On Sunday, February 19th, my folk band of young musicians, The Young Stracke All-Stars, had a surprise guest.  Because of a scheduling oversight, guitarist Leni Stern was at the Old Town School with nothing to do but wait until her cab came to take her to the airport.

I overheard a conversation she was having about the schedule, and thought, “Ah ha!”  I introduced myself and told her that the Young Stracke All-Stars had practice in twenty minutes.  If she felt inclined, she would be more than welcome to stop by and show us some of her music or just hang out with us.

She said she’d love to, and I nervously organized a practice schedule.  I knew it would be fun, but I never dreamed that we’d have the experience that we did.

But before we go on, a little background.  First, you can find an more in-depth biography on her web site, but here is a little bit about her.  She was born in Germany and her first instrument was the piano.  Then at age 11 she picked up the guitar.  Later she moved to New York City to play jazz.

Here’s a video of her jazz group.

I’m not sure when she started playing African music.  That’ll have to be a question for next time.  But, yes, much of the music Leni makes now is based on African styles and the group she brought to the Old Town School are called The Masters of African Percussion.  

Here’s is a video of her playing in that group.  This was not taken at the Old Town School of Folk Music. 

Leni, and the bass player from the group Mamadou Koné, came into our practice room and right away they were so happy to meet the All-Stars.  We all got our instruments out and got tuned up.  Leni asked us if we’d play a song so we dove into some Black Eyed Suzie.  We were a little rusty at first, but by the third time through we were really cookin’.  Leni said such nice, specific, things about our music; noticing our rhythm, our intonation and our dynamics.  I took note of this because good musicians and good teachers notice these things.    

When we were done with Black Eyed Suzie, Leni asked us some questions about our instruments and the classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music.  It was great to answer her questions first, and created a space were a lot of give and take could happen. 

Then, Leni, who was born in Germany, and Mamadou, who was born in Senegal, demonstrated their music and their instruments.  Mamadou plays electric bass, which many of us were already familiar with.   Leni plays electric guitar, but this afternoon played an instrument called an n’goni if you live in Mali, or an xalam (pronounced "zah-LAHM") if you live in Senegal, where Mamadou is from.

The n’goni has seven strings that are fingered like a violin and four string that are there for sympathetic resonance or to strum like a harp. I can’t remember what kind of wood the neck is made out of, but the body is carved out ebony.  That’s a cow skin on the top.  On a banjo the top is called a head.  Leni added the guitar tuners herself.  Traditionally, a series of knots are used to keep the n’gonis in tune.  

After some chatting and some more music, Leni and Mamadou wanted to teach us a song.  They explained that in African music there are thousands of named rhythms that people all know.  Knowing rhythms in their culture is equivalent to knowing songs in our culture.   Mamadou taught us the rhythm called Takamba.  Here’s a recording of us clapping it.

Mamadou stressed that in African culture, musicians don’t count beats like we do in American culture.  He explained, "The reason why I'm not counting is because, over there [in Africa], no one really counts.  You have to feel the music inside.  And then when the music comes, your going to feel where it is."   I found this very fascinating.  This is how I learn all my music, as an adult, but as a young person I was first taught to read standard notation, and to count.  Personally, I find more value in the African method.   

He also talked about the collective memory of music in Africa.  In the culture that Takamba comes from, there are whole families called griots who’s whole job is to be the memory of all the music.  The rhythms are not written down as they would be in our culture.  People pass the rhythms to each other only by playing the rhythms. 

Leni was eager to share how one would write it down, though, and you can see that on the blackboard in the above picture.  

Now that we knew the takamba rhythm, Leni and Mamadou added their instruments.  Here’s a recording of the All-Stars clapping Takamba, with Leni and Mamadou accompanying us on n’goni and bass.

All right!  By now we were all feeling great and were ready for the next challenge.  Leni and Mamadou showed us how we could play the Takamba rhythm on our instruments using just open E and A strings, or E and A notes anywhere on our instruments.  It sounded wonderful!  As we played Leni slipped into one of her songs called Show Me Your Face.  Here’s a recording.

And the musical fun went on from there.  We continued to chat about music in Africa and the world.  We talked about writing our own songs.  Leni passed around the n’goni and everyone got to play it.  The n’goni was awesome to play.  It was the first time I had ever played one, but the tune Cluck Old Hen came right out of my hand before I even knew what to do.  That made me feel great and I was so proud that all the All-Stars could sing along with me.

At the end of practice, Leni pulled out a bag full of different kinds of shakers and silver bells that’s she’s collected from around the world.  Many of them are designed to be worn on one’s ankles or wrists.  That’s what we’re doing in this picture; shaking things and tying things to our legs and noticing all the different bells and shells and dried nuts and other materials.  There was even a shaker made of goat toenails!

After practice, I had lunch with Leni and Mamadou.  Leni shared with me some stories and information about a school that she works with called the International Center for Arts and Music in Ouidah, which is in Benin on the western coast of Africa.  Hopefully the Young Stracke All-Stars can share some music with the young students at this school through technology like Skype.  Here is a wonderful video about the school.

If you’re reading this, Leni and Mamadou, thank you so much.  Your visit was such an inspiration.  

To everyone else, I want to share one more thing.  You’ve probably heard me say this before.  Please, never hide your music.  You never know who’s going to sit down next to you and maybe, because of your music, you’ll make a new friend (as we did on Sunday) who can share with you so many wonderful things about the world.  I wonder who you’re going to meet as you sit in the halls of the Old Town School of Folk Music, or on the park benches and front porches of your town or neighborhood.  After you do meet them, please write to tell me what tunes you played, what songs your shared or what cultures you learned about. 

Merci á tous,
Jason

P.S.
 The Young Stracke All-Stars would like to thank Jimmy Tomasello, Guitar Program Manager at the Old Town School of Folk Music, for helping to make this happen.

When I was a kid, middle school age, I wanted to build roller coasters and I always got a thrill thinking about other people riding the coasters that I would build.  Up, down, left, right, fast and slow, round and round, anticipation and action.

I ended up being a musician and it dawned on me on Thursday night that it's pretty much the same thing.  And, I still love the thrills. 

I finished this book this morning.  I got a lot of reading done this week.  A few mornings with nothing to do certainly allows that to happen more. 

It was a great book.  I don't have much to say about it at the moment,  but Woody is definitely on my mind.

I think I've got a bit of him in me, and that makes me feel strong.

Here's to Woody. 

I finally got to spend some time with Trio Ollín outside of the regular jams and classes where our paths crossed.  I went to their workshop on Sunday, and although my hand was still kind of busted up, I decided to bring my banjo.  This is a song that I learned from them.  It’s called Las Virginias, and was written by someone in México for the state of Virginia.  I was only able to stay for a little bit, which was disappointing, but I had a great time when I was there.  I hope I can catch up with them soon in México City.

I’ll write some more about Trio Ollín later, but I did want to say that they were visiting artists from México City.  They were in residency at the Old Town School of Folk Music for two weeks.  They are from a school called Centro Cultural Ollín Yolitzli, in México City.  I actually got to visit there on my trip to México with other representatives from the Old Town School.

But I couldn’t stay very long at the workshop because the Young Stracke All-Stars had a gig at the Lincoln Restaurant.  We were the supporting act for my friend Skip’s band, Strictly Jug Nuts.  This was an awesome gig.  The crowd was really into it and I think we were a great fit to play with Strictly Jug Nuts.  I hope we get to play there again, soon.

November 20 was also the night of the Old Town School of Folk Music Open House.  This is the second year of the event and is proving to be a highlight of the year.  There were over 50 free classes and jams. 

Lindsay and I hosted the Community Jam, which was kind of like the Gather-All or the Saturday jam, but really different at the same time.     Lindsay brings so much in terms of songs for singers.  She has a great ability to get people involved who aren’t playing an instrument.

I also invited some kids from my group guitar classes to lead some tunes and they all did great.  Those tunes were Blue Suede Shoes, Bile ‘em Cabbage Down, Shortnin’ Bread, Old Joe Clark and Snake Baked a Hoe Cake.  Lindsay lead a great song about a yodeling mountain man, The Welcome Table and a bluesy version of Old John the Rabbit that gets everybody “skit-skating” and “a-do-do-doing” along.

Maria lead a beginning fiddle class and Jonas co-hosted a room with some other teachers where students could try out a bunch of different instruments.  Jonas’ jug band also played on the main stage.  But I missed all of that because . . .

After the Community Jam I headed downtown to the House of Blues for the ¡ REVOLUCIÓN! Centennial Concert: Chicago Celebrates 100 Years of the Mexican Revolution.  This concert was an awesome surprise.  I missed all of the visiting acts like Mariachi de Real Guadalajara and my friends in Trio Ollín, but I got there just in time to catch the first set by Sones de México, who are great and are teachers at the Old Town School of Folk Music.  It was so cool to see them up on the big stage at the House of Blues.

The second set by Sones was the one to catch.  It featured a composition that Victor Pichardo, the groups musical director, and a huge influence on my interest in Mexican music, wrote inspired by the revolution.  It was very theatrical with a ton of dancing from the Mexican Folkloric Dance Company of Chicago, Mexican Dance Ensemble, and Ballet Folklórico Nacional de Victor Soria, an appearance of Emiliano Zapata and a ton of music by Sones backed by two vocalists, the Irish  Music School of Chicago and Victor García & the Chicago Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble Horn Section. 



The music was fantastic.  It reminded me of third stream music, which is the name given to music that is a mix between classical and jazz.  But instead of jazz, it was folk music.  What an incredible, powerful sound.



My most treasured moment was hearing Guillermo Velázquez & Los Leones de la Sierra de Xichú.  Maria had told me of the legend of Guillermo.  I didn’t understand a word he said, but it didn’t matter.  The passion is what came through.  He played the lllorana like Neil Young plays the electric guitar and you couldn’t help but cheer at the end of his stanzas.  When the concert was over many people stayed chanting “¡Guillermo!  ¡Gillermo!”  Eventually he did come out and great some of his fans.  I was very glad to say, “Gracias” and shake his hand.



The night ended and I was happy to be as wore out as I was.  Sunday was going to be a big day, too, and I was so glad that even with all the excitement I was still able to fall sleep.

Hasta manaña,

Jason

¡Eso!

This concert has been on my calendar forever!  Cimarrón is one of my favorite bands.  They play joropo.  Joropo is music that originates in the plains region of Colombia and Venezuela.

Cimarrón is a very important band in my musical development.  It was the fall of 2002 and I had just started working in the shop of the Old Town School of Folk Music.  The store was given a promotional copy of an album called Sí, Soy Llanero: Joropo Music from the Orinoco Plains of Colombia (you can listen to it there).  Cimmarrón is the band on the album.  Eight years later I still listen to this CD all the time.  I can't remember if it was given to me or if I just took it, but it was one of the first CDs of music from South America that I had ever heard.  It was my first step in an interest in the music and culture of Colombia, which is an interest that continues to grow. 

The band is made up of cuatro, arpa llanera (harp of the plains), bandola, bajo, maracas, cajón and a tamor (drum) which rests on it's side kind of like a dunun drum from West Africa.  The songs are super-fact, with the cuatro taking lead, rhythmic and harmonic responsibility.  They said during the concert that the cuatro is the most important instrument in joropo music.

I think I want to get a cuatro and learn to play it.  It's similar to a ukulele and jarana. 

A couple things that I like about joropo are the speed of the songs, the strength of the vocals, the incredible rhythms of the maracas and the percussive use of the harp. 

I also love the dancing.  It's very percussive and reminds me of zapateado from Veracruz, but has a different kind of kick to it.  The dancers in Cimerrón are incredible.  I've never heard percussive dance that fast before! 

Here is a video that represents their music pretty well.

Another thing I like about the music is the singing.  It's super passionate and the words come flying out of the singers mouths quicker than I can hear them.  From translations that I have read, most of the songs are about the life some the men raising cattle on the plains or about the animals on the plains.