We’ve spent the better part of the past two weeks readjusting in Namibia and scrambling to get together a trailer to be screened at the Lake of Stars festival in Malawi next month. We’re going over film in Windhoek this week before returning to Rundu next Friday to turn all the content over to our [...]
Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
The Trailer, Lake of Stars & The Future
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on September 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Deep Roots back in the Studio
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on September 3, 2008 | 1 Comment »
After five days of overland travel from Malawi to Namibia, it feels good to be home. The workload piles up during eight weeks of neglected correspondence, but slowly we’re catching up on everything. In the process, we’ve coordinated an exciting development.
In addition to screening Deep Roots for the press at the Lake of Stars festival, [...]
Tiwanana from the Warm Heart of Africa
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on August 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Kenny, Waliko and I have spent the past three days in Blantyre going through footage, making sure we’re on the same page—translations, cultural explanations, film treatment, etc—before we all head our separate ways. For Ken, he’s off to Canterbury to start a new year of teaching secondary school in the UK. For Waliko, it’s back [...]
The Body, Mind & Soul of Malawi
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on August 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This week, Lilongwe played host to the international finals of the Music Crossroads International (MCI) competition, a unique youth empowerment through music program initiated in 1995 by Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI) that encompasses five southern African countries: Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Since the program began twelve years ago, Music Crossroads has reached almost 35,000 [...]
Music as an Instrument for Change
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on August 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Today we had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with both Peter Mwangwa and his record label, Rhythm of Life. Mwangwa, one of Malawi’s most prominent fusion artists, has made a name for himself in the last decade by combining indigenous Malawian rhythms with international standard recordings to produce uniquely Malawian sounds. Surprisingly, he has [...]
The Wheels Got Tired
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on August 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Saturday morning, we caught up with the Makambale Brothers, one of Lilongwe’s most talented groups of traditional musicians. Their unique sound, born from oil-can guitars and bottle-cap cymbals, screams Malawian. We recorded three songs with them, hoping to produce a music video from our short session with them. Afterwards, we were so impressed with their [...]
Back in the Capital City
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on August 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
After spending Monday-Thursday in production review in Blantyre, we resumed filming today in Lilongwe with Harry Gibbs, a key figure in Malawian entertainment and music promotion. His activities range from organizing Malawi’s annual international music festival, the Lake of Stars, to owning and operating Lilongwe’s premier venue, Umunthu Theatre.
He was able to give us his [...]
War, Exorcism & The Legend
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on July 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
After a brief stopover in Lilongwe on Friday night, we spent Saturday morning in the villages of the Mzimba district in north-central Malawi. Our guide, Gertrude Mkandawire, a Member of Parliament from the area, gave us an intimate look at the cultural traditions practiced in the region. As we arrived in the village, dancers and [...]
The Challenges Facing Malawian Music
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on July 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Another week of insider-interviews from Blantyre, all of which have highlighted important trends in Malawian music. During the colonial era, traditional musical instruments, songs, rhythms, and pedagogies were chronically marginalized. Colonial governments were concerned first and foremost with their territories being financially self-supporting, so administration was kept to a minimum. Thus, economic activity was left [...]
Gig at Gecko Lounge
Posted in Deep Roots Malawi, Music, Projects on July 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Saturday morning we woke up early, rounded up Kenny’s old crew, the Sangalala (Happiness) Blues Band, and drove six hours to Chembe, a small village inside Lake Malawi National Park on Cape Maclear. Jutting out along the southern coast, the cape grants views of the sun rising over Mozambique and setting over Malawi. A string [...]
