I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ALSARAH & THE NUBATONES-Tiny Desk Concert #585 (December 9, 2016).

The Tiny Desk Concerts have introduced me to a ton of bands I’ve never heard of before.  They’ve also introduced me to styles of music I’ve never heard before.  Alsarah and the Nubatones play music inspired by her home country of Sudan.  But I believe she (they) include pop elements to make the music more accessible (and danceable).

And this Concert was great–I listened to it over and over.

The instrumentation is all fairly simple: Rami El Aasser plays all kinds of percussion.  I love the sound that he gets out of that hand drum.  Brandon Terzic plays an amazing oud and  Mawuena Kodjovi’s bass holds the whole thing together in an incredible way–something that I think this traditional music lacks.

But most important are the singers’ voices.  Alsarah sounds great by herself but when she and Nahid harmonize, it is enchanting.  Especially in the chorus of the first song, “Ya Watan” when their voices work together so perfectly

But what’s Alsarah’s deal?  The blurb is really helpful:

When singer Alsarah left her native Sudan, she was just a child who’d shown an interest in music. She’s said it served as her coping mechanism during a subsequent transition to life here in the U.S. That passion led her to a university degree in ethnomusicology.

It also drew her to musicians who were passionate about the intersection of culture, music and migration. Together, their one-of-a-kind expression has been called “East African retro pop.” But that tag only scratches the surface: In their hands, the music pulses, breathes and comes alive with a mix of tradition and contemporary influences.

I don’t know what the song names mean, but I love “Ya Watan.”  The song is really catchy, but when the bass did a big slide at the end of the middle slow section to announce the final part, I was hooked.

I have no idea why there’s a 3 in this titular word, but that makes me even more intrigued by “3roos Elneel.”  Before the song she says (in perfectly unaccented English), “I’m going to tell a story because I think I can do whatever I want.”

She says that the song is inspired by “girls music” performed at wedding ceremonies in Sudan.  But she tries to merge it with an old myth.  The Nile River would flood every season because the gods were angry and lonely.  So the Sudanese people would sacrifice the most beautiful maiden in the village.  But she wonders what happens after she goes in the river.  And what happens next season when there’s a new girl–that’s a lotta wives.  So, she likes to think there’s trade off.  You go in to the river and do 3 months as a Nile god bride and then you swim off.  Maybe the bottom of the Nile is full of ex-Nile-god-divorcees giving birth to mermaids.  Yes, she claims mermaids as a Nubian invention.

The song begins with a call and response. It sounds rather traditional.  But after a few lines, the song stops with a four-beat clap-along section.  And then everything shifts.  First the bass plays a cool riff then the oud joins in with some fast playing and then the percussion makes it utterly danceable.  There’s even a cool oud solo.

The first section of “Fulani” is the chorus repeating the word Fulani over and over (in call and response style), but it’s done in wonderfully melodious fashion, including a catchy stop start section with more clapping.

The song is really great and I love the way all the instruments are able to make the song fade out.

This music was totally captivating.

[READ:January 27,2017] Beautiful Blue World

Sarah brought this book home and read us a little bit of it and I decided I had to read it, too.

The part she told us about was about a girl taking a test to see if she would be useful for the army.  But it was no ordinary test, it was more like Bletchley Circle–puzzles and observations more than facts.  That sounded great.

What she didn’t tell us was the general set up of the story.

So, this story feels like a World War II story, with a country like England being attacked by a country like Germany.  But what makes this book special is that these are not the countries. The countries are called Sofarende (the attackees) and Tyssia (the attackers). But despite these countries having fantastical names, the story feels very real.

Mathilde is a 12 year old girl.  She is the oldest of three girls (her dad calls her Big).  She is best friends with a girl named Megs–they are like identical opposites.  Mathilde has a long blonde braid and Megs has a long dark braid. But otherwise they are soulmates.

As the story opens we learn that the citizens of Sofarende are going to have to hide in bomb shelters when the aerials fly by.  The aerials have been dropping bombs.  Mathilde’s father, who is a postman, is also a volunteer in the war effort.  On this one night she is terrified that he hasn’t come back yet.

When he gets home he tells her not to walk her sisters near a certain blocked off area–they couldn’t handle the destruction.  But Mathilde has to see for herself.  And she is devastated by the rubble and smoke.

That’s when the children learn about the Adolescent Army Aptitude Test.  Anyone who passes the test will earn their family $400 (all of their families are very poor with very few provisions); however, that child will be conscripted into the army.  Everyone wonders about this test–is it worth it, do they think that the people who pass the test will be kept safe (but why else would they pick the best if they were just going to die).

Megs signs up.  And a few nights later when Mathilde realizes that her family just doesn’t have any money, she signs up too.

She says the test became more peculiar as she went through–instead of just math and the like, there were sections with maps to fill in, a place to describe the origins of Sofarende.  How did the current war come about and ten specific questions about the aerials. And then “You are packing a picnic lunch for a friend.  What do you include?”  She starts to plan a menu and then changes her answer to “That depends on what my friend likes to eat.”

Mathilde is convinced that Megs will get accepted–she is the smartest girl in school after all. But in the end, the Examiner chooses one girl from their province if Likkle and it is Mathilde.  Three days later Mathilde is put on a train and sent who knows where.

It turns out that she is to be staying in Faetre, a province in the east of Sofarende.  She is brought to a large school, where her hair is cut (she won’t look like Megs’ twin anymore) and she is not told what to do. She mostly walks around looking at other kids.  They are solving puzzles and decrypting codes and looking at maps.  They all seems so smart.  Mathilde tries to figure out how she can help them but she mostly feels useless–and more convinced than ever that Megs should have been selected, not her.

She grows increasingly frustrated at not knowing what to do.

And then something changes.  The “school” has captured  prisoner form Tyssia.  He is a teenager who was flying an aerial.  It is known that their soldiers feel it is better to die than to be captured so he is feeling pretty miserable right now.

The examiner asks Mathilde to go in and talk to the prisoner.  Turns out that Mathilde was selected for her empathy.  The boy refuses to talk, but Mathilde gets bored sitting in silence so she just starts talking about whatever.  And then she brings him paints.  He says his favorite color is blue, so she asks him to paint something in blue.

She slowly learns more about the boy, Rainer.  She learns that he is not that different from her but also that he has done some terrible things.

The story seems like it is going in a very specific direction–that Mathilde will lean something from Rainer and help to end the war.  But that’s not what ‘s going on here.

First off, this book is really short–just over 200 pages.  And there is just no way that this story could wrap up that quickly.  So, obviously there’s a second part (the back of the book even tells us the name of the book and that it’s due out in the fall).

But a series of surprises happens as the story nears the end.  One involves everyone and the second involves Mathilde specifically.

And while one would never say that the book has a satisfying ending (there’s so much more to come) it ends in a tidy way that feels like a chapter has ended and we are waiting for the next one to begin.

The writing in this book was wonderful–the scenes between Mathilde and Rainer were incredibly emotional as Mathilde tries to reconcile this nice boy with the horrible things he’s done..

And, I can’t believe I didn’t say this first–the opening scenes where the families are fearful for their lives are really powerful.  I actually wondered if they might be too intense for a children’s book. The fear was palpable and LaFluer does an amazing job of capturing that emotion.

I loved this book a lot and I really can’t wait for part two coming out in the fall.