Die Storie van Susanna Van Biljon

Two film trailers in one month. One more and this might become a habit :-)
I am especially excited about this film because it stars Karen Zoid. I'm also quite fascinated to see how many films about and made in South Africa there have been recently. I haven't seen this yet, of course, but it looks like it may be an Afrikaans reworking of the Susan Boyle story. Or am I imagining things?

12 September 2010: The teasers just get better and better

links for a guest lecture on my work

Did I mention before that I put together and taught a course this past summer called "The Music of New York"? If not, I should blog about that sometime.
Right now, though, that is long over, but I've been asked to do a guest-lecture for my friend Rachel's Art of Listening class on Thursday, and so this post is just to gather in one place some of the videos and etc that I plan to use.
World Map
Drakensberg Boys' Choir

Lebo M Rainmaker

Lebo M Power of One

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul Simon

Paul Simon Father and Daughter (from the Wild Thornberries movie soundtrack)

Johnny Clegg and Juluka Impi

The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Tokens)

Solomon Linda's Evening Birds Mbube

Pete Seeger and the Weavers

Freshly Ground I'd Like

Karen Zoid Kaapstad

Karen Zoid Small Room

The Parlotones Colourful

Bok Van Blerk De La Rey

Klopjag Nie Langer (for the students who asked about this, this is an angry post apartheid song. I couldn't find the angry apartheid-era song I played in class today online, but I'll keep looking and post it, or something similar, when I find it.)

OppiKoppi

Once again it's been too long since I last blogged. I sort of think I have an excuse this time, though. Since my last post, I successfully defended my dissertation proposal, taught a 6 week summer course on the "music of New York City" (that was such fun, and I really hope I have an opportunity to revise and reteach it), presented a paper at a conference in North Caroline, and another at a conference in Durban, visited my parents for several weeks, renewed my visa and began my fieldwork. I also, sadly, played the piano at my grandmother's funeral. It was really sad saying goodbye to her.
But this blog post is to be about happier things. Or funnier things, or something. As part of my fieldwork, I attended OppiKoppi from the 7 to 10 August. For those of you who don't know what OppiKoppi is, think hot, dusty farm, colonized by 15000 campers, and 4 stages hosting almost non-stop South African music for three days straight. OppiKoppi means "on the hill", or, with a little creative mishearing, "on the head". I got home very dirty, and sick with flu, but having heard more terrible, mediocre, and superb live music than I normally hear in a year, even here in NY. The highlights for me were Karen Zoid's superb show (the main reason I went in the first place), the Parlotones, who I'm now a serious fan of, after having listened with half an ear to the little bits they have on myspace up until now, a woman called Andra from Namibia, who has the most enigmatic and fascinating voice, and an intriguing group called the Arrows, who have a really cool female drummer. The festival would like to present itself as more diverse than it actually is (it's primarily white and Afrikaans), and the unavoidable clouds of cigarette smoke and drunk, high and crazy revelers who really couldn't care less about the music will probably discourage me from going again, but I'm very glad I did it at least once. The music was completely worth it, and I doubt I'll ever see so much representative South African rock in such a short space of time, again. There really are some great SA bands out there, and even if I'm way out on the periphery of the "scene", I'm falling more and more in love with the music the more of it I hear. Thank goodness for the internet, and the opportunity to hear so much of it here in steamy, summery New York.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that OppiKoppi was declared a national monument, and, more relevant to this blog, and I think more interesting overall, the plaques that make the declaration include Karen Zoid's lyrics "Ons Soek Rock n Roll Om Aan Vas Te Hou" (we want rock 'n roll to hold on to).

So here are a bunch of reviews of OppiKoppi
And some comments from revelers the day after.
Also some free mp3s (not, imo, the best, but fairly representative nonetheless).
And the festival's official website.

FAK Sangbundel

I am currently writing about the FAK Sangbundel in the lit review of my dissertation proposal. I consider myself something of a collector, and have a first edition of the book (a little worse for wear, but all the pages are intact), but not even that can exceed the novelty value of the entire current edition in Midi format. Click on the title for the words, or the music icon to the left of each title for the midi. Also, here is a list of editions and related books that is a great bibliographic resource.

Making contacts

Today has been a really exciting research day. I got in touch with someone offering a course I am interested in taking, and he put me in touch with some really exciting contacts in the South African music industry. And these contacts opened up others, and suddenly I have a whole world of resources I wasn't expecting. How happy am I.
So here are a few of the highlights:
Rhythm Records Online is a resource I have been using for a while to purchase South African music I have difficulty acquiring here in the US. This is also a great source for news on the SA music industry, and my source for a few tracks that are otherwise only available on vinyl.
A promotional trailer for a recently aired TV documentary called Johnny en die Maaiers. I am attempting to procure a copy of the documentary itself. I also came across this review.
A trailer for a forthcoming documentary on Fokofpolisiekar. This looks like it will be super! I'm afraid you have to have a facebook account, and have videos installed to view this. I'm looking for another link, though.
Masizakhe. I can't remember whether I blogged this when I saw it last year, but it is a super documentary, and worth seeing, if you can. There are some good clips here.
MK. Afrikaans television channel that features a lot of music.