Archive for October, 2015

Mella Mella – Mystery and Joy

Posted by rwiens on 5th October 2015 in CD Albums

I first started playing kalimbas and other lamellaphones while working for choreographer Lucie Gregoire in 2001. At the time there was an African store called Giraffe on St.Denis. When I would walk in the staff would bring out 30 or 40 kalimbas for me to try and I would leave with 3 or 4 of them.

At the time I was at the beginning of an ongoing examination of rhythm that continues to this day. Because of the layout of the kalimbas (left thumb, right thumb) they lent themselves to exploring melodic polyrhythms, positive and negative rhythms, palindromes and rhythmic canons. To date I have written over a thousand pages of rhythmic ideas, explorations, exercises and compositions.

I was living close to Thom Gossage and thought it would be fun to try out these ideas in a duo format. Each of the kalimbas had a name, written in black magic marker, and we started putting pairs together. I would bring rhythmic sketches, we would learn to play them and then improvise. Most of our rehearsals were done outside, much to the delight of marauding gangs of three year olds.

Over the years we would record a dozen pieces annually and before my hard drive imploded (“Wow I’ve never seen a computer do that before”) we had about 150 compositions. Time passed and the commercially non existent duo became even more non existent.

Several years ago I started writing new pieces for kalimba duo. These were longer, multi part pieces which were quite difficult and it took a long time to be even able to hear the rhythms correctly. We recorded these new pieces and originally they were the ones I had wanted to release. To my dismay and surprise, I preferred the recordings we had done ten years earlier. This disturbed me at first because I believed and wanted to believe that as musicians get older, the music becomes richer, deeper and more assured, yet I preferred the older recordings. There was a lightness and joy that the newer duos lacked.

I rewrote some of the new duo pieces for solo kalimba, then spent over 6 months working on them 6 to 8 hours a day until they felt natural and then went into the studio to record them. Dino Giancola, engineer and calm positive presence, did his usual fantastic job giving the music nuance, detail and clarity.

MELLA MELLA – MYSTERY AND JOY/MYSTÈRE ET JOIE

Posted by rwiens on 8th October 2015 in CD Albums

Mystery-and-JoyJ’ai commencé à jouer des kalimbas et autres lamellophones en 2001, au cours d’un contrat avec la chorégraphe Lucie Grégoire. Il y avait alors sur la rue Saint-Denis une boutique africaine appelée Girafe. Chaque fois que j’y entrais, les employés me présentaient trente à quarante kalimbas pour que je les essaie et je sortais invariablement avec trois ou quatre d’entre eux.

À l’époque, j’ai entamé d’une analyse rythmique approfondie qui se poursuit encore aujourd’hui. Par la disposition de leurs lamelles et grâce au doigté utilisé pour en jouer (pouce gauche, pouce droit), les kalimbas se prêtaient à l’exploration de polyrythmes mélodiques, de rythmes positifs et négatifs, de palindromes et de canons rythmiques. À ce jour, j’ai écrit au-delà d’un millier de pages d’idées rythmiques, d’explorations, d’exercices et de compositions.

J’habitais près de chez Thom Gossage et j’ai pensé qu’il serait amusant de tester ces idées en duo. Chacun des kalimbas avait un nom inscrit au marqueur noir, et nous avons commencé à les grouper par paire. J’apportais des esquisses rythmiques, nous apprenions à les jouer et improvisions ensuite sur celles-ci. La plupart des répétitions avaient lieu à l’extérieur, pour le plus grand plaisir des bandes errantes de gamins de trois ans.

Nous enregistrions annuellement une douzaine de pièces, et avant que mon disque dur implose (« Wow! Je n’ai jamais vu un ordinateur faire ça… »), nous avions environ 150 compositions. Les jours passèrent et le duo sans existence commerciale devint définitivement… non existant.

Il y a plusieurs années, je me suis mis à écrire de nouveaux duos pour kalimbas. Ces pièces à plusieurs parties étaient plus longues, techniquement plus difficiles, et exigeaient davantage de temps pour entendre les rythmes convenablement. Nous avons enregistré ces « nouvelles pièces » qui, à l’origine, étaient celles que je souhaitais distribuer. Mais, désarroi et surprise : je préférais les enregistrements que nous avions réalisés dix ans auparavant. Cela me perturba, car je croyais et voulais croire qu’avec la maturité du musicien la musique devenait plus riche, plus profonde et plus assurée; pourtant, j’aimais mieux les anciens enregistrements. Ils dégageaient une légèreté, une joie, qui manquait aux nouveaux duos.

J’ai converti certains des duos récents en solos, puis passé plus de six mois à travailler sur ceux-ci, six à huit heures par jour, jusqu’à ce qu’ils me semblent naturels, pour ensuite les enregistrer en studio. Comme d’habitude, l’ingénieur du son Dino Giancola avec sa présence calme et positive a réalisé un superbe travail, donnant à la musique nuance, détail et clarté.

 

MELLA MELLA – MYSTERY AND JOY

Mella Mella - Mystery-and-JoyI first started playing kalimbas and other lamellaphones while working for choreographer Lucie Gregoire in 2001.At the time there was an African store called Giraffe on St.Denis Street.When I would walk in the staff would bring out 30 or 40 kalimbas for me to try and I would leave with 3 or 4 of them.

At the time I was at the beginning of an ongoing examination of rhythm that continues to this day.Because of the layout of the kalimbas (left thumb, right thumb)they lent themselves to exploring melodic polyrhythms,positive and negative rhythms,palindromes,and rhythmic canons.To date I have written over a thousand pages of rhythmic ideas,explorations,exercises,and compositions.

I was living close to Thom Gossage and thought it would be fun to try out these ideas in a duo format. Each of the kalimbas had a name, written in black magic marker, and we started putting pairs together. I would bring rhythmic sketches,we would learn to play them, and then improvise. Most of our rehearsals were done outside, much to the delight of marauding gangs of three year olds.

Over the years we would record a dozen pieces annually , and before my hard drive imploded(“Wow I’ve never seen a computer do that before”)we had about 150 compositions.Time passed and the commercially non existent duo became even more nonexistent.

Several years ago I started writing new pieces for kalimba duo.These were longer,multi part pieces which were quite difficult,and it took a long time to be even able to hear the rhythms correctly.We recorded these new pieces and originally they were the ones I had wanted to release.To my dismay and surprise,I preferred the recordings we had done ten years earlier.This disturbed me at first because I believed and wanted to believe that as musicians get older,the music becomes richer,deeper and more assured,yet I preferred the older recordings.There was a lightness, and joy that the newer duos lacked.

I rewrote some of the new duo pieces for solo kalimba,then spent over 6 months working on them 6 to 8 hours a day until they felt natural and then went into the studio to record them.Dino Giancola,engineer and calm positive presence,did his usual fantastic job of giving the music nuance,detail and clarity.