many times as I get it ready for posting. I worked out that I probably listen to a given piece 8 or 10 times before it gets onto my channel.


My wife Maggie has written a great description of the festival, and much more, over on her blog, so why not take a look?

Group Bana de Marrakech at Essaouira 2008

I know little about Group Bana de Marrakech other than what I've read in the Essaouira festival guide which says (as translated by Google Translate):

The Group Bana is a native of Marrakech and plays in the style of "taktaka" Marrakesh, which is part of authentic arts of the city ochre as the "Dakka Marrakchiya." The group Bana has participated in several regional and national events and poetry evenings.

I saw them play on the Friday afternoon in the little Place Al Khayma and recorded all that I saw and heard. Theirs' is a completely different style to gnaoua - very interactive, both between each other and with the audience, who they carry along - singing and dancing - with long, complicated songs with rhythms that change all the time and which seem to tell well-known stories that everyone knows the words to - except me, of course. Anyway, as a musical and visual experience, it was stunning.

The stage at Al Khayma is only feet away from the audience which really helps the interactivity between the group and the crowd, and there was quite a crowd, filling the square pretty much, as you can see on my videos. I've seen a vidao of them playing at the new stage at Bab Doukkala, and they looked more formal, and more distant, there. I think maybe their taktaka works better in a smaller, more intimate venue.

Anyway, enough talk, here's some music. It links to my Group Bana de Marrakech playlist on YoutTube.

Van churns out another one!

KISS, or Keep It Simple, Stupid, is long-standing tenet in the IT business that I've been involved in for the past 40 years or so. As the title of Van the Man's latest album implies, I'm not sure who's the stupid one - us - for buying it, or him. He says that he's returning to his roots though to me it sounds like he's saving himself the bother of working for a living and is just repeating what he's done before. That said, on stage last year, his performance was great.

I wondered what was going on earlier this year when he and/or his record company pulled all of his classic videos from YouTube. Now I understand. He didn't want us to remember how great he was.

Sorry Van. You need to go back to the drawing board, and reinvent yourself. This just dosn't cut the mustard.

Music in Essaouira

If you think that the only music in Essaouira is at the festival, you would be very wrong. As you walk along its streets, you'll find yourself moving between islands of music: shops and stalls selling CDs - mainly gnaoua, but also sub-Saharan music from Mali and Senegal, shops selling souvenirs who play music to attract customers, and of course the cafes at Place Moulay Hassan, where sometimes the music is so loud that you can't hear the live music being played on the stage just around the corner!

Then, of course, there are the shops selling instruments: some more workshop that shop, where a lone craftsman makes instruments of wood and leather using hand-tools and skills that must have been passed down over the centuries.

Essaid Rhatrhat is one such who not only makes guimbris and djembes, but also plays them and sings as well, as you can see in this 10 minute clip that I recorded in June. I'd spotted his shop on the Derb Ibn Toumert, a little street that links the top end Place Moulay Hassan leading to Place Al Khaima. Younger musicians gather at his shop, to talk and get advice, a new string, or to try out a djembe. They address Essaid as 'maalem' (master), though he's wouldn't call himself that. Still its a term of respect that I think is well deserved.



Just a few minute's walk away, where Derb Yousef Ben Tachfine joins the Mellah Qdim (aka Avenue Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah), you'll find Bob Music, a veritable treasure chest of musical instruments, old and new, from Morocco, other parts of Africa, and from Europe and the Americas. The shop is run by Abderrahim and his assistant Hamid, who you can see in this clip, playing an impromptu set on djembes.



Regular visitors to DaftNotStupid may recognise the music playing on Abderrahim's complex set of interconnected CD players and amplifiers at the beginning of the clip. A free CD to the first person to identify the number (add comment here please, but send you name and address by email to mailto:john@daftnotstupid.com

Getting back to the theme of this meme (I know, I usually call them posts, but I liked the rhyme), you need to ask yourself the question "Why is there so much music in Essaouira?" Is it because of the festival, or is the festival here because of the music? I think the latter. Essaouira is one of the homes of Gnaoua music - it's in the soul and the blood of its inhabitants. If the festival stopped, the music wouldn't. People like Essaid would continue to ply their craft, making their own instruments and playing them for their own satisfaction and that of their friends and families.

While I'm on this subject,I've just counted up the gnaoua groups who played at the festival this year. Of the 28 maalems listed in the program, 13 come from Essaouira, 6 from Marrakech, and the remainder from the other gnaoua centres - Rabat (4), Casablanca (2), Meknes (1), Tangier (1), and Safi (1). While this certainly is partly due to local availability and a desire on the part of the organizers to promote native Souiri talent, it's probably also largely due to the fact that so many of the the Essaouira gnaouis are so darned good. Well, that my opinion. It just helps to show that music runs in the blood down there.

Essaouira 2008 الصويرة playlist

This is a playlist of the music that I recorded at the Essaouira 2008 Gnaoua and World Music Festival which I've posted on YouTube. Enjoy.

Click the little rectangular icon at the bottom, or move your mouse over the bottom of the fram, to see the clip titles.

Essaouira 2008 Gnaoua and World Music Festival - First Impressions

Maalem Omar Hyatt

I've just come back from another great Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival and will be writing a lot about it and posting some pretty good audio, and new this year - video, of all of the sessions that I saw and heard. Hightlights for me were Maalem Omar Hyatt, Groupe Bassekou Kouyaté, Orchestre National de Barbes, the heavyweight drummers form Korea - Samulnori Molgae, Ky-Mani Marley and Maâlem Hamid El Kasri.

I recorded over twenty (20) hours of video and another 10 hours or so of audio. It's taken me three or four hours to create a 7 minute video clip that I am currently uploading to YouTube, so you can see that I've got my work cut out for the coming months.

Here's the start of a long number that I need to break to pieces because it's so long. It features Maalem Omar Hayat with Franck Vaillant (Drums), Jon Balcke Norway (Piano / keyboards), Mohamed Derouich (Guitar) France / Morocco, Ibrahim Maalouf (Trumpet / Lebanon).



This clip shows the great drummers from Samulnori Molgae:



After the Hamid El Kasri set, Maggie said that Ky-Mani Marley would have to be pretty good to beat it. Well, here's the evidence. Ky-Mani comes out fighting - and folks, there's more to come. Here's his opening number:



The closing set of the festival was back to Sunday, once again, after last year when it closed on Saturday. There were a couple of changes though: the two sets started a little later and were held at Moulay Hassan, not Bab Marrakech. Here's a couple of numbers by Orchestre National de Barbes who finished it all off very nicely, thank you!




Franck Vailant playing with Omar Hayat