Eating akara, dancing to Baatin and saying goodbye to The Gambia

Thursday morning and it’s our last full day.

After another school visit in the morning (on behalf of The Gambia Experience’s School Development Fund), Shelagh and I spend the afternoon visiting our Guinean friends to say goodbye. More chatting, more singing and a few more photos. We are really touched when they give each of us a wooden carving. They are wonderful but I can’t help thinking that they shouldn’t have. No, they really shouldn’t have. They have so little. I will treasure the carving and when I am sitting at home on a cold English winter’s evening I’m sure it will bring back many happy memories of my friends in Africa.

That evening we enjoy chatting to some of the other guests at the hotel who we have made friends with. They really are a lovely bunch of people.

There’s a band playing on the restaurant’s terrace – an interesting mixture of reggae, jazz, blues and traditional West African music. It’s our last night and when some of the waiters and waitresses start dancing I join in and soon most of the other guests do too.

Afterwards I have a chat with the band. Baatin, means something along the lines of righteous passage or telepathy – a higher plane of thinking perhaps. They sing in Wolof, Swahili, Portuguese as well as English. Ebrima Touray, the male lead singer and co-leader of the band has a lovely gravely voice well suited to the blues. Kumba Sowe, who sings female lead for some of the songs has a beautiful rich, velvety voice. Originally from Senegal, Baatin met Ebrima in The Gambia and he introduced the band to the blues. You can find out more about Baatin and listen to some of their music on myspace although the information is rather out of date.

Our last morning, and as I step out onto the open stairway outside our room I breath in the smell of burning churia banta. A type of wood sprinkled over charcoals or heated in clay pots to perfume the air. The walk through the gardens to the restuarant is lovely in the morning sunshine.

I have never tried the local breakfast dish akara so I pop three of the small round balls and a little of the sauce onto a plate and sit on the terrace overlooking Ngala’s gardens with a glimpse of the sea through the palm trees. The akara is great and I’d wished I’d tried it sooner. The balls are made of  black-eyed peas grounded into flour and deep-fried, served with an onion, chilli and jimbo (seasoning) sauce. I found them really delicious, crispy on the outside and smooth and light on the  inside.

After breakfast there’s plenty of time for relaxing by the pool before we have to head off to the airport and I think over what a wonderful week it’s been.

This is my last diary entry until my next visit to The Gambia, but I’ve lots more to tell you in the coming weeks from this trip including  interviews with the fascinating chef at Ngala Lodge and the wonderful Kora player, Bajaly as well as my morning with Ida cooking fish benechin and I have been given a Gambian cook book to review so I’m really looking forward to trying some of the recipes when I get home. Plus I’ll be answering some questions, such as why do you see flip-flops nailed to trees in West Africa and how do you play wuri?

Time to start planning another journey! Where next?

New Album Out Now!
Based in UK, the touring core of Baka Beyond hail from Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Cornwall, Wales and Northumberland. Their great new album is now ready to download and you can listen to it here.

See Baka Beyond live this weekend…  Saturday Nov 5th at  The Met in Bury and Sunday Nov 6th at  Chapel Arts in Bath.

Read about the amazing time I had learning songs from the Baka pygmies from South East Cameroon and their neighbours, the Mbendjele pygmies from the Congo, with the founders of Baka Beyond, Sue and Martin. Singing the forest awake

Through my role with Nyodema I’ve been sent some wonderful CDs from bands wishing to perform at our annual world music and arts festival. It can be very frustrating when due to our limited budget or other constraints we are unable to promote some of these amazing artists. This couldn’t have been more true than when a CD from Madrid landed on my door mat - Batuque de Tambor by Maracatu FM.

You can listen to a few tracks from the album here maracatufm.com

Formed in 2003 by Brazilian percussionist, Carlos Mankuzo, who also runs a samba percusion group of the same name, Maracatu FM mix samba, funk, ska and dub with folk music from Pernambuco in Brazil  to produce an energetic sound of exciting rhythms and memorable melodies. I’m quite sure that it is impossible to sit still at one of their gigs.

In 2011Maracatu FM toured extensively throughout Spain but they have not as yet performed in the UK. For now at least  I can only imagine the excitement of a live performance by Maracatu FM backed by a full on samba drumming troupe!

Their album, Batuque De Tambor, is available to download from Amazon.

Maracatu FM on myspace

I’d be interested in what you think so please do leave a comment!

In my last post I shared with you my experience of the wonderful festival held every September in Calvi Rencontres de Chants Polyphoniques de Calvi  hosted by the polyphonic singing group A Fileta. For those of you not familiar with this form of singing here’s a bit of background information (and a taster to whet your appetite).

Polyphonic literally means ‘many voices’ and applies to music where one person plays one melody or rhythm will others play different melodies or rhythms. For instance, in a West African drumming group each drummer (or section of drummers) plays different interlocking, often quite simple, rhythms to produce a far more complicated overall sound. In the case of traditional Corsican polyphony the instrument is the male voice (although there are a number of excellent female groups now too).

Polyphonic singing is found in many cultures from the pygmies of central Africa to the Western musical traditions of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. In Corsica, traditional polyphonic singing had almost died out. Its resurrection coincided with the rise of nationalism of the 1970s and it is now a very important part of modern Corsican culture.

A Filetta, formed in 1978, sing some of the most emotional and moving music I have ever heard. You can listen to A Filetta singing L’Invitu (written in the 1st century) set to some of my photographs of Corsica in the video above. Please note that the photographs are low resolution and are best viewed at the size they appear in this blog.

With musicians from three different continents it is hardly surprising that, Bristol based group, Baraka’s musical influences reach around the globe as they skillfully blend music from West African highlife and South African township with Caribbean calypso, soca and reggae to produce a unique and exciting mix of polyphonic rhythms, soaring melodies and funky dance grooves.

After headling at Nyodema’s Festival in 2008, they were such a hit with the audience that when Baraka asked to return the following year we responded with a resounding ‘Yes!’. This year kora player and percussionist, Mamadou Cissoko, joined them on stage adding even greater depth and energy to their wonderful music.

Baraka at Nyodema 2009, courtesy of Adam White

Their line-up includes Ben Baddoo on vocals, percussion and balafon. Ben started drumming with his older brothers when he was six in his home village of Nsakina in Ghana.  At 17 he joined a professional drum and dance troupe and went on to form his own group, Sankofa, with whom he toured all over Ghana. In the 1980’s, after being discovered by a UK promoter, they became one of the first exponents of African drum and dance in the UK.  Ben is now a highly respected session player, having worked with artists as diverse as Vangellis, Peter Gabriel and Temple of Sound. He is also well known for his drum and dance workshops, which he has held in festivals around the world as well as in UK schools and colleges. A solo drum track that he recorded for the Womad Talking Book CD is now part of the UK Schools curriculum.

Guitarist, Simwinji Zeko, spent many years performing and recording throughout Zambia and South Africa before moving to Europe. He now lives in the UK and plays with a number of bands including Baraka.

Baraka’s drummer, Mark Bradley, was born in Belfast and his first taste of music was drumming in punk bands as a teenager. He has lived in the UK for 20 years and has played (and still does) with numerous bands covering a wide variety of musical genres.

Royston Gage on bass guitar and vocals brings the sounds of  The Caribbean to the group having played with soca and reggae bands in his homeland of the Commonwealth of Dominica before moving to the UK.  Other early musical experiences include hanging out with Led Zeppelin when they used his band’s rehearsal room on the island!

Saxophonist, Brendan Whitmore comes from Carlow, Eire. He discovered world music through reggae, having been a founder member of Bristol’s first and foremost reggae band Talisman with whom he has enjoyed numerous TV appearances, chart success and played on the same stage as the Rolling Stones.

Senegalese Kora player, Mamadou Cissoko, spends much of his time running workshops and story telling as a solo artist. He doesn’t usually play with a band but he particularly likes Baraka’s music and ethics so when available he’s only too happy to join Baraka as a guest artist.

With such a wealth of experience to draw on it is no wonder that they are now delighting audiences the length and breadth of Britain, as well as mainland Europe and Ireland with their exciting blend of world music. Every time I see them I find it impossible to sit down, even if I’ve been on my feet all day running a festival, I just have to get up and dance!

www.barakamusic.co.uk

For  more photographs please visit Nyodema’s Flickr stream