Fourteen: The Hunter's Music

There's music everywhere in Mali. Entire villages can be dedicated to music in one form or another. In post Twelve: Welcome To Kirina, we got to see a village of griots, the traditional West African storyteller, praise singer and musician. Hunters in West Africa have their own music and instruments. In this clip we have Ablo, a hunter musician performing with his  musical partner who can be barely seen sitting behind Ablo. There are also several other local musicians who, from time to time, play along with Ablo's songs. The hunter's harp, sometimes called the doson n'goni or just n'goni is not to be confused the the kora or the traditional guitar like n'goni. The hunters harp is a lute-like instrument of 6 to 8 strings with a very distinctive tuning and sound.

Ablo is an astounding musician. One of the best hunter musicians I've had the chance to see perform. His ability to improvise combined with his quick whit and biting sense of humor makes his performances compelling, fun, funny and more often than not X rated. Of course not speaking a word of Bambara I get all of this in translation.

This video was shot in almost complete darkness in a little cafe in Segou. I used a small consumer camera to record the performance however the audio comes from a semi professional recorder I had placed close to the performers. There's a dream like quality to Ablo's music which is reflected in the  nighttime landscape of Mali.

Ablo was very excited that I was documenting his songs. He and I tried to meet up during the daytime so I could shoot some of his songs with my professional camera gear but we were never able to put that meeting together. I hope I run into Ablo again.

Thirteen: Not Riding The Dog

I could do an entire documentary on just transportation in West Africa and it would become one of the greatest Surrealist films of the century. Some of the things I've seen people move on vehicles that were never intended to be move on those types of vehicles is endless. I could tell you stories...but then it's just another story. Seeing is what is truly remarkable. Here's a good example of what is in the big picture of Mali transportation one of the lesser insane modes of freight  handling.

Twleve: Welcome to Kirina

I'm often trying to operate more than one camera at a time. It can verge on insanity.  There's my large 40+ pound ENG camera complete with tripod. Sometimes I shoot b-roll stuff with a Sony HDV camera or with my Canon 7D. Almost all of the time I have my little JVC HD camera stuffed into a pocket ready to dig out. All of the footage for this blog so far has come from that small JVC camera. With all this stuff going on, from my point of view its become pretty difficult for me personally to get involve in the moment. I seem to be always on the outside trying to get the best image, find the story, have perspective and most of all get coverage so when I get back to the edit suite I don't wind up with an ulcer trying to do an edit. There are a few times when that "professional distance" breaks down and the welcoming to Kirina was one of those times.  About ten minutes into this hour long welcoming ceremony I began to realize all of this planning, all of this effort, which must have taken days to organize, and all of this genuine kindness was in part directed at me.  The warmth and enthusiasm was palpable. Unlike the others in my group I wasn't sitting back as a spectator but was in fact part of the action. I was dodging dancers. Sticking my lens in the chief's face and most importantly trying to avoid the occasional swat with those switches that the guy in the mask was playfully wielding.  I was shooting in late morning, in full sun on a day that temperature would easily break 100+ degrees. Normally a grueling shoot. But after a  short while I noticed how the participants, the performers and even the crowd were all helping me get to where they thought I needed to be to get the best possible shot. Some would run interference, make sure no one crossed my shot. Others would open holes in the ring of onlookers so I could get my camera closer. People would help move my tripod and there was always someone close by willing to hold my small equipment bag. After the ceremony I must have spent 20 minutes shaking hands, hugging and being hugged and thanking people. And they in turn were very glad I was their guest. I was deeply moved and even as I write this almost a month later I still get goosebumps.

Road Trip! Last Post From Africa

Today I’m headed off on a 10-day road trip around parts of West Africa. When I return from that trip I will be spending my last few days here in Nana Kneiba, the small village where my second film project takes place.  The chances of running across internet service or a Wi-Fi hot spot along the way are very slim.

The 10-day road trip includes a stop at the Festival On The Niger in Ségou, one of the most popular music festivals in Africa. The trip will also include a visit to Djenné, home the world’s largest adobe structure, and then on to the country of Burkina Faso before returning to Bamako.

The posts will continue when I return to Minnesota. I will have a ton of new material in addition to several clips I have right now, but are not quite finished. This has been a pretty good run, 12 posts in 16 days despite the occasional collapse of Mali’s entire electrical grid, and an internet connection that runs at the speed of bad DSL to as slow as dial-up.

Stay tuned. Lots more to come in early March.

Eleven: Djoliba Documentary Film Project

This is a small introduction to one of the films I'm working on when I return. Once again, the clip explains itself.

Ten: The Big Family Meal

As I said in the clip, cooking and eating is serious business here. The more than a dozen women working to feed about 40 of us two meals a day for three days, labored continuously from sun up to later than 1:00am for the entire 3 days. I’ve seen the chaos and calamity when an American family gets together to cook in the kitchen over a holiday. These women were the picture of efficiency, a well-oiled machine and from what I could figure out no one was in charge. They all seem to know their individual assignments, what to do, and when to do it.  I’ve never seen such a tremendous amount of work look so effortless.

Nine: Malian Culture of the 1960s

Mali has a long history of visual and performing arts as well as literature.  The country is a hub of African music and a center of world music activities. Visual and performing art is everywhere. Entire villages are dedicated to producing generation after generation of griots. Griots are a combination musician, storyteller, historian and social critic. Blacksmiths not only provide a utilitarian service but are wood and metal sculptors as well. Mud cloth painting with its technique and style is something only found here. For hundreds of years northern Mali was the center of trade between Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and the Middle East.  Through trade Malians have experienced and assimilated many aspects of culture from other parts of the world. Art and literature are a living, vital process here and an integral part of the culture. A quick web search will produce lists of painters, musicians, performers and writers all having their roots in Mali.