Here is some inspiration to activists from Howard:

On Getting Along by Howard Zinn (2003)

You ask how I manage to stay involved and remain seemingly happy and adjusted to this awful world where the efforts of caring people pale in comparison to those who have power? It’s easy.

First, don’t let “those who have power” intimidate you. No matter how much power they have they cannot prevent you from living your life, speaking your mind, thinking independently, having relationships with people as you like. (Read Emma Goldman’s autobiography Living My Life. Harassed, even imprisoned by authority, she insisted on living her life, speaking out, however she felt like.)

Second, find people to be with who have your values, your commitments, but who also have a sense of humor. That combination is a necessity!

Third (notice how precise is my advice that I can confidently number it, the way scientists number things), understand that the major media will not tell you of all the acts of resistance taking place every day in the society, the strikes, the protests, the individual acts of courage in the face of authority. Look around (and you will certainly find it) for the evidence of these unreported acts. And for the little you find, extrapolate from that and assume there must be a thousand times as much as what you’ve found.

Fourth. Note that throughout history people have felt powerless before authority, but that at certain times these powerless people, by organizing, acting, risking, persisting, have created enough power to change the world around them, even if a little. That is the history of the labor movement, of the women’s movement, of the anti-Vietnam war movement, the disabled persons movement, the gay and lesbian movement, the movement of black people in the South.

Fifth: Remember, that those who have power, and who seem invulnerable are in fact quite vulnerable, that their power depends on the obedience of others, and when those others begin withholding that obedience, begin defying authority, that power at the top turns out to be very fragile. Generals become powerless when their soldiers refuse to fight, industrialists become powerless when their workers leave their jobs or occupy the factories.

Sixth: When we forget the fragility of that power on top we become astounded when it crumbles in the face of rebellion. We have had many such surprises in our time, both in the United States and in other countries.

Seventh: Don’t look for a moment of total triumph. See it as an ongoing struggle, with victories and defeats, but in the long run the consciousness of people growing. So you need patience, persistence, and need to understand that even when you don’t “win,” there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that you have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile.

Okay, seven pieces of profound advice should be enough.

Alternet.org article
NY Times artice

Here’s Keith Olbermann’s response, despite his sometimes thin arguments, he paints an ugly and potentially TRUE picture.
Keith Olbermann 1
Keith Olbermann 2
Keith Olbermann 3
Keith Olbermann 4

I’m putting out an APB for any coverage that’s really in support of this decision and to share it. I really want and need to hear directly from the mentality that comes to such a decision because I find it so difficult to understand. The ONLY way you can fight your enemy is to completely understand their mentality, to walk in their shoes. I want a deeper understanding. This is the first step, the only intelligent and responsible way to write, record and perform music and conduct interviews that are well informed and have the ability to DEEPLY respond to such insanity.

Here’s a MoveOn.org petition in support of counter legislation from Congress:

Please blast me an email or comment on this post if you’ve seen any good coverage or books/video’s on this.

After surviving the last couple weeks of the semester at Berklee during which time I played many gigs, give lots of extra help sessions, administered exams and did three KILLER performances with the Marley ensemble……I’m in Jamaica! Arrived two days ago in MoBay and arranged a ride with our driver Steve Riviere straight to Treasure Beach for 3 days of much needed R&R before heading to the hard streets of Kingston. (More on Steve below)

Arrived at Treasure Beach after dark and BEAT BEAT as hell. Waking up the next day to 85-95 degree sun, breeze….like you read about. Beautiful. Didn’t like the place we had booked to stay and just threw our hands up in the air and paid for a couple of nights at Jakes Island Outpost!! WOW, this place is truly amazing. Just check out the site.

Here’s a couple of video’s and pictures. Off to the days adventures in relaxation.

Our last night in Treasure Beach took us to a happening at a new hotel called Tiano Cove. It was a dance, live performance, fundraiser, arts and crafts sale, dinner all wrapped into one. The host for the evening is the well known scholar and story teller Amina Blackwell Meeks. She was AMAZING….really had full control of the small crowd and was quite funny at times in her MC delivery but also quite knowledgeable of Jamaican history as she would inject bits of Jamaican folk lore, history (of Marcus Garvey and the Maroons) and bigging up local artists. Also on hand were the Acompong Maroons drum and dance ensemble. The Maroons are a group of Africans who were never enslaved, basically escaped from the slave ships and hid out in the mountainous areas. (There’s a lot more to this story….) With my knowledge of this very significant part of Jamaican history, I knew that this was a rare opportunity to witness a deep part of Jamaican culture.
We departed Treasure Beach the next morning via hired taxi heading to Mandeville where we picked up a public bus to Kingston. Our driver to Mandeville was a man named Garnett Staple. Turns out he works in Boston 9 months a year as a foreman on a landscaping crew!! He is a fortunate Jamaican who has a sponsorship from a Boston business man (they met some years ago when Garnett became the business man’s driver while he was on vacation in JA,) who pays him well to help run his business then Garnett spends the rest of the year in Treasure Beach driving his taxi and spending time with his family. He is quite proud that he is able to take care of his family so well. We had a great discussion with him and explored many realities of Jamaican life:

As we drove through a town named Nain we saw the massive aluminum factory and we were told that it had been shut down for a year due to the recession….a massive loss for the regional economy. Some people have found bits of work on local road crews doing clean up work to get by.

I asked him what Bob Marley’s music means to Jamaicans today and his quick reply was that Marley was and is still responsible for a lot of tourist traffic to Jamaica and this is the best thing. No talk of the deeper meaning of his music and the Jamaican struggles at the time and what the state of such struggles is today.

We were following a garbage truck…..and thought it was peculiar that it was running on a Sunday morning. Could very well be transporting drugs and/or guns Garnett said, one way in which some make a lot of money. We asked him what are the professions on the island that pay reasonably well and are honest. He said that firemen do well, many who are connected to tourism, and farmers, but only those who are farming crops that have not been replaced by imported crops like cabbage and tomatoes. He said that the current minister of Agraculture is working hard to help farmers to regain their market that has become largely devastated by the terms of the loans that JA has taken from the WTO and significant changes for the better are taking place. (At least this is what I assume he was talking about: see the movie LIFE and DEBT.) There are more and more “Made in Jamaica” labels and stickers on locally produced products. This change for the better in agricultural policy was confirmed by some conversations I had in Kingston. Great!

Police, an honest living? They don’t get paid that well but some are well off due to corruption that could be from taking bribes, selling seized drugs and who knows what else. In the end it’s nearly impossible to make any huge judgements about Jamaican society on this. Is it more corrupt than many other? Who can really say.

So we finally arrived in Mandeville and were the first on a bus to Kingston. The busses only depart after they fill up so if you’re the first on, you may have a long wait. Fortunately we didn’t and left shortly on a PACKED PACKED PACKED bus. Made it to Kingston in about 2 hours, getting bounced around a lot, but not a bad ride in general.

Arrival in Kingston is a reality check. We were dropped off on a street corner in western Kingston….thought we would be dropped a the bus terminus, but no. So there we are two tourists with giant back packs in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Kingston. After a minute we walked down to the waterfront where we met our gracious host and amazing percussionist Maroghini.

The streets of western Kingston, where the ghetto life is, is shocking: just a mass of people and corrugated tin, torn down concrete, people everywhere, shops selling anything you can think of and streets covered with garbage. There is garbage pick up, happening around 3am, but it’s more a problem of civic pride, or lack thereof, according to our host Maroghini. People just throw their empty coke bottles in the street, out the windows of cars anytime, anywhere, much the same as I’ve experienced in other ‘developing’ (god I hate that term, as well as the term ‘third world’!!) countries.

12/21/09
Busy day in Kingston. The thing about any kind of doings in a city like this, is that you may start your day with a plan, but it’s quite rare that your plan will actually come to fruition the way you envisioned. For some this may be completely frustrating. I love it, despite it being so frustrating at times. Your experience, whether it will be a great one or a shitty one, boils down your flexibility and how you want to interpret happenings. They say there’s no such thing as a wrong note…it all depends on what you play after the supposed wrong note.

So, we started with a plan to go to the Marley Museum, then to come back and go to check out some of Maroghini’s land nearby, then to perhaps go surfing, then to go to Chinna Smith’s yard to jam. What happened was we went to the Edna Manley College for Performing arts. Great college level school with great facilities. Sarah had to do some important emailing and while we waited I was introduced to the President of the College, Burchell Duhaney, and discussed the possibility of building a connection between the two schools, something that I’ve been pushing for about 3 years now. Some day, I KNOW that connection will be made. While we waited for Sarah, Maroghini and I went to get some take out food for lunch and hopped in his incredible VW microbus….circa 1968 (for real!!!) and drove around the corner to Crossroads….a WICKED crazed intersection in Kingston, stopped at a restaurant, but the line was way too long so we bagged that and slugged our way back to the school through the crazy traffic all in 95 degree sun. No food, but we hungry. We picked up Sarah, then on the way to Marley Museum we dropped into the ___________________ studio and who’s sitting in the court yard but Bungo Herman (pretty much a celebrity in terms of reggae percussion….he’s played and recorded with them all, from Marley to the latest artists.) and Sly Dunbar, drummie from the heaviest of the heavy drum /bass duo of Sly and Robbie. Cool character was he. I complimented him on all of his work from the Peter Tosh years up to now and gave him big big ups for his work a few years ago on an album called “Memories of Barber Mack” (or it might be “Below the Bass Line”) with Ernest Ranglin. One of my favorite albums of all time, acoustic instrumental reggae-jazz. I’ve had dreams about playing with Ernest and Sly……hmmmm, maybe it could happen! Next Bungo comes out of the studio and says, “you want to meet Toots” (you know, Toots and the Maytals.) Uuuuu, yea. So, we met TOOTS for a grand total of about 10 minutes, but wow, a legend. Super energetic. He insisted on doing the Jamaican hand shake where you touch fists together but without actually touching and yelling, “WIRELESS!!!!!!”

Bungo hopped in Maroghini’s van and we headed over to the Marley Museum. It’s 56 Hope Road, Marley’s home. We got there too late for the last tour and we were starving so we sat down at the Legend restaurant and ate some great soup and sandwiches and got to a big reasoning session with Bungo. I asked him for a story of 56 Hope road in Marley’s day and the first thing he said was that there was no barrier, no wall. Anyone could walk in at any time. There were tons of hanger’s on everywhere, many times just total cacophony. Probably wasn’t the best idea for someone so internationally famous, and certainly contributed to the relative ease with which the gun men were able to nearly kill Marley back in 1978.

Then I took a walk around Bob’s house. I’ve been there 3 times before, done the tour, seen it all and even with some privileged access in the past, but to set foot on the grounds where so much of what has inspired me took place, sends shivers up and down my spine. It’s hard to put into words. Marley’s music and life just taps into something completely PRIMAL in me. It’s a combination of true rebeliousness, tenderness, intense longing for something that’s lost in us all.

We piled into the Microbus and headed towards Half Way Tree to drop Bungo off, but got sidetracked at Devon House for some WICKED ice cream where we ran in to the guitarist Chalice. After the treat, we left Bungo to the dense Kingston night and headed over to Chinna Smith’s yard.

Chinna was Marley’s rhythm guitar player towards the end of Marley’s time and I had the pleasure establishing a friendship with him on a previous trip. Chinna lives in a small place near Half Way Tree. You walk through his driveway, with a virtual jungle in his front yard and the smell of copious amounts of chalice smoke permeating your nostrils as you reach the porch. It’s a dimly lit space with a drumset, an old upright piano, Chinna’s fish tank (his biggest fish had died), an assortment of binghi drums. The back wall is covered with posters documenting Chinna’s worldliness and interests: images of Haile Selasie, Che Guevara, Nelson Mandela, Marley, the Melody Makers, Martin Luther King and so much more. There are 5-6 Dreads hanging around and Chinna is sitting on a stool hunched over his classical guitar jamming with the drummie, singer and binghi drummers. I greet him and he jumps up with a smile. Introductions are made and before you know it he points to the piano. I sit down and the musical communication begins.

Here’s a night-time video of the jam that took place at Chinna Smith’s house in Halfway Tree. I imagine that jamming inna de yard (at Chinna’s) is about as close as it really was in Marley’s scene….jamming for hours on end…… Here we are making up some stuff off the cuff. Later we jammed one of my tunes, one of Chinna’s, then we played Song for My Father and after that I was showing Chinna the diminished scale and some dimished licks that he mix-up inna blender!

DANCE HALL AND ROOTS SCENE

I’d say the Jamaican music scene can be roughly split into two streams: the Dance Hall and the Roots/Lovers. Back in the early days of reggae (late 60s’) this music organically grew out of the very jazz influenced ska era and what came first is music in the style of Jimmy Cliff, Toots Hibbert, Buring Spear, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, The Wailers and so many other seminal groups. This is ROOTS, the music I love. It’s punctuated by incredibly melodic bass lines, well crafted verses, choruses and even bridge sections, super melodic lead lines with near orchestral layering of parts including awesome harmony vocals, inner guitar, organ, clavinet and synth lines and very tasty horn arranging. The message coming through the lyrics were sometimes ballistic assaults against oppressive socio-economic forces that revealed the deep awareness and intelligence amongst the people of Jamaica. Other tunes were straight up love songs of all levels from the simple to the sublime. Some of the music was stripped down to an absolute primal core but retained a certain elegance that was able to reveal universal truths in its simplicity.

Here’s a brief video of one of the most popular “roots/lovers” artist of the day, Tarrus Riley…Killer! He did a free show at National Hero’s Park and it was RAINING like crazy, (very rare for this time of year.) That’s Dean Fraiser on alto, leading the killer back band, the identity of which I didn’t find out.

Back in the day a split took place away from the Roots style and the “Dance Hall” universe was born.

PASA PASA

There have been volumes written about the Jamaican Dance Hall cultural phenomenon and for this trip I made it a priority to get out and experience it, full watts! I will preface this blog entry by saying that I’ve never been drawn to modern Dance Hall artists and movement so my thoughts and feelings do spring from a certain level of lack of understanding that was certainly deepened on this trip. With this in mind, here’s what I think:

Kingston, 12/23/09. We went to bed at about 10pm for a 2 hour nap then woke up at about midnight, rubbed the sleep out of our eyes and hopped in Maroghini’s van and headed for one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in western Kingston, the border between Dunham Town and Tivoli Gardens. It’s here that one of Kingston’s biggest street dances takes place every Wednesday night from about 1am till the sun comes up. A huge sound system is set up, I mean HUGE. There are two speaker stacks that consist of about 12, fifteen inch speakers stacked 12 high (way over my head) and are wired to probably about 2000 (?) watts of power amplifiers connected to a DJ station with a double CD spinner. I’m not exaggerating one bit when I say that Maroghini’s van was rattling like crazy when the vibes from the speakers hit.

The DJ selects tunes to spin but equally important is his role to get on a microphone and talk up the crowd….or scream up the crowd is more like it. It’s not so much about playing one killer tune after another with a likkle commentary in between. The DJ brings new life to the track by providing commentary every 15-30 seconds (that’s right, seconds). The Jamaicans speak two forms of patois, one is basically English with and accent and with some Jamaican slang thrown in. Then there’s the real patois that is nearly a completely different language that I can barely understand. The Dance hall DJ’s, as you can imagine, speak in full patois, but to the outsider, it really it feels like an assault of screaming. The music is HARD HARD one chord, and even just ONE NOTE patterns embedded in a screaming electronically produced drum beat perhaps with a little repetitive synth line, maybe some quasi singing (sometimes they are called a “sing J” as opposed to a “DJ”). The messages speak sometimes of politics but often are quite ‘slack’ in nature, that is, sexist, very risqué, always trying to deliver the most shock value and egging on especially the women (dance hall queens), so very scantily clad and showing off some amazingly powerful feminine forms, to shake it harder and faster. The dancing: you might just as well be witnessing a pornographic bang scene that sometimes can get down to pure skin. The preferred drink is a particular brand of Jamaican rum that’s called “overproof” and if you spill a stream of it on the ground and drop a match, it lights up like a flame thrower. More fiya!! Some may find themselves asking the question: is it a celebration of culture or some kind of an abuse? I can’t answer that question except to say that perhaps it’s BOTH. Part of it feels cheap and after a while it simply hurts…..and I LOVE LOUD as hell bass lines and constantly get yelled at by fellow musicians on the band stand to turn down when I’m performing. Another part of it feels REAL….there is some kind cultural truth being demonstrated.

We held out at Pasa Pasa till about 4:30 am or so but the massive (JA for big crowd) never really showed up perhaps because of the holiday or perhaps because of recent gang tensions on the rise.

A few days later we traveled to a small and beautiful town in the Western side of the island, Roaring River, for Christmas Eve where we stayed with friends. Starting at about noon on Christmas day a giant sound system was set up….three stacks of massive speakers and mega watts of sound. The video is distorted because the little mic’s on my video camera couldn’t take the volume and the ramped up low end. I had ear plugs in when shooting. This was a big event in the village. The women spent literally 2 days putting together their hair and outfits and the men made sure they had their best jeans, shirt, hat and cologne on. Then as the night wore on the crowd of about 100 – 200 local people showed up….a country version of Pasa Pasa. With overproof rum running the sexy dance hall queens arrived, some dressed a lot more scantily than others, but pretty much all were ready to shake it and connect it to a man’s crotch.

Here’s a slow walk through Roaring River….no matter how far out in the bush you may be, there will be a sound system and probably a domino’s game!

Here’s the scene in Savanna La Mar Christmas Eve. It’s shopping to the max til late, late and EVERYONE’s out. Sound systems everywhere.

GROUND TRANSPORTATION AND GREAT VIBES

I’d like to make very special note to my friend and tour bus owner Mr. Steve Riviere. Steve is an American who fell in love with the Jamaican way of life many many years ago and followed his passion by making the island his home. I met him three trips ago upon recommendation by a friend and colleague in Boston and I always employ his services. Steve owns a large passenger bus (capacity of roughly 20) and makes his living between farming and running tours and transporting tourists in the Montego Bay / Negril / Ocho Rios areas. If you talk to him on the phone you would never believe he’s from the US as his patois and Jamaican accent are a complete and honest part of his personality. Steve is a caring soul with serious street credibility. He knows the entire island inside out and backwards. He knows Jamaican culture, the politics, the music, where to go and where not to go. His bus is VERY clean and his driving skills are seriously impressive……and to drive Jamaican roads they better be! If you strike up a conversation with him you will gather information ranging from where the GOOD music is happening, to the most up to date current events, to local, national and international socio-political commentary, great off the beaten path places to stay and eat, and always a few jokes. If you’re traveling far, make sure you stop and buy him a coconut water or some fruit. Steve is feeling only too much that Jamaica is loosing its centuries old characheristic as being truly rebelious from the times of the Maroons, to Marley, to NOW. State of music in JA today: “Well, it’s a couple of rappers with a beef who shoot to kill, talk all kinda slack but really saying NOTHING…..and all for what…..MONEY!!”

I happen to have a JA cell phone (something I highly recommend that you purchase if you’re going to be around for more than a week and traveling around the island), and even after I no longer was in need of his services, I always would receive random calls from him checking on to make sure I was OK!!

Steve’s company is Tahzan Tours: Sightseeing, Ground Transportation, Translators. You can reach him via email (which he has limited access to): ride_free_sion@yahoo.co.uk The best way to reach him is by phone: 876-362-1441. Check out other reviews on www.tripadvisor.com under the name “Steve Riviere.” Here’s a photo of Steve, myself and Sarah after our 2.5 hour drive from MoBay to Treasure Beach.

NEWS FLASH! Rebel Tumbao, my most meaningful project to date, is presenting a very special fundraising event on March 13 in Oakland, CA. Click the image above for details.

This is my blog and website where you can learn about the various projects I’m working on and bands that I play in: Rebel Tumbao, Dragonfly Taxi Recording Project, Combo Sabroso, CincoSon.

Also you can link to my involvement in education including my very popular Music and Life of Bob Marley class, Latin Piano Lab and my work as Assistant professor of piano at Berklee College of Music where I’ve been teaching for some 8 years now.

You will find a lot of music on this site that can be accessed in two ways: 1) hit the play button on the player in the upper right hand corner of each page (and scroll to different tunes with the arrows), 2) the site is set up with a ‘one shot’ player that I use to drop in pretty much any kind of audio I want including hot-off-the-griddle excerpts of new tunes I’m writing and recording. As you scroll through various pages you’ll see a speaker and play button icon, just hit it!

Much of my music is influenced by the socio-political happenings of the day and I spend a lot of time thinking about and discussing with friends and colleagues WHAT’s GOING ON as part of a life-long calling I’ve had to revel in the beautiful aspects of life and to continually work towards a deeper understanding of the not so beautiful aspects of how the human race functions. A lot of what I write comes from what I see as our collective inability to put human and environmental welfare before the obsession with material gain and how we continually allow such a tiny minority of people to have such a drastic concentration of power and money.

This is indeed a BLOG site so you’ll see various blog posts on the main page regarding my thoughts. I also will post updates on the above mentioned projects and as well I will post on my travel experiences, most recently to JAMAICA!

Thanks for dropping by and if you want to stay informed as to what I’m doing, please sign my email list to the right.

It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.

Recently Jeff Cressman (awesome sound engineer and great trombonist [been with Santana for a number of years now] was staying at my house along with the amazing body percussionist, Keith Terry.  They were in town from the SF area to do a couple of gigs in Boston. (I met these great musicians at Jazz Camp West last summer.) I was able to get a couple of hours free with Jeff and set up my portable studio in my living room and got him to play a GREAT solo on my tune, Dub Jumper.  Check out this excerpt:

Go to the Dragonfly Taxi recording project page to hear a couple more excerpts.

I also found the time to lay down Fender Rhodes and Hammond organ tracks (yup, the REAL THING baby!), borrowing a friends Rhodes and finding a quiet couple of hours Sunday morning to record the organ at Berklee.

Next, it’s time to finish ALL the drum tracks and keyboard tracks, then choose the right guitar players to lay down lead and riddim tracks. And after that, to get the horns done (flute, trumpet, tenor, bone) and then the back up vocals.  I’ll complete all the lead vocals at various points along the way.

BERKLEE BOB MARLEY ENSEMBLE
Roots and Reason concert for Black History Month

WHEN: Thursday, February 25
WHERE: Berklee Performance Center
130 Mass Ave, Boston
TIMES: 8:15pm
COST: TBA

Description

This is our annual CARIBBEAN concert for Black History Month at Berklee. The Marley ensemble shares the stage with Ricardo Monzon’s Afro-Cuban ensemble and Ron Reid’s Steel Pan Ensemble. It’s always an amazing show and always sells out so get your tickets soon!

TOUSSAINT AND BURU STYLE

WHEN: Friday, March 12
WHERE: Mojito’s
1339 Grant Ave
San Francisco, CA
TIMES: Night time! Exact time TBA
COST: TBA

Description

While I’m in the Bay Area doing the Rebel Tumbao Fundraiser, I have the honor to also do a few gigs with Toussaint’s band BURU STYLE. We will be protecting soul music and reggae, fo sho. Geoff Brennan, the bassie for Rebel Tumbao will be joining the rest of Buru Style for this killer show. I’ll funkin and bubbln up on the keyboards.

REBEL TUMBAO FUNDRAISER

WHEN: Saturday, March 13th
WHERE: Piedmont Piano
Oakland, California
TIMES: 8pm
COST: $30 BUY TICKETS NOW

Description

Matt Jenson, pianist and composer, and José Claussell inspired percussionist with Maestro Eddie Palmieri, are two visionary musical artists who are teaming up to bring forward Rebel Tumbao (Rebel “Groove”). This musical project soulfully merges Roots Reggae and Roots Afro-Latin vibrations with original compositions and wicked arrangements of Bob Marley’s music, all with a critical social message for our time.

We are raising money to fund our first full length recording which will help launch the band on an international level. For this event we are presenting an intimate ‘unplugged’ version of the group featuring Matt and José along with Toussaint Yeshua, our truly extraordinary soul singer and Geoff Brennan, one of the Bay Area’s (if not the Nation’s) best bass players. Please view our video to the right!!

Piedmont Piano Company is certainly the premier keyboard retailer for the entire northern California region and its enthusiastic owner, Jim Callahan, has created an amazing performance space as part of his showroom. Matt will be performing on a near $200,000 Fazioli grand piano and you will have full access to the amazing instruments on the showroom floor.

The Rebel Tumbao quartet will be performing a number of pieces that will be included on the upcoming recording and discussing the vision of the band with a Q & A session included. Options for further contributions to the project will be presented. Ticket price includes beverages and hor’s d’oeuvres.

TOUSSAINT and BURU STYLE

WHEN: Wednesday, March 17
WHERE: Moe’s Alley
1535 Commercial Way
Santa Cruz, CA 831-479-1854
TIMES: see the Moe’s site
COST: TBA

Description

Heading down to Santa Cruz with Toussaint’s band BURU STYLE. More protection of soul music and reggae while opening for JUNIOR REID!

TOUSSAINT and BURU STYLE

WHEN: Friday, March 19
WHERE: Boom Boom Room
1601 Fillmore (at Geary)
San Francisco, CA 831-479-1854
TIMES: see the Boom Boom site
COST: TBA

Description

This is San Francisco’s home to Live Roots Music and we’ll be taking that definition up a notch with Toussaint’s band BURU STYLE. Maximum protection of soul music and reggae!

CARIBBEAN PARTY WITH COMBO SABROSO
Dance for Haiti

WHEN: Saturday, March 27
WHERE: Portsmouth VFW Hall
Portsmouth, NH
TIMES: 7pm slides and talk, 8pm dance and drinks
COST: Suggested $20 donation. Purchase tix at Ceres Bakery, Black Bean Cafe, Fair Tide Thrift Store, or call 207-439-3354

Description

Let’s all raise money for Life and Hope Haiti!!

We’ve got an all star line up for this important fundraising event for Haitian relief: Matt Langley – tenor sax, Angel Subero – trombone, Alex Alvear – bass, vocals, Pablo Bencid – percussion, vocals, Manolo Mairena – percussion, vocals, and yours truly singing and playing the keyboard. We’ll be doing an even mix of Reggae and Latin as we all dance to help the Hatian earthquake victims rebuild their communities. MORE INFO TBA.

“Now entering its fifth year, Moshito as it is known is focused even more keenly on its objective of broadening the business intelligence of music industry professionals in South African and the continent, strengthening business networks for participants and informing delegates, traders and the public about the multifaceted and dynamic nature of the global music industry.” The event takes place from September 2-5.

Matt will be taking part in the session discussions covering the topics of:
“Opportunities of South African music within the US markets. What are the possibilities?”
“How to get in and operate within the music industry.”

DAY ONE
Moshito Website post on Matt Jenson

Here’s my boarding pass, “MattProfessor Jenson”

It’s 10:30pm in Johannesburg, S. Africa and after a grand total of 18 hours flying time, I’M COMPLETELY COOKED. En route I watched 3 movies and read a few chapters of the Nelson Mandela biography I brought with me. That gentleman is one hell of a transcendent character devoted to the positive uplifting of humanity. I would love to meet him! One of the movies I saw was The Day The Earth Stood Still (Keno Reeves) and that was a very very tantalizing movie to juxtapose against learning more about Mandela’s life.

With some sleep under my belt I’ll be ready to go all day and all night tomorrow. I’m scheduled to do a joint presentation with David Stopps (of www.fmlmusic.com) entitled quite simply, “How to make Money in music.” I’ll be backing him up with my excerpts regarding 2 different models of crowdfunding.

I’ve only seen the inside of the Joburg airport and the hotel so not much to say about this city except that it kinda feels like NYC. It’s HUGE.

DAY TWO
Day two at Moshito was a marathon. I decided to walk to the Museum Africa where the event is taking place instead of taking a cab, mainly so I could see some of the city. It’s quite metropolitan, feels a bit like NYC. But reports of muggings after dark are many. In any case, what I’ve seen so far is quite nice.

Here I am with Mandla Makwela, the Moshito Coordinator.

I had to take a picture of our door man at the Ashanti Hotel: dressed to the hilt and alway a gentleman:

The Museum Africa is a beautiful and large structure in the Newtown arts district. A VERY modern building, funky architecture. The Moshito event is a well organized with vendor booths representing all kinds: various festivals through out southern Africa, SAMRO (the African ASCAP or BMI), Joburg Arts Council, M Audio, a local production and engineering school hoping to become acredited soon, musical instrument makers and more. I had a small booth with the Berklee materials that were send ahead of time which I frequented through out the day to answer questions.

There are perhaps 4-5 well equipped rooms (I mean well equipped with plenty of A/V equipment and staff that know the equipment well and who are very nice and professional!), used for the multitude of presentations taking place. I hit the ground running as I was scheduled to make my presentation with David Stopps (www.fml.com) entitled simply “How to Make Money with Music”. David is a UK based heavy in the world of international arts copyright and has been tour manager for the likes of David Bowie (in the 70’s) and scads of others. (now works with Howard Jones) David lead the session (which was nearly full) with a well organized talk outlining the various income streams for performers and “authors” (song writers, arrangers etc). Then he went into discussion of the importance of the internet and amongst other things, kept saying “get as many email addresses as you can!” I learned alot.

Next I came forward and explained that I am first and foremost a performing musician (not an academic ‘expert’) and got on line immediately and gave real world examples of uses of the internet for artists who have alot together but aren’t that well known yet….that is ME! One of the things that David underlined over and over again was that fact that having a static, non updated site is worse than having a site at all. Many of us musicians get a nice looking site but never update it. Why would anyone want to return to it if it’s the same except for some gig dates changing? I told the audience of WORDPRESS, a highly editable platform (that this site is based on!) that is free. Pens and notepads were flying! I took the audience on a tour of this site and explained the Rebel Tumbao project.

I then proceeded to talk about CROWDFUNDING using www.microfundo.com as an example. Most were pretty unfamiliar with the concept and once I explained it there was great interest. I took the audience through the Microfundo site and used a S. African artist Mavo Solomon (who is running a campaign on Microfundo) as a case study. (I believe no one in the audience had heard of him.) His is a great example of how having a reasonably professional presence on the web with a site, a Facebook, MySpace and Twitter presence made all the difference to the people at MicroFundo accepting him.

We had only a little time for Q&A but we could have gone for another hour as people were very very interested in everything that David and I talked about. This is the first time I’ve been in a position of explaining something I’m trying to figure out, that is, creating a viable performing and recording career for myself using the internet, and I felt very useful in this role and could see this as a possible side gig for myself: doing lecture demonstrations related to using cyberspace to launch and grow a career.

I bought a Flip HD Video cam before I left on this trip and have taken a few vids. Here’s our audience: I was demonstrating how easy it is to post video blogs!

The rest of the day I spent wandering around the conference, connecting with many, answering more questions, talking up Berklee etc. At the end of the day I was approached by two extremely motivated young producers who had heard about the conference last minute and decided to come and absorb as much as they could. I sat down with them answering many questions about Berklee and got on line showing them more about my site, showed them the Rebel Tumbao press kits I brought, showed them how to put one together. After that we went across the street to a cool outdoor indoor club that was presenting showcasing bands. (I got brief video of one band that I’ll put up later. The were great.)

I took a cab back to the Hotel and caught up with David Stopps for a few drinks at the Hotel bar and had a great conversation about our presentations, but then just sat back and listened to some incredible road stories he had about his experiences managing some huge rock bands in the 70’s. Then I went to the hotel lobby to check emails and who walks in but Mandla (conference coordinator and hell of a great guy) with bassist Bakithi Kumalo and Ray Phiri (they both recorded Paul Simon’s Graceland and Rhythm of the Saint’s albums and continue to tour internationally with Paul and many others) and Mirko Whitfield representing South by Soutwest festival in Austin. Somehow we got into a nearly 3 hour conversation plumbing the depths of the human condition, global warming, near death experiences, overpopulation, meaningful music vs just alot of notes, Aparthied struggles. It was quite a sharing. I was exhausted but inspired by the end. That can be the very nice thing about being on tour: because you’re away from your day to day and in a location with a focus on your art, you can really get into some great philosophical and artistic connections with the people around you. Yea!

DAY THREE

That’s Uno de Waal, whom I met for breakfast and we walked together to Moshito site.

Whew……what a day! I woke up this morning at about 11:00 am because a group of us, with Mandla Makwela as the wheel, went out to a fantastic club, House of Nsako, and heard two bands, got home at about 3am….indeed the right thing to do. It was great to finally HEAR SOME MUSIC. I knew we were in good hands at this club because there was a picture of Bob (Marley) and Che Guevera on the wall behind the stage. We saw two bands, I believe their names were 1) Cheny Wa Gune (from Mozambique) and Etran Finatawa (Tuareg’s from Niger). I hope the video below captures some of the energy. These two band were AWESOME. Tight, with deep grooves, I mean deep down grooves. The second band, from Niger (the Tuareg, from the desert of Niger, dressed in traditional garb) play a music that is very very meditative and trance like. Only one chord, with the rhythm guitar playing a drone while the lead guitar dances around, answering the long choruses and melody lines. Every song was very long and you just had to let into it, let it get into you and before you knew it everyone was just swaying and gone to another place. David Stopps and myself, all dressed in white(!), enjoyed some local SA beer and, of course, the MUSIC.

Big highlight of the day was the VIP dinner that all the presenters at Moshito were invited to. It was at Gramadoelas Restaurant at the Market Theater and pretty much all the heavy hitters in the Johannesburg arts community were there to meet and greet us. Many provincial government dignitaries were there. I had the great pleasure and honor to meet Mr. Peter Tladi (festival producer, producer, and more who’s been involved in the SA music scene for ?? 30-40 years, now producing the Joy of Jazz fest), Mr. Sam Mhangwane (an equally accomplished festival producer, now producing the Moretela Park festival), Mr. Steven Sack (Director of City of Joburg Community Development, Arts, Culture and Heritage), Mr. Andre le Roux (General Mgr of SAMRO [SA’s ASCAP] and Chairman of Moshito. We had extensive conversation around connecting Berklee to SA….this could well be a fantastic partnership!). I had great conversations with Mr. David Marks (www.3rdearmusic.com), recording engineer and archivist who has taken it upon himself for some 30-40 years to record many of the not so famous musicians world wide and has absolutely amazing historical back log of material. I enjoyed hearing many stories of life and music in the Apartheid era including hearing about how any Bob Marley record that was to be played on the radio had to be pretty much smuggled into the country and carried in paper bags. Bob was completely banned by the Apartheid!). I also had great conversation with Tom Gravlie from Norway (www.Rikskonsertene.no). He has created an amazing program of music education in schools globally, especially in Palestine. Lastly I made connection with the colorful and tattoo’d Bill Botes, working the back end of Moshito and a great help to me. (www.flagmusic.co.za) The food at this restaurant was amazing. I had Ostrich stew amongst lots of other tasties!

My entire connection to Moshito came through a friendship I struck up with a Mr. Dennis Wright when I was in Ghana 3 years ago. Dennis loves my REBEL TUMBAO project and recommended me for Moshito not only to serve on panels and bring Berklee to SA but more importantly to network for touring opportunities for Rebel Tumbao, so no doubt, at this dinner I was able to give the RT press kits I brought with me to some of these festival producers. Some ground work has been laid for RT to tour in SA!

For the day at Moshito I served on two panels, 1) With writer David Chislett (www.davidchislett.co.za). We gave a step by step discussion of how to enter your music and band into the biz on solid footing. Again, I emphasized the utilization of the internet. I explained that it was very cheap and easy to get a domain name and a free Wordpress site which everyone was very excited to know. I also spoke of the importance of knowing why you are entering into this field. When the tough times come (of which there are MANY as a musician), it’s this deep personal understanding and commitment that will allow you to persevere and succeed.

Next I served on a Plenery panel with the outspoken travel writer, producer, manager, Phil Tripp from Austrailia (www.philtripp.com) and the world class producer and engineer Gordon Williams from NYC who’s worked with everyone: Lauryn Hill, Stephen and Damien Marley (Mixed welcome to Jam Rock) and a billion others. We had a nice connection about Rebel Tumbao and we’ll be making a link up back in the states. Gordon knows José’s brother Joe (Claussell). We talked about how SA artists can effectively enter into the US music markets. A lively Q&A followed.

After that session a young bassist named Bright Gain from Nigeria approached me and told me his story: he applied to Berkee in 2000 and was accepted. He got all of his ducks in order and was all ready to hop on the plane and then his visa was denied by the Nigerian government!! 9 years later, more than ever, he wants to come to Berklee. I promised that I’d help him in any way I could. It works very well in his favor that he was already accepted. I’ll be contacting Rich Appleman on his behalf. Check this video:

Also I had the distinct pleasure to meet Ms. Aura Msmang Berton who worked with Bob Marley, recorded at Scratch Perry’s Black Ark Studio in JA (before he burnt it down!), Jimmy Cliff. I wish I had more time to talk to her as she has a tremendously positive vibe. Hopefully today we can link. Yes my sistah!

The night ended with Mandla and myself rolling up to the hotel at 2:30am only to meet with Batkithi and 3 other friends/musicians hanging out on the street talking it up and playing Leo Blanco’s CD on Mandla’s car stereo! (yea, Batkithi played on it.)

DAY FOUR
MOSHITO!…….a success as reported by Mandla:

The event wrapped up at about 1pm on Saturday. I walked around the conference center and made last minute connections, confirmed plans that were talked about the night before. I got a bit of lunch and Mandla drove me to the Apartheid Museum (www.apartheidmuseum.org) and dropped me off. As you can imagine, it’s an intense place. I only had time to get through about half of it including the special section on Nelson Mandela. It was amazing to see video footage of him, underground, talking about the need for non violent resistance then to speak of violent resistance.

Amazing to look into the eyes (of photographs) of the men who spearheaded and carried out the Apartheid regime.

Amazing to read some of the official declarations made by those men: “The White man is the master in South Africa, and the white man, from the very nature of his origins, from the very nature of his birth, and from the very nature of his guardianship, will remain master in South Africa to the end.” WHERE THE HELL DID THESE GUYS COME UP WITH THAT!?

It was amazing to look at photographs of dead bodies killed during protests, amazing to walk into a solitary confinement cell (that many who were imprisoned had to endure), amazing to feel a hangmans noose used to execute many who resisted the Apartheid regime, amazing to follow the events that led to Mandela being released and the process of the complete reversal of Apartheid…..and all of that only a mere 20 years ago! I found out a bit later that the family that provided funding for the museum made millions during the Apartheid era selling skin whitening agents to Blacks….go figure.

A cool bumper sticker and cartoon of Mandela:

Me in large mirror at the museum:

Later I went to the 4 band concert at the awesome venue called Bassline. I saw the GREAT S.A. singer Thandiswa, wow, she can sing and perform. I had the pleasure of meeting her keyboard player (forgive me, I forgot his name). He was very impressed to meet someone from Berklee and expressed wanting to come as did Thandiswa. I’ll list the names of the other bands I saw, but also on the stage was the Tuareg band I saw the night before. I bought a beautiful piece of jewelery and a copy of their CD. My terrible French got me through the price negotiations. Only downside: Cigarette smoke in the clubs. Oy! One club had no smoking signs everywhere but that certainly didn’t make a difference. Here are a few vids from the night:

What is the name of this crazy instrument?

DAY FIVE
My last day, Sunday, took me to the Soweto township, a suburb of Johannesburg. Because of this trip to South Africa I started to study some of its history but didn’t get all that far. There’s nothing like going to a location and meeting the people to learn what really happened. First, my impression of Soweto (and this is probably the impression of many in the world) is that it is mostly a slum on the order of western Kingston JA or the Favela’s of Rio. This couldn’t be further from the truth, not back in 1976 and not now. In our brief time I saw a number of Mercedes SUV’s, a Lamborghini, and many other top notch cars driving around. This certainly is not to say that most live with such material wealth, not even close, but I would call most of the dwellings ‘second world.’ Most housing consists of one storey, perhaps 4 room buildings with running water, plumbing, electricity. There is a big mall and lots of signs of business activity, tourist activity everywhere (…..you can bungi jump between two abandoned water towers, or ride a balloon shaped like a soccer ball to get a birds eye view of the city.).

The reason why this township is so famous is because of a student protest that took place on June 16, 1976. Nelson Mandela was still in jail, but the anti Apartheid movement was in full swing. We visited the church where organizational meetings to plan resistance campaigns would take place under the guise of a church service in session. We visited Mandela’s home (before he went to jail of course). But most disturbingly we went to the Hector Pieterson Museum. On that day in 1976 children (we’re talking 14 years old and up!) from all of the major schools in the area organized a protest march against the Apartheid policy that all classes be taught in the Afrikaans language. (Of course it was more than just that. It was in protest against the entire racist regime.) The children gathered and formed rows of 5, holding hands. They planned to march through the town and meet at a local sports field where they would draw up a letter of refusal. (They never made it.) As has happened in so many other similar situations such as Martin Luther King’s marches in the USA, the police started firing their guns at the children. You may have seen the FAMOUS picture of a boy carrying the body of another boy with an indescribable expression of horror, anguish, anger in his face and a girl nearly air born next to him with the same expression.

The dead boy was Hector Pieterson, the first killing of that day and it was his sister who was next to him. The boy carrying Hector fled the country and was NEVER heard from again. The museum is full of video footage of that march and other marches, of giant photographs of the struggle, of actual protest signs saying things like, “Don’t shoot we just want you to let our friends out of jail,” or “To hell with the Afrikaans.” When you walk into this museum, the struggle against the Apartheid system becomes palpable. I cried, for real, CRIED.

Our guide for the day Mandla, (whom you should be familiar with by now if you’ve read the previous blog entries), was very helpful in answering my many questions about SA history and the anti-Apartheid struggle. He was born in the very early 1970’s and remembers that for three years after that school children uprising there was no school, he did not go to school. The opposing forces were firmly entrenched and no one was going to budge. The S. African blacks, Communists, Coloureds, Indians (for the most part) had way too much confidence in their cause at that point and the believers in Apartheid were driving around in cars with guns and picking off people at will. Wow. The situation was critical for about 3 years and school recommenced but again in the mid 1980’s even deeper protests occurred and school was halted again. Mandla, then a young man, remembers vividly his involvement in the protests. If you go to South Africa, go to this museum.

Throughout this entire experience some very inspiring conversations took place. Here is a summary of these many comments, feelings, analyses, perspectives:

- “The US really has no culture other than money.” (from a colleague from Europe)
- I met a South African woman at a bar who had lived in NYC for a few years and couldn’t believe how hung up American women were with whether or not their breasts were too big or too small or their hips too wide and all manner of neurosis about outward appearance.
- In discussion about the post Apartheid era one knowledgeable S. African said that there was surprisingly little impetus for vengeance toward the white oppressors. The reason why, he said, was, “because we are a singing culture.”
- “Something like 11% of Americans have passports. If more Americans traveled and interacted with other cultures, no doubt they would be much less fearful of allowing the government to provide some social services. They would not think that providing universal health care creates a threat to Capitalism, which most Americans equate with freedom.”
- The secret to living a good life? BE HERE NOW! Don’t get so damn caught up in what was and what could be. Know your inner strengths and inner weaknesses well. Sometimes they are one and the same.
- On a couple of occasions I heard local musicians say that under the Apartheid regime there was so much more feeling of community because of the need to ban together to strengthen the struggle for freedom. There was more meaningful music and openness, respect. Now that the Apartheid regime is ended much of that sense of community has vanished while disconnectedness and individualism has taken over.

This last point causes me GREAT difficulty and ignites in me great efforts to understand and express. I am working on an essay, maybe the seeds of a kind of artists “manifesto” that I’ll be posting at a later date.

LASTLY, I’d like to give great big thanks to Mr. Mandla Makwela. He was a MOST GRACIOUS host on all accounts, always available with helpful answers, guidance, a ride and a smile. Thanks also to the entire Moshito staff for putting on such a great event. I felt that the information presented by all of the invited lecturers/panelists was powerful and most definitely achieved the overall goal of Moshito; to help South African musicians, producers, arts organizations become leaders in the global music market. I had a great time and look forward to the possibility of returning next year!

By the way, if you ever go to South Africa you’ll need this kind of electrical adapter. All the one’s I found here before I left that said “good for South Africa” were missing the part that had the three ROUND plugs, one of which is dead (plastic). You’ll need one that goes from the US plug into the two rounded female plugs that intern has the 3 plug male.

The story of Bob Marley’s life, despite the many contradictions and hard to understand realities that surrounded him, can be seen as one of a true modern day sage who remained committed to his vision of raising consciousness through music. His music is so powerful and expansive that it transcends the very idiom from which it came because it has the ability to communicate regardless of language, race, gender, religion or nationalistic boundaries. The recordings and performances of Bob Marley and his band represent near perfection in terms of groove music and spirit-ful production. Rhythmic layering, one of the legacies of the African musical Diaspora, is presented in such gritty precision that its study is imperative and a great joy to experience.

See Bob Marley Ensemble on MySpace!

This one semester class at Berklee consists of 15 auditioned singers and instrumentalists who come from around the world with a range in age from 18-35 years old! In a lecture-demonstration format, Matt takes the students on a biographical tour of Marley’s fascinating life, and then rigorously coaches the ensemble as they prepare for performances.

Aided by the viewing of and listening to rare video footage and audio examples, students learn about the evolution of Marley’s career, and the socio-political circumstances from which his music and ideas arose. Students also learn the discipline of playing reggae music in a large ensemble where the emphasis is on working together as they layer specific rhythmic and melodic parts. Matt has written meticulous arrangements taken directly from Marley recordings and include many additional horn parts, some subtle reharmonizations and some new introductions and endings.

Ultimately, students take from this class a deeper understanding of Marley’s life, of past AND present socio-political circumstances, of how music can ignite consciousness and significantly change humanity for the better, and of how to play reggae music. Students gain a greater understanding of the inner workings of great pop song writing, and a notion to think seriously, through Marley’s example, about what it is they are saying with their own musical talents.

The repertoire includes some of Marley’s bigger hits but also moves into some of his lesser-known works: Trench Town Rock, Could You Be Loved, Waiting In Vain, Get Up Stand Up, Work, So Much Trouble in the World, Kinky Reggae, Positive Vibration, Rebel Music, Wake Up and Live, Rastaman Chant, Dem Belly Full, Craven Choke Puppy, Heathen, Lively Up Yourself, Rat Race, Chant Down Babylon, Exodus, Slave Driver, Roots Rock Reggae, Crazy Baldhead, Turn Your Lights Down Low.

As an educator I am interested in providing many view points on a particular concept, be it one in regard to a socio-political outlook or be it about how to play a particular set of chord changes or groove. The learning process is at first a difficult and many times dry intellectual activity but I want my students to take their learning to the point where it sinks down into their core being and becomes charged with deep personal meaning.

Berklee College of Music main website
Berklee College of Music piano department site

A good deal of my time teaching is spent helping students develop technique and style on keyboard instruments: piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. I specialize in teaching Reggae, Afro-Cuban, Jazz, Blues and Rock, including learning improvisation in these styles. Perhaps my deepest passion is working with the discipline and joy of groove playing in an ensemble where the team work involved in layering static rhythmic and harmonic parts with the goal of unleashing an ecstatic communication with spiritual forces is the goal. For this I provide a systematic and disciplined road map to follow with clearly defined goals. This approach helps mitigate the often times completely overwhelming feeling a student will experience when learning a new concept or style. As a student, which I always have been and always will be, I have paid close attention to my own learning process and as a result I can effectively explain the inner workings of the concept and/or task at hand.

I believe that the learning process should be a lot of fun! Because I am excited about what I teach, when I have students who are also excited, sparks fly. At the same time, and perhaps this comes from my back-ground in high level athletics, I maintain a serious focus on disciplined achievement of the goal at hand. When you partake in one of my classes the energy is high and the vibe is spirited with plenty of laughs but everyone knows when it’s time to PLAY you need to be prepared.

My style of teaching comes from a core belief that the student is an equal on this planet and has a unique voice. By definition a musician is someone who is in the realm of looking inward, daring to plumb the tender depths of self-discovery. In the competitive atmosphere found in a music school and, on a larger level, in a society that does not support artists very well, it is important to create an inclusive and supportive atmosphere where confidence can be built so that one can effectively deal with the difficulties that face the life of a musician.

In the end, great music and art is much more about a committed and aware life than it is about technical achievement and hollow material success. In a society that is so centered around corporate gain, unhealthy competition (yes, there is such a thing as healthy competition!), and acceptance based solely on external cues, we now find the human race and the earth upon which we live at a spiritual and environmental cross roads. More than profit, domination and the winning of wars, the true power of the human race resides in our creative abilities, precisely the abilities which we musicians commit our lives to developing. It is the creative people, the rule breakers in society that pave the way to finding and actualizing a more enlightened definition of respectful human relationships, demand a deeper mobilization of freedom, and understand that humble co-existence with our brothers and sisters and the planet we live on is critical.

We human beings are capable of such beautiful dreams and yet create such terrible nightmares. In my teaching I want to spark ideas and connections where, embedded in our work, we both help to create new, beautiful dreams.
Matt’s Teaching Philosophy PDF