It was great to meet up with Tepairu Manea again to learn more about the art of Tahitian drumming. Also very honoured to join him for the Coconut Festival at Kapa’a – met some more great players. Here are some of the instruments we were using during the event.
Whilst on the island of Kaua’i, a friend Kaplan Bunce invited me to the Powwow in Paradise, a cultural event and a traditional Native American powwow for the community . Many tribes and Pacific nations were represented and much dancing and drumming – this exert is the amazing hoop dancing.
Romana Kročilová grew up wanting to sing, dance and act but as a young girl she was told she wasn’t slim enough to dance and not able to pitch high notes. She decided to go to the doctor for help and he told her that she had a vocal chord disease and shouldn’t shout, whisper or sing! Her faith and her perseverance kept her childhood dreams alive and she eventually got a place in a music conservatory and she now sings in many bands and has sung in the Opera Carmen. Listen to her performing 2 Czech folk songs. Read More
Whilst in the Czech Republic, Libor introduced me to a music store that has an amazing Orchestrion – a machine that emulates an orchestra with piano and percussion using a pinned cylinder. Each music roll contains a certain number of songs – like a modern day juke box!
Check our Pat Metheny’s modern day Orchestrion Project.
Martin’s musical mystery tour – It’s been almost a year since my last music blog – WOW! Time does fly. So here are three very different pieces of music from the Czech Republic, inspired by various people I met and a concert I recently attended whilst in the country.
It’s that time of the year here in Czech – some call it a national sport – mushroom picking! We have a couple of days off in the highlands and the forests are full of people with their hopeful baskets, apparently 70% of people go mushrooming at least once a year. A skill past down from generation to generation, but those of less experience beware – we saw some, only to find out that they were highly poisonous – think I’ll stick to fish and chips! 
You won’t find it on a map and its not recognised by the UN! Yet this slither of land between the Dniester river and the Ukraine is home to 500,000, has a government, army and passport (that is not recognised outside of the territory). Transnistria proclaimed independence from Moldova in 1990 to remain part of the Soviet Union (who also don’t recognise the country). Sadly this has given rise to it being “a major haven for smuggling weapons and women” (Wall Street Journal). The good news – the only place I have come across that doesn’t have a McDonalds!
Sometimes an unexpected moment happens that says much about a people. Whilst in Moldova last year we took a boat trip up the river – a fun time where pop music blared out from the Captains playlist. Now and again youngsters would dance to the DJ type music but as soon as this piece of music was played; dance exploded amongst the old and young – it seemed to be deep within their souls. Always interesting when a ‘sound from the land’ moves people to express themselves. I have heard that Moldovan weddings are a spectacle of dance and people singing very loudly.
One of the poorest countries in Europe with an average wage of $250- but most on around $1- a day! Read More
120 First Nations hand drums warming up before I recorded them at the Stikine Valley Gospel Music Festival (a few days ago). For many of the Tahltan people this was a return to the drum – even today a part of their culture that is not accepted in many mainstream churches. Read More
We left the Alaskan Highway just south of Toc and travel along a 25-mile dirt road that snakes its way into the bush. We are heading to the Tetlin community, home for 120 Athabaskan people.
Our next stop was Whitehorse, where we met an amazing 91 year old lady, Annie Smith (Kwanlin Dün) who made these moccasins ……. Read More
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