MFM Presents “Music Is Essential,” a Zoom Roundtable Discussion Among MFM Members – Musicians with a Deep Connection to African Music – Speaking on the Value of Studying Music in Africa.
Date: Monday, October 7th, 2024
Time: 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm. ET
Venue: ZOOM
Ticket: $5 for non-members
Register and pay here: https://mfmassociation.thrivecart.com/african-music-zoom-roundtable/
Zoom Host and PR Campaign Manager: Adam Reifsteck
I don’t want to jive you here tonight. I want you to look at me at something you have never seen before. Because 99% of the information you hear about Africa is WRONG.” Fela Kuti
Event Description:
This event is produced by MFM President Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi aka SoSaLa and the round table host will be David Gilden.
This MFM event is the first time to bring together musicians who have spent a significant amount of time in Africa to further their artistry. The panel will discuss their experiences in Africa and deep immersion in a foreign culture, experiences that can be realized no other way.
The MFM members on the panel will share not only their anecdotes and achievements but talk about the value of learning and experiencing African music at its origin. This is why we should encourage young musicians and academics to travel and gain exposure to African culture, firsthand, and develop lifelong friendships and collaborative partnerships.
World Music, and specifically African music, has always faced challenges in gaining a large audience in America. The more we can inspire younger musicians to learn from and collaborate with African artists and to incorporate global elements into their work, the richer their music will be.
The awareness of Africa, its countries, and their local culture needs to be recognized and celebrated. After all, Africa lies at the root of many of our popular American genres, from blues to hip-hop. Unfortunately, too few Americans truly understand these profound historical connections.
It’s a fact that African music still receives very little coverage in the United States. PRX’s Afropop Worldwide and BBC AMERICA are good sources of African programming, but they reach only a niche audience.
After MFM’s successful ZOOM roundtable discussion about Fela Kuti, Sohrab decided to continue ZOOM talk events about Africa, especially its music culture because Music is essential in Africa’s everyday life. Music has the power to speak out for its people. It still can achieve social justice and organize people to stand up for their rights. Good examples of great leadership are Fela Kuti (Nigeria), Thomas Mapfumo (Zimbabwe), and Bobi Wine (Uganda).
Surely, Africa will continue to be a strong and growing force in international politics and public affairs. Africans must lead that charge, taking care of their own politics to achieve “real” unity among nations. For African musicians as a workforce, this means establishing functioning unions in their respective countries. Individually, they must achieve and disseminate practical knowledge of the international music business, including the importance of copyright ownership, care for social justice and fair pay, and protocols for collaboration within the international musician community.
MFM is lucky to have members who care for African music and its culture. All of them have visited Africa multiple times, stayed and lived in their respective countries, and gotten involved with its local people as music students, music activists (cofounding NPOs), recording studio personnel, writers, interviewers, educators, and more. African music and its instruments lured them there to delve deeply into African cultures. These are the right people to speak about ‘their Africa” experiences and share them with us.
The Speakers are:
David Gilden (David Gilden has been playing the West African kora for four decades since he first heard it at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 1978. With ten trips to West Africa (including Gambia, Mail, and Senegal) to study the kora directly with local Mandinka musicians and a deep proficiency in electronic music Gilden is one the few artists to blend traditional world music traditions with modern electronica.
ZOOM Webinar #13: https://youtu.be/qGLCGe9rRq8
Banning Eyre (author, guitarist, composer, photographer, radio producer, and Senior Producer for the Peabody Award-winning public radio series Afropop Worldwide. Eyre has traveled to over 30 African countries to research music, and especially, study guitar styles. He performs and records both traditional and original music, both solo and in collaboration with ensembles, including Timbila and Voyagers. He has written four books on African music.)
MFM ZOOM Talk Event #7: https://youtu.be/NmboReIcpUU
MFM ZOOM Webinar #5: https://youtu.be/JjAOyIIUnII
MFM ZOOM Webinar #9: https://youtu.be/Rq_tNqf2r8o
MFM Podcast: https://mfmspeaksout.simplecast.com/episodes/banningeyre-efhQKoA_
Sylvain Leroux (a saxophonist, flutist, bandleader: and player of the Fula flute (tambin) who brought traditional West African music to Zankel Hall with his Fula Flute Ensemble and curated the Griot Summit series that featured 25 New York City area griots from five countries. He has played with many Guinean stars, such as Sekouba Kandia Kouyate, Mbady Kouyate, Lama Sidibe, Missia Saran Diabate; and Abdoulaye Diabate. He invented and patented the “chromatic tambin” which brought the traditional instrument into full chromatic functionality. This led him to initiate L’Ecole Fula Flute, a music literacy project in Guinea, an effort that contributed to a revival of the instrument in Guinea. Several excellent young artists have emerged from the program. His 2002 cult record Fula Flute stimulated a worldwide interest in the instrument.
MFM ZOOM Talk Event #7: https://youtu.be/NmboReIcpUU
MFM Podcast: https://mfmspeaksout.simplecast.com/episodes/sylvian-leroux-D48wf1Gl
royal hartigan (percussionist, pianist, tap dancer, educator, activist, and author. His connection to Africa began in 1981 and he has been to Ghana over 20 times, often bringing students to learn firsthand the cultural visions and music/dance expressions of the people. He was a visiting faculty and J. William Fulbright scholar at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumase (Ghana) from 2013-15.
He has done 3 films related to West Africa, written 5 books on aspects of African music, numerous CDs and videos (at his royalhartigan youtube channel/africa), and performed there with jazz ensembles, including his blood drum spirit quartet, with master drummers and dancers form the Eve, Ga, Asante, Dagara, and Dagbamba peoples.
He has produced an award-winning film, We Are One, directed by Sara Pettinella, from his blood drum spirit 2015 and 2017 tours of Ghana, sponsored by the U.S. State Department. Its theme is the historical, musical, and personal connections between African music and jazz, and by extension, the world’s peoples.
MFM Zoom Webinar #8: https://youtu.be/hyMiF0GMcj0
MFM ZOOM Webinar #15: https://youtu.be/PzNUCApgmYQ
Duke Amayo (Nigerian musician, singer, and composer who grew up in Fela’s Lagos neighborhood and former frontman of the Brooklyn Afrobeat band Antibalas for 23 years. He composed and performed on the GRAMMY-nominated “Antibalas Fu Chronicles” album for “Best Global Music Album of the Year” 2021.)
Noel Smith (saxophonist and audio engineer. He spent 1972-1973 working in Lagos, Nigeria, assembling and running a multitrack studio owned by Cream drummer Ginger Baker. Smith worked with top musicians, mostly Fela Kuti and his Africa 70 band; and recorded some iconic songs in that era, including “Lady” and “Shakara (Oloje).”)
About MFM (https://www.MusiciansForMusicians.org)
MFM seeks to bring together musicians from all disciplines, styles, traditions, and localities in the cause of their mutual self-betterment. Whether through education, networking, or political action, MFM’s ultimate goal is to elevate the work of all musicians to the level of a true profession.
