KICKSTARTER PROJECT UPDATE #29

The kids save the day!

1 juin 2014

After two weeks of recording and four months of hard work teaching the kids to play flute and read music, Friday night, May 30, we had our final concert. The house was full, many friends were there, the kids' parents and people from the neighborhood were checking it out, and there was a joyous atmosphere.

A group of distinguished ladies came by before the show, they could not stay but wanted to express their gratitude for my work and prayed that I continue, it was for me one of the most touching episodes of the whole experience. There were speeches by dignitaries: The Director of the Tyabala Center where I teach, Mr. Mohamed "Momo" Sylla, and the Assistant Mayor of the Commune. I was invited to speak and I told a bit of my story, talked about the flute, my ideas, the benefits of a music education and thanked a few people.

To open the concert, I played a short set of four pieces with two wonderful musicians on kora and bolon (bass kora). Then from the back of the room, the kids started playing Kaira* on the flute. They walked to their places through the crowd playing. There was a break and am intro by our eldest, Bonfils, and a spirited uptempo version of the same followed which delighted the listeners. For me, Kaira is the signature sound of Conakry.

We proceeded through a program of pieces of various tempos and colors, traditional arrangements, original music, and a bit of Western classical music. Among the kids there are some wonderful percussionists and we took advantage of that (not full advantage I am sure). The took flute solos. Some audience members gave money when they were moved, as when we played the melody of Sundjata.* I was told that a father cried. The evening closed with a exuberant performance of their own traditional ballet arranged and choreographed by their lead drummer, Abdoulaye.

It was a wonderful evening and I was very proud of my students who worked so hard for all these months. All that time I kept coming at them with new stuff everyday, they were pushed and pulled in many directions but they enjoyed the challenge and rose to the occasion.

However, when I returned home after the concert I realized that a memory card containing a week's worth of hard fought recordings was missing. I called the engineer who assured me that the card was in the recorder's case when he handed it to me. I looked everywhere I could think of twenty times but it was gone.

These recordings represent half the music on the album that I must deliver and a couple of those pieces are essential.

The following morning I told everybody to look for the card around the concert area. They scanned the floor and the furniture but it was nowhere to be found.

Everybody was upset. I asked the kids if they were up to try to record these pieces again and they replied the equivalent of "Hell yeah!"

We got to work. They were tired from a long week and a very long previous day and it took some effort to wake them up but after a few takes we got a song in the can, then another, and another, and another… almost entirely restoring in a few hours a week's worth of work. By that time they were really tired and we agreed to take a rest and continue on Monday.

A particularly unfortunate aspect of this episode is that for the entire past week we had the assistance of a great sound engineer, Mr. Seydou Tanly, who was getting the best sound out of the situation.

However, the result today is not bad! Assuredly, a few things here and there could be a little better, but you can hear everything and as we are recording in what is essentially a public place, there is a minimum of disruption and background noise. The main thing is that the music has spirit and life and it is in there.

I am very proud of my students, they have so much heart and love for music, I think that when you hear it you will be pleased.

Monday we will finish the recordings and, inch' Allah, we'll have a wonderful CD for you dear friends and supporters.

Love and kisses from Conakry Sylvain

*Kaira (peace) and Sundjata are essential, fundamental pieces of the Mandeng repertoire