Archive for ‘Music Travel’

There are still spaces available for our Lisbon tour of the ‘Home of Fado’ and the Gnawa and World Music Festival, part of this year’s Songlines Music Travel itinerary. Set your summer in motion and delve deep into the roots of fado in Portugal’s capital, or round off the holiday season in the idyllic setting of Morocco’s coastal port town, Essaouria. With such a wealth of  cultural discovery within European shores, neither trip is to be missed.

Lisbon, Portugal
Four days – June 14-17 2012

The Gnawa and World Music Festival, Morocco

Tags: essaouria, fado, gnawa, lisbon, morocco, music travel, songlines music travel, world music festival.

Words by Nikki Cooper

The first thing you notice on arrival in Zanzibar is the heat. The Songlines Music Travel group arrived on the Monday of the week of the Sauti za Busara Festival which allowed everyone time to settle in and acclimatise before the festival kicked off a few days later. However, on walking around Stone Town you can feel the festival vibe building.

It’s such a small town that we were always bumping into artists and musicians here for the festival. We saw Kozman Ti Dalon from Reunion arrive at the airport and then bumped into Ary Morais and his band who were staying at our hotel, as well as Fredy Massamba.

To get us into the swing of things, Aisha, our local music guide ran through the different types of music we could expect to hear at the festival and some tips on the ‘not to miss’ artists. The organisers are keen to ensure that there is lots of local music from Zanzibar, Pemba and mainland Tanzania as well as international acts from all parts of Africa. But we didn’t have to wait until the official start of the festival before we could enjoy some amazing musical experiences. 

Taarab

Culture Musical Club, Zanzibar’s leading taarab group, were not officially performing in the festival  but we arranged to visit them in their atmospheric club house for a specially arranged rehearsal. The taarab orchestra is made up of violins, accordions, qanun, oud, double bass and percussion instruments – dumbak, bongos and rika. We had different singers, both male and female, perform for us backed by a female chorus.

The poetry in taarab is laced with metaphor, allusion and multiple meanings and by means of their tipping practices during specific songs at taarab performances, audience members communicate their problems and their quarrels with others. Aisha had explained this process to us before we arrived, so although we couldn’t understand the meaning of the words we could feel the sentiment through the singer’s emotions. In turn we would waltz up to the singer or musician we wanted to acknowledge, note in hand, and tip them for their performance. It was great to see that the orchestra seemed to enjoy the performance as much as we did.

Mauilidi ya Homu

On another pre-festival evening we were lucky enough to go to an intimate rehearsal with Maulidi ya Homu ya Mtendeni in the backstreets of Stone Town. Maulidi ya Homu is described as ‘a visually spectacular and spiritually uplifting experience’ and this couldn’t be more true.

There are only three remaining groups practicing this religious art form and all are based in Zanzibar. The group is arranged in two lines: at the front is a line of dancers who are kneeling on the floor and behind them are singers and musicians, playing percussion instruments only. The music starts very softly and slowly the rhythm and music builds in intensity. As the music builds so do the movements from the dancers who remain kneeling for the duration of the song which is normally around 40 minutes. It is mesmerising to watch as the dancers move in unison in a fluid motion much like the waves lapping the shore.

Then on Thursday afternoon the festival officially opened with the carnival parade winding it’s way around the streets of Stone Town. It was time for the main party to begin!

Tags: ary morais, culture musical club, fredy massamba, kozman ti dalon, maulidi ya homu, music travel, nikki cooper, sauti za busara, songlines music travel, taarab, zanzibar.

Tags: alfama, fado, lisbon, mariza, mouraria, music travel, News, portugal, portuguese guitar.

Traveller Gareth Richards has just returned from our Songlines Music Travel trip to Cuba for the New Year and has been kind enough to share his photos and experience with us.

Just back from the Songlines Cuba trip, my second trip with Songlines – I went to Mali last year. It was a great way to see Cuba and experience its music. Most days we linked up with musicians in the afternoon and then went out to venues in the evening to see live sets. Some particular highlights:

• We were hosted by Pablo Menendez of Mezcla at his home in Havana, where we got an introduction to Cuban music and to life as a musician in Cuba.
• New Year was celebrated at our hotel in Havana where the band of the late Arsenio Rodríguez performed along with an excellent dance show. We even had a display of synchronised swimming in the hotel pool!
• We met a young Cuban rapper who came with us to see a show by the excellent Septeto Santiaguero at the Casa de la Trova in Santiago de Cuba.
• We saw Guasimal, a rootsy band featuring percussion and accordion, on the outskirts of Manzanillo.
• We visited the Cabildo de los Congos Reales de San Antonio in Trinidad, where we learned about Santería and about how strands of African culture survive in Cuba long after the end of slavery.
• Then there was Azucar Negra in Havana, Los Soneros de Canacho in Camagüey, Septeto Caribe Son in Trinidad, and many others!

All in all, a fabulous way to spend a couple of weeks.

Gareth Richards

Tags: azucar negra, cuba, gareth richards, guasimal, los soneros de canacho, mezcla, music travel, pablo menedez, santeria, septeto caribe son, septeto santiaguero, songlines music travel.