SOUNDTRACK: IBEYI-Tiny Desk Concert #703 (February 7, 2018).
I have been fascinated with Ibeyi since I first heard them a couple years ago. Their more recent song “Deathless” is just outstanding. I’d also heard they put on a great show.
So I was looking forward to this Tiny Desk.
But just who are they?
They come by their connection to the Afro-Cuban culture by way of their late father, Miguel “Anga” Diaz, an in-demand Cuban percussionist who was part of a vanguard musicians who reinvigorated Cuban music before he died prematurely at age 45 in 2006. The sisters, Lisa-Kaindé (in blue) and Naomi (in orange) Díaz, carry that calling in their DNA, and how they’ve manifested it into their own art is nothing short of amazing.
The show begins with the sisters singing a capella: an invocation of a West African Yoruba deity called “Oddudua.”
The first song they play is “Deathless.” “This song is dear to our hearts. It’s made for you; for us. Whatever happens, this moment is deathless. We made it for you to feel for three minutes and believe it.” Naomi hits a sampler to get the horns going and then Lisa-Kaindé plays the nifty buzzy keyboard melody and vocal samples. Then Naomi starts playing the batá, which is really fun to watch. Lisa-Kaindé sings lead (her voice breaks on one of the high notes)
The twins (Ibeyi means ‘twins” in Yoruban) perform their music with the batá drums associated with Yoruban sacred music and their elaborate vocal arrangements channel the call-and-response of traditional African music. The melding of their voices when they harmonize can be breathtaking, but the same can be said about the messages behind their songs, themes that inspire both inward introspection and celebrations of life.
The drums are such a cool percussive element that I didn’t expect. The chorus is so uplifting and joyful even as it has a tinge of menace. They get he audience to sing along in a rather inspiring call and response of the chorus.
“Valé” is a lullaby written for their niece–she sings frozen and she’s really into it. Naomi sings leads while Lisa-Kaindé plays the pretty piano melody. It is a delicate, quiet song (a lullaby, duh). Then Lisa-Kaindé sings lead and Naomi plays cool percussion on a box drum which include lap-slapping as well.
Lisa-Kaindé says “Transmission” is the heart of their album. It’s nearly seven minutes long and goes through several changes throughout. They are both by the keys for the start of this one, with Naomi playing bass notes and both of them singing out of the same microphone.
The audience sings the gentle “Transmission” chorus as Naomi speaks in Spanish and then she adds the batá and sings some lovely harmonies. It’s quite moving.
[READ: February 6, 2018] “Stanville”
I’ve been meaning to read one of Kushner’s novels for a while now because of great reviews. But in the meantime, I have these short stories.
I’m not sure if this is an excerpt or not. It feels pretty full on its own, but I coud easily see it going much further.
This story is done from two points of view. A third person POV for the one main character, Gordon Hauser. And then, later, a first person point of view for another major character Romy Hall.
Gordon Hauser is teaching G.E.D. classes in a women’s prison. He was surprised to find that people would much rather teach in men’s prisons. Indeed, no guard wanted to work in a women’s prison “female prisoners bickered with the guards and contested everything, and the guards seemed to find this more treacherous than having to subdue riots.”
He had previously worked with juveniles in San Francisco but he found it too depressing–every story involved abuse of some kind.
Now he was in the town of Stanville. It had the highest percentage of minimum age workers in the state. The water is poisoned. The air is bad. Old businesses are boarded up. He rented a place that was a cabin in the mountains in the Sierra foothills. It was a single room with a wood stove–his Thoreau year.
His friend Alex called it his Kaczynski year.
When we finally switch to Romy Hall, she is being told that her G.E.D. teacher has shown up. She said she hadn’t signed up for the G.E.D., that she had graduated from high school. But another inmate told her to go with it, it was easier than fighting it.
Gordon started with something simple. Four plus three equals (1) eight (b) seven, (c) none of the above. She tried to mess with him, but he was so sincere, so wanting her to succeed that she didn’t know how to mess with him.
We meet some other prisoners–all of whom, like Romy, are on death row.
The prisoners worked sewing a seam on burlap to make sandbags for the highway. They made 5 cents and hour minus fifty -five per cent in restitution. G.E.D. class looked pretty good by comparison.
Gordon brought in photocopied pages of books or the students to read “Julie of the Wolves” or Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Gordon runs into Romy and says he has some books for her. He gives her I Know Why the caged Bird Sings and To Kill a Mockingbird. Later he asks if she liked them and she says she enjoyed reading them…when she 14.
He is embarrassed but she says it’s okay. Next time her brings her “Pick-Up” about two drunks in San Francisco in the 19590s She could not stop reading it. They talked about locations in San Francisco–she was happy to know he was from there.
After class one day Romy gave him a phone number asking if he could find out about her son. He wanted nothing to do with his–tried to avoid her even giving him the number. He didn’t want family drama. He never called and she never asked him about it.
But he did like helping the women. He brought Candy Pena yarn–it was against the rules but was virtually undetectable. She made baby blankets for a Christian Charity. When he brought her the yarn her face lit up like it was the nicest thing anyone had done for her. He also brought seeds for a woman who gardened. Gardening as against the rules, but she managed The 89 cent package was the highlight of that woman’s day, too.
Jumping back to Romy’s story she says it was obvious to everyone in class that Gordon liked her. People even teased her about it. But she started to live for the classes. She wanted to study and work hard even if she had no hope of getting ut.
Gordon knew not to ask anyone what they were in for, but hat didn’t stop him from searching online at home.
One woman had assaulted a Chinese college student.
Candy had killed a little girl.
Geronima Campos had served her time and even taught human rights law. She had been up for parole many times but was never released because she couldn’t admit that she was guilty–it was a coping mechanism to believe you didn’t do the things you did. She could never admit it and so was never seen to show improvement.
He had been putting off searching for Romy. But he had no one else to look up.
If the story ends where it did its kind of unsatisfying, but as an excerpt from a story it’s very compelling.
For ease of searching, I include Lisa-Kainde Diaz, Naomi Diaz, bata.
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