Thoughts of a minibus traveller

The Japanese composer, Kochi Utaki said if you listen intently, you can hear the songs that the wind sings. One of the composer's students Yuko Aoki played the piece on the Steinway on the National Cultural Stage. Yuko Aoki is teaching music at the National  Music School, She and three of her students played the piano during the first of a series of concerts planned by the National Music School. There was no indication on the programme about the dates for the other concerts. I did not know that there Japanese piano composers. Yuko Aoki's work in Guyana is through the Japanese Aid agency.  The programme was not printed clearly - there is something about the whole Department of Culture which has this mix of 'this is the first time we do it' with the 'talent and potential which could kick off'; Someone in the Department of Culture must know that the simple black on white works best for programmes with plain fonts. Don't make things too fancy. A woma...

I am not a big music fan, and I judge basically on if ting sound nice or it doan sound nice to me . During the last couple of months, I listened to Guyana tunes which moved people. Some of them were nice, some of them were troubling. In the Stabroek News  this week, Teacher Earletta Weekes said about the flag raising ceremony "I felt my skin grow when we sang the national song “Guyana The Free” and the National Anthem. " The collective singing of any song does have a joyful unifying  effect ( it is perhaps a nicer kind of mob mentality)  and communal singing of songs is uplifting for many people.  It is not often that Guyanese get together to make nice music in large numbers.  I I had a nice feeling in 2011 when hearing, singing the last stanza of the National Anthem at a concert in the St George's Cathedral at a Christmas Concert from the Georgetown Chamber Chorus. (Yall dont need to stand when yall play this) More recent renditions of the N...

"Refreshing.." said a man after the concert by Indus Voices in collaboration with Moray House Trust on Tuesday 3 May, 2016. He had been nodding his head and slightly tapping his feet while filming on his phone. Another man was clapping to the ghazals and qaawalis while another man complained that the enthusiastic clapper was out of time A woman was smiling and singing along to the most of the songs including the local folk songs at the end of the programme.  The MC was nervous, torn between wanting to shout about how individuals organically work to preserve their traditions , facing great difficulties and limited recognition and not wanting to disrupt the music and to ensure there was a nice flow. I was nervous as well. The programme opened with the vandana, bringing Lord Ganesha into one of Georgetown's colonial buildings. The group consisted of Amar Ramessar on harmonium and doing vocals, Avinash Roopchan on Keyboard, Vishal Kallawan on dholak and tabla, and ...

"You can tell dem antiman nutting, dey have gay rights now".. a woman sitting behind me told her friend while Woodside Choir was singing The First Noel. "I aint mind dem, but not in my face" Cloudy Sunday evening. Nice chilly breeze.  It was easy to hear the women talk because, well the sound system was a bit mixed up and the choirs could not be heard from the North Eastern corner of the stands where we were seated. The President and Mrs Granger hosted the Christmas Story. An impressive musical programme which featured choirs, the acapella group Circle of Love, solo artistes, and big bands with the narration and acting of the story. The planning and co-ordination must have been enormous. I am sure the President didn't notice the grammatical error on the entrance ticket. "Look, is Mr Bentick come back from New York" . The solo and small groups had good sound and some people around me cheered loudly for Mr Bentick's Go Tell it on the Mou...

It was late.. around or after midnight. Fingersnap was on stage. The jazz festival was ending. Woman next to me was a bit tired, and hungry. She had been cleaning all day. She said "Why dey doan play ting what people know.. ow it late.." I tried to say, sleepy as I was.. something always good to hear new things but I shut up.. earlier in the night the MC was happy that Charmaine Blackman sang Etta James' At Last - he said At Last Georgetown is clean again. The man was singing a song, I caught the words Grapefruit Moon. The closing song more or less , a kind of finale which was.. well sad , and that was perhaps the sadness that the festival was done, the music done, and we had to go home even though the breeze was cool and nice. And well I guess that the woman would have liked some rousing sing along kind of jazz, but not this haunting rendition.. which sounds to me better than the original by Tom Waits. (Here is Fingersnap in 2011 ) Something though, about...

Paloma looked at the skies and saw the stars. She said "the rain has finished. I am praying for the clouds to move.. and like my prayers are being answered" It did not rain again. I was soaked because I decided to walk through the heavy 6pm shower to get to the Theatre Guild .. could not think of any jazz music to play in my head though I am sure there is Jazz in the rain. I had been listening to Ruth Osman's Rain .. on Friday a group danced to it, and on Saturday another group did the flowetry performance around it. The Flowetry competition (Flowetry is something about rhyming wid motion or poetry wid music or sumtin.. ) started late. A lot of angst as expected, Guyana birthing six races, some live music and the rock band which did not realise that they had to do a poem but came to play.. and did their rendition of Nina Simone's Feeling Good which they arranged a few minutes before they performed. Blues in the Night Francis Bailey played his sa...

"So she can play the flute and sing?" the young woman asked in wonder as Ruth Osman started her part of the programme on the opening night. It was late .. way past my bed time.. but time did not matter really under the eucalyptus trees at the back of the Theatre Guild hearing the live music. Two young women said they did not normally listen to jazz, but they were enjoying the music  One young man said the show was good , he never really bothered with jazz either and he was there because of 'Doc'. Peanut punch was on sale and I finished mine some time around when Charmaine Blackman sang At Last Earlier in the afternoon, two men won the Jazz Dance competition, One of their dances was to Guyana born singer Nhojj's Love . I was blown away though by the Hamer family dancing to Ruth Osman's Rain . I heard that Kenrick Cheeks wowed the audience with his kathak/jazz performance. He got second. The music was good. Even if I have no ...

I jump out of the bus with plenty other passengers near the Botanical Gardens and I realise that I still had the money in my hand. Some notes of the first steel band playing. Clouds provide a nice eclipse of the sun so 4pm it is cool. Gardens look nice and clean but some Guyanese can't make it to the rubbish bins. A former work colleague has her stand set up. She is a Jehovah Witness and preaches at the Gardens. Her grandson is one of the bands and she said that last year, the crowd seemed larger. The steel bands are around the bandstand. I ask her if she is not coming in and she laughs and says "I am doing Jehovah work while enjoying the steel pan music" I sit at the edge of the manatee pond. The music is kind of faint and there are some children talking excitedly because they see the manatees. I have not seen the manatees in years and feel foolish that I could not find anything to feed them, though I think we are not supposed to feed them. Imagine that there co...

There was a lotus pond inside the Brickdam Cathedral on the same day that the PPP went back to Parliament. The Festival of Flowers at Brickdam Cathedral was a creation of different people including a man who had been hauled in last year for questioning for drugs in pastries and who seems to have resumed his life. The exhibition included live music performances on different instruments. There was something about looking at the positioning of lotus in a purain leaf like how we do it for puja while listening to a young man playing violin, first alone then accompanied by a man on a piano.. There was steel pan music earlier . A woman asked me 'where you from' and I said 'right hey'.. though feeling sad that 'hey' was a place where the newspaper front page or TV news or online news which I saw did not think that it was newsworthy to report on the people who were arranging flowers in a Cathedral, and musicians were playing at no cost to the public and that as...

Bus man pass and come back fuh me. I watch de front seat.. i see de head wid de long hair dat dey lil close to de head wid de cap on de head in de front seat Kal Ho Na Ho.. playing.. I seh morning.. and start singing.. gyurl look at me like I gun spoil she bus ride. Bus man look at me and kind of look away shame shame. I aint ketch what going on.. gyurl like she whispering in de ears. Bus man like he deh lil bad. I want fuh seh.. I know texting while driving is illegal but should a bus man get bassidy and want fuh crash.. ah mean.. ow man, yall cyan wait.. I look fuh see if dem wearing wedding ring.. but nah.. if dem was wearing wedding ring ah tink she would ah been conducting de bus.. Me mind wandering. but gyurl sideways glancing at me like I cutting up runnings.. Next ting is see is bus man tek he hand down and dem holding hands.. now all dat is nice and so on ..but not when I is de bus driver.. but de music nice.. and dis is not young luv.. de bus man look lil fri...

I minding my business, eating the ice-cream which cost two times the minimum wage in Guyana but which could be eaten slowly because each spoonful generating sensations - vanilla from madagascar and orange and chocolate and I not going into the politics of how much the girl who selling get paid to sell and to guard because of the tourist in front of me ask if he could get a two dollar worth and she said no.. she can only sell in the amounts given and I thought I could give him an ice cream but is not that he poor, just that he don't have cash ... So I enjoying the ice cream.. waiting in the plaza for the time to go in to hear the Mozart concert, conscious that I keep this classical music thing on the downlow because for some, it make me seem pretentious, for others it becomes a kind of buddy pretentious thing because if I like classical music then I must be civilised somehow and then for others, it make more of an outcast than I already am. And a man come up, older white man, g...

How does a person who can't recognise a musical note describe any production of songs -  the "skin growing" at the powerful percussion and the chorus of voices of the 8 singers; the foot tapping and clapping at some of the qawali and other songs; the water coming to the eyes listening to a forgotten man's poem being brought to life almost a hundred  years after he wrote it; the slight annoyance at the late start (coolie time) or when sometimes the sound mixing was a bit off and you couldn't hear the voices of the singer; the joy at hearing the saxaphone and tabla and djembe improvisations .. or just feeling after Guyana's normal polarizing and divisive politics and civil life - the deep cohesive energy among people who came together to make music. A little over a year ago, Amar and Rena Ramessar produced the first Raagas and Rythmn . Their second production on 5 July, 2014 reflected a year of realizing dreams, learning and commitment to ...

Hope Mandir (East Bank Demerara) hosted a chowtaal samelan on Sunday 9 February, 2014. There were several goles participating. The programme was opened with tassa drumming from the Amar Deep Ramayana Sangh. Each gole sang from different chowtaals, and followed with oulaara and kabir. The first chowtaal was sung by the Pigeon Island Mandir Gole. The mandir is now in construction stages. The second chowtaal was sung by the Sanatan Vedic Sabha from West Coast Demerara. The next chowtaal was sung by the children of Strathavon Mandir. The members of the Enterprise Vishnu Mandir Ramayana Gole followed with their contribution - Raghunandan Awadh Bihaari.. The children from the East Bank Demerara Prant of the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha (Ganga Dhara, Farm, Herstelling, Providence) sang next The next group was the Cummings Lodge Industry Hindu Society. Members of the Amar Deep Ramayana Sangh and Rama Krishna Mandir Chowtaal Gole joined to make their contr...

Indus Voices is a group of musicians and singers led by Amar Ramessar who want to promote the classical Indian musical traditions. This was their first public live production. The programme started off with the powerful rendition of " Ekadantaya Vakratundaya" and continued with an amazing repertoire of nostalgic and contemporary film music, sufi renditions, ghazals, qawali and 'folk music' music with tribute to Baita/Chutney/Chatney. The accompanying musicians included players of tabla and dholak from India, djembe from Africa and a wooden drum from China. The five singers and the musicians kept the music flowing through the different genres. Hard work must always be praised and in a country which is increasing the import of talent and not nurturing local talent, Raagas n Rhythm is a tribute to the artistes who are committed to their work and to development of their craft. I was looking forward to the segment on the Sufi music - because even with Youtu...

The Pandit asked me to take the mic to sing the Hanuman Chaalisa and I wonder if his head good.. but the guy pushed the mic in my hand. Fortunately two of the expert singers were there as well so my voice was hopefully lost in the blending. Earlier this week, relatives of Jared Peroune organised a family recital.. was amazing to watch him play, without score on the piano. Today Sunday was fascinating for my Facebook.. opened up with Flo Bourne sharing Mahalia Jackson with me and I went on youtube in search of soul.. and as youtube goes , I ended up with Nina Simone 'Aint got no.. I got life".. and then to Hayley Westenra who I had not heard for about 6 years or so. Facebook good, Ish was posting a whole set of Bollywood  tunes, and then Nanda brought up the whole thing with the Thappu drums.. something in her head. I got people posting their rap favourites on my Wall as well. Tonight, went back to celebrate a 50th birthday with bhajans and baani style Ramayana