Beyond Baka? 19 January 2017
Fusion or dominance?
In an earlier session, I played examples of various forms of ‘fusion’ music and suggested that despite the implication in the term ‘fusion’ that there is a balance between the types of music being fused, ‘western’ music often predominated - a form of cultural imperialism.
Tonight, I’d like to look at a musical project that has lasted several years - the Baka Beyond project. That project has rested on an asserted ‘fusion’ between Celtic music and the music of the Baka pygmies of Central Cameroon. Tonight, you can decide whether that project is a success.
Baka music – then and now
The Baka Beyond project started in 1993, when guitarist Martin Cradick and his wife, singer Su Hart, stayed in the Cameroon rainforest for six weeks. They lived and played music with an extended Baka family from a small village called Banana, 500km from the nearest tarmac road and 10km from the Congo-Cameroon frontier.
Baka music and dance comes from the Baka’s millenia of unbroken tradition as nomadic forest hunters and gatherers. However, for the past decade the Cameroon government has ‘encouraged’ the Baka to settle in roadside villages – like Banana – so that the forest can be cleared for safari operators, plantation owners and loggers.
Initially, the Baka liked the contact with the outside world and the new things that life in town offered, including new music such as Makossa (Cameroon popular urban music, with prominent electric bass and brass) and Soukous (Congolese dance music). While Cradick & Hart stayed in Banana, they heard Baka musicians mixing their ‘traditional’ music with the new music they heard on the radio. However, as increasing numbers leave the forest, basic food costs rise sharply and the traditional culture is disappearing.
Cradick’s and Hart’s 1993 stay inspired them to perform under the name Baka Beyond and they were joined later by percussionst Sagar N'Gom and violinist Paddy LeMercier. The band mixed the Baka’s chants and rhythms with Cradick’s and Hart’s Celtic music; and in 1993, Cradick and Hart founded the charity Global Music Exchange, to ensure that the Baka receive a fair return for their compositions.
Characteristics of ‘traditional’ Baka music
· Repetition
· Yelli - wordless, unaccompanied yodelling. Women sing yelli before any major hunt to enchant the animals, making them easy prey to the hunters’ spears. They also sing yelli accompanied by drums and dance during ceremonies and parties.
1. Video: Baka female yodellers (date?) (2:19)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cATZe_jlc9g&index=2&list=RDz5JbHIKXvgo
· A steady beat by string instruments and percussion – including liquindi or water drums.
2. Video: Liquindi (0:47)
http://www.gbine.com/video_liquindi.html
· The leta is a 7-stringed instrument resembling the western harp and the Malian kora. Strings of nylon fishing line are strung between a wooden neck and a flattened piece of tin can covering a wooden sound box. The strings are plucked from both sides. Originating in Central Africa, the Baka have adopted it over the last 30 years.
3. Video: “Lyimbi playing a leta” (2012) (7:11 – play about 4 minutes))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3sLoAJNxXY
4. Audio: Baka Forest People of South-East Cameroon (2009) “Aniko” Baka in the Forest. (2013 March Hare Music) (2:33)
· The ngombi na peke is a hybrid of a harp and a guitar. Strings are stretched across the equivalent of a guitar’s bridge, but without a neck or frets.
5. Video: “Mokoloba playing a Ngombi na peke” (2012) (1:38)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv7Bm7mzARA
6. Baka Forest People of SouthEast Cameroon (2009) “Sakwe Ngombe Pt. 2” Baka in the Rainforest. (2013 March Hare Music) (4:34)
· The accoustic guitar. On their first visit, Craddick & Hart found that two Baka men – Pelembir and Mbeh - were proficient guitarists. So on their subsequent visits, Craddick & Hart donated guitars to the Baka's collection and several young Baka men have now become very proficient guitar players.
7. Video: “’Nawa’ live in the rainforest”. (4:54)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlLjqMP1gA
Two guitars, an 8-string lute and dancers. Reappears on Gati Bongo.
8. Video: “Jamming with Baka in the rainforest” (Dec. 2000). (5:12)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZF0AH9dmTg
Guitars, percussion and singers. Cradick on mandolin – ‘fusion’?
Baka on record
Cradick’s and Hart’s collaboration with the Baka has produced albums of ‘traditional’ Baka music, released alongside Baka Beyond’s ‘fusions’ of Baka and Celtic music. The first two albums from the project were released in 1993 and sold well worldwide:
· Heart of the Forest (1993) Baka Forest People of SouthEast Cameroon. Rykodisc. Twenty one short tracks of ‘traditional’ Baka music, introducing the Baka people’s vocal, string and percussive traditions.
9. Audio: Baka Forest People of South-East Cameroon (1993) “Abale” Heart of the Forest Rykodisc. (5:21)
A welcoming song. Both men and women sing; usually the men lead the drumming and percussion and the women lead the singing.
· Spirit of the Forest (1993) Baka Beyond. Rykodisc.
10. Audio: Baka Beyond (1993) “Spirit of the forest” Spirit of the Forest Rykodisc. (5:33)
Craddick and baka – ‘fusion’? His tunes are either based on traditional Baka melodies or inspired by playing with Baka musicians.
Two more albums of ‘traditional’ Baka music were released much later:
· Baka in the Rainforest (2009) Baka Forest People of SouthEast Cameroon.
· Voice of the Rainforest (2013) Baka Forest People of SouthEast Cameroon
(On iTunes, each album is – like Heart of the Forest - credited to the Baka Forest People of South-East Cameroon; the Baka Gbiné web site credits all three albums to Baka Gbiné.)
In 2004, Craddick began to make multitrack recordings of Baka guitar-based music live. In 2006, the results were released as the guitar-based LP, Gati Bongo under the name Orchéstre Baka Gbiné (http://www.gbine.com/index.html).
11. Video: Orchéstre Baka Gbiné (2007) “Boulez Boulez” Gati Bongo March Hare Music. (Polyrhythms galore!) (6:36)
In 2012, Baka Gbiné recorded another guitar-based LP – Kopolo – released in 2013. Here are ‘live’ versions of two tracks from that LP.
12. Video: Orchèstre Baka Gbiné (2012) “Ima gati” Kopolo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5PWm9_HHqM (6:38)
Relentless guitars, tree root, singers and ‘spirit of the forest’ dancers.
13. Video: Orchéstre Baka Gbiné (2012) “Topé Malangui Bodé” Kopolo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0PkvzRwoT4 (4:41)
Guitars, tree root and choir.
(Also from Kopolo: “Kolo ko tolo” is very electric and similar to dub; “Mabita bella” has a very prominent western drum kit.)
Fusion or juxtaposition?
Baka Beyond’s two female singers – Su Hart and Kate Budd – sing in a Baka style.
14. Audio: Baka Beyond (1995) “Ndaweh’s Dream” Meeting Pool. Rykodisc. (5:07)
In 2006, Baka Gbiné and Baka Beyond toured the UK, resulting in an album - Baka Live (2007). In this track, Baka rhythm and repetition meet Celtic singing and fiddle.
15. Audio: Orchèstre Baka Gbiné and Baka Beyond (2007) “Soiridh Leis” Baka Live March Hare Music. (3:42)
Su Hart sings a Celtic song accompanied by Baka vocals - yelli loops.
16. Audio: Baka Beyond (2009) “An T-Oighr’Og”. Baka Beyond the Forest March Hare Music. (4:24)
In the final video, we see Baka instrumentation – water drumming, then congos, then water drumming again - added to ‘traditional Celtic’ song.
17. Video Baka Beyond (2014) “Sylkie” (Scottish song to charm seals) After the Tempest March Hare Music. (4:57)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyeBdMWRBfc
62 minutes, but I won’t play all of each track.
Live and Pedal-powered. (1996) March Hare Music.
Includes several tracks from other LPs.
The RhythmTree. Baka Beyond. March Hare Music. (2004)
“The Rhythm Tree”. Tasty electric guitar accomp.
“Sad among strangers” - vocals
Baka Beyond the Forest. Baka Beyond. March Hare Music. (2009)
“Marriage of West with East” Features the mouth flute – play and call alternately.
Sources
http://www.baka.co.uk/baka/bfp_baka_gbine.html
The birth of ‘Baka’
Guitarist Martin Cradick and didgeridoo player Graham Wiggins formed Outback in the late 1980s, fusing indigenous Australian music with contemporary ‘Western’ music. They released a cassette, Didgeridoo and Guitar (1988), then their first album, Baka, (1990), named after a pygmy tribe from Cameroon.
1. “An Dro Nevez” from Baka (1990) Hannibal Records.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHvinmP8cyU (slides)
2. Live version of “Baka” on You Tube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg3B57pm85Y
This reappears as “Baka play Baka” on Spirit of the Forest, Baka Beyond.
Baka was an international success. Cradick & Wiggins added Senegalese percussionist Sagar N’Gom, French violinist Paddy Le Mercier and drummer Ian Campbell; and in 1992 the augmented band released its first and only album, Dance the Devil Away.
3. “Aziz Aziz” Baka. Dance the Devil Away (1992, Hannibal Records)
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkRkmNyR2fU (slides)
After the album’s release, Baka dissolved. Graham Wiggins founded Dr. Didg with Ian Campbell and guitarist Mark Revell; while Martin Cradick and his wife Su Hart went to stay in the heart of the Cameroon rainforest for six weeks. They lived and played music with an extended family of Baka Forest Pygmies from a small village called Banana, 500Km from the nearest tarmac road and 10km from the Congo-Cameroon frontier.
‘World’ music
“Sweet Lullaby” by Deep Forest, from their first album, Deep Forest, released in 1992. The song is based on “Roroguela”, a traditional lullaby from the Solomon Islands.
SBS used the video as a filler between programmes in 1992/3. The video exemplifies the problematic side of ‘world music’. It consists of a series of images that are apparently unconnected, except by the child on a trike. What connects them is that they are images of ‘the exotic’ –of the ‘other’ than us. In case we missed this point, towards the end of the video, SBS superimposed the text “The world is an amazing place”. Not ordinary, like our everyday daily lives – “amazing”.
1. Video: Deep Forest (1992) “Sweet Lullaby” Deep Forest 550 Records.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqPK88PA8aE (4m 42s)
Afro-Celt Sound System. The Source. “The communicator”.
Volume 2. “Anatomic”
No comments:
Post a Comment