Bobby and Aziza Mustafa Zadeh

carmen

Scat exercise

32 million Americans sing in a choir

Fundamentals of improvisation

DIVA

"Do you know what DIVA stands for?

Difficult Individuals Vying for Attention."

-Bobby

2 more things to practice

1. Record yourself improvising. Listen back. Find bits you like. Repeat them lots. Find bits you don't like. Consciously decide not to do them again.

2. Find improvisations you like. Copy them. Learn them off by heart.

3. Improvise along to things on the stereo / radio more. More! Unfortunately they won't improvise back.

Bobby Mcferrin documentary

"If you're in an African village, you're dancing and singing all the time but you're not performing, it's just a part of your day... I try not to think I'm performing."

"Music should be made in the moment and then left behind."

"Artists are the architects of heaven. Our job is to bring a little bit of heaven down to earth."

luminous object

his thumbs are dancing

his thumbs are playing

his thumbs are making love

The artist in Dagara, Burkina Faso

"Community can create a container for natural abilities that can find no place in a world defined by economics and consumerism - abilities such as artistic talent or shamanic gifts, healing skills and clairvoyance. These talents are widely recognised in indigenous communities because indigenous people assume that the artist is a priest or a priestess through whom the Other World finds an entrance into this world. If the priest or the priestess regards with reverence and humility the world where his or her art originates, then the work done becomes lasting and impressive. If not, the artist does not last very long. The artist as an artisan of the sacred can cooperate in bringing the sacred to birth in this world. Indigenous people believe that without artists, the tribal psyche would wither into death. Carvers and painters produce their things for ritual purposes, which are enjoyed by the entire village. Storytellers act like the repository of the village genealogical memory.

"Artistic ability, the capacity to heal, and the vision to see into the Other World are connected for indigenous people. In my village there is only a thin line between the artist and the healer. In fact, there is no word in the Dagara language for art. The closest term to it would be the same word as sacred. It is as if there is an intrinsic sacredness to artistic symbolism. This is perhaps why art objects do not go on show. This is also perhaps why the artist does not think about how to gain public stature. In the village the ability to birth art is a sign of approval by the Spirit World.

...

"... collecting art objects in one place, to indigenous people, would be a sign that people want something from the Other World that is not being supplied adequately; they would be experiencing a thirst that is not being quenched. And, even more important, it would mean that the community is in struggle, is experiencing a longing for the sacred. In such a place of struggle, the longing for the sacred is so enhanced that people are collecting art objects. From an indigenous point of view, the isolation of self and community from Spirit appears to have translated into the imprisonment of art. The museums of the West, from an indigenous perspective, speak poignantly of the sharply felt longing for Spirit experienced by modern people."

Malidoma Some, the healing wisdom of africa, p96-7

Music and work in Dagara, Burkina Faso

"Villagers are interested not in accumulation but in a sense of fullness. Abundance means a sense of fullness, which cannot be measured by a yardstick of the material goods we possess or the amount of money in a bank account...

"Most work done in the village is done collectively. The purpose is not so much the desire to get the job done but to raise enough energy for people to feel nourished by what they do. The nourishment does not come after the job, it comes before the job and during the job. The notion that you should do something so that you get paid so that then you can nourish yourself disappears. You are nourished first, and then the work flows out of your fullness.

"Many areas of work among villagers, including farming, are accompanied by music. Music is meant to maintain a certain state of fullness. People recognise that even if you are full before the work, you can't take that fullness for granted. You have to keep feeding it so that the feeling of fullness continues, so that the work you are doing constantly reflects that fullness in you. It is as if the output of work takes a toll on your fullness, even it if is an expression of your fullness, and you have to be filled again before you can continue. Music and rhythm are the things that feed someone who is producing something."

Malidoma Some, The Healing Wisdom of Africa, p68

Ghana: music

London: tea and biscuits.

Does music work too for heady, screen based work?

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Richard Bona