Chris Berry & Panjea

You're 18. You go from your home in California to Zimbabwe. And get lost. Lost in the music, lost in the culture, lost in the magic. Only when the elders of the community there tell you - "What are you doing here? There are lots of misguided people, lost and confused people, in your country. They’re killing each other there. It’s time for you to take what you’ve learned and bring it to your own country because they need it more than we need it here. That’s your job. You’re the bridge maker" do you wake up. You are Chris Berry.

And so now, 10 years on, we find him today back on his native soil preaching an uplifting transcontinental message of hope to contagious, dance beats based in the Zimbabwean mbira and sacred Congolese ngoma drum rhythms.

Chris Berry's story is one that I have often fantasized about, and I know I'm not alone. Not only did he get lost in the music, but this amazing talent came back "funkier than James Brown", as one of my friends put it. Check out his music. Funky, fresh global music, most of it just straight up super dance energy, and most of it with strong messages.

Probably the most powerful message comes from the song "Why Do We". In the song, he asks "Why do we kill people who kill people to show people that killing people is wrong?"

Download some of his music, and read more about this amazing story. You'll be uplifted.

jamie catto's album

check out my boy jamie catto's album. recorded in 3 days. non-stop. no going back. just one long super sweet take.

testing testing

so part of my having this blog is also to test out features for my company and my general knowledge. so therefore all these playlists that are embedded as well as the new meebo box on the right. you can IM me using all the available IM platforms using meebo, and even better, you can IM (using meebo) me right from this page without signing into any of your own IM accounts! wicked!

Test Playlist

this it the fun new player that we built for our french partner mondomix. nice eh?

adventures in love

just beginning a new adventure today . . .
that of being e n g a g e d!
yeah!!
pictures soon . . .
thanks to all who have been supportive and who we will continue to rely on for love and support.

on second thought . . .

i don't love google.
at least right now.
i can't edit my posts since i migrated my blog to this new google/blogger beta thing!
i'm trying to turn off the automatic sound on my playlist by updating the code, and i can't do it!!
ahh.
google - if you are reading this, please help me.

zune, major label hell, and, of course, the news

wow. a new version of blogger in conjunction with google. so my love affair with google continues. . .
they will soon control my (online) life, i'm afraid.

anyway, until they do, i still have some independent thoughts.
like this deal with the major labels and microsoft. microsoft is giving them $1 for each Zune device they sell! which, of course, they will NOT share with artists, further screwing artists on majors, and further (imho) digging their own grave. what artist in their right mind going forward is going to want to do a deal with a major? the only benefit is money up front. everything else is pointing towards sending artists out on their own or to work with great creative indies like Nettwerk (my fave) and others.

there is a nice blog on the zune tax, and i've pasted the meat of his argument is here:
"What UMG has done is lay the first piece of framework for putting the kibosh on the democratization of the music industry. The RIAA labels have owned distribution in the United States (and made it difficult if not impossible for many small labels to get distribution) for decades and, just as a market for distribution sprang up that existed outside of their domination, they've managed to secure a loophole that will again put small independent labels on the sidelines."

i agree with the first part, but since i'm such a relentless optimist, i think that his last sentence fails to take into account the ability that indies have to influence their own destiny. I believe there will be two types of consumers in the future - those who have bought into the system, pay their zune tax, listen to britney forever, AND those who have "tuned out", those who are paying artists for music (either through paid downloads, ads, or live show returns), those who are using alternative (or hacked) devices and alternative services. viva la counter culture!

news of the day

i'm constantly coming across interesting bits of information in my role(s) at calabash music, and most of the time, when one of us finds something, we just send it by email to everyone in the company. where the information then gets buried in our inboxes, as they tend to be quite stuffed every morning. so i thought i'd start to bury them here, on my blog, as a way to perhaps better show stuff off, and as a way for others to also get ahold of some of this info. it's my own little digital music news. enjoy.

part 1 of soungalo's music news starts . . .
NOW.

• From the Economist, courtesy of a South African Blog, some news on sales of music across the world. He is surprised that SA is in the top 20 of sales world wide. Which matches our internal sales data, also showing the ZA domain in the top 20 of sales world wide. Way to go Mzantsi! Not only does your country produce great music, but you also buy it!

• From Ireland, another world music blog. Posting about West African music. The sweet sounds of globalization.

• Roswell Rudd with Toumani Diabate. Now this is why you live in NYC. Read about 3/4 of the way down the page.

• Calabash Music is discovered in Australia. Nice one. And on a political blog no less. Even better!

• Our man Damon Albarn (of the bands Blur, Gorillaz) is spreading the gospel of Malian music to the world. Big ups to Damon for his work!

That's it for today's news. Stay tuned for more. . . .
peace.

Playlist For Peace - Listen Here!

relaxing weekend and busy week!

Hello everyone!
greetings again from South Africa! It's been a busy and fun time.
live music most nights, fun times with old and new friends.
i'll try and pick up where i left off - thursday last week.
thursday i was on a panel with a guy from a label here and we were talking about the ways to make money of digital downloads. we're both a bit bullish on the download market, so the panel wasn't quite balanced, but we had a good discussion with the people in attendance anyways. there was also an interesting panel on the ways to exploit and preserve indigenous music.
thursday night we had a dinner with all sorts of government folks. it is amazing to look at the people now serving in government and think of all they (and the whole country) have been through in the past 15 years. inspiring to say the least.
and afterwards, this group "stimela" played. wonderful. i'd met their guitarist and singer earlier in the day, courtesy of my new friend andrew, and they played an inspired set for the enthusiastic crowd of 200. great music, great messages, including one song where ray, the lead singer, was basically chanting "use a condom" the whole chorus. that and some funny plays on words around playing with ones self were quite amusing and also inspiring. artists need to speak directly to people about AIDS and these important issues facing south africa.

friday morning i was out of the hotel by 6 am headed to SABC studios for a tv interview with nic, the head of SAMRO and moshito.
showed up, went to the green room, to make up, back to the green room and then straight onto the set. the anchor man was reading the paper during commercials, they had nic and me mic'ed within 1 minute flat, and then the anchor read the news and came straight to us. some good questions, and i think we had some good answers. hempza and his mother both watched and gave me good feedback, and i think it went well. got to plug calabash a bit and deliver our "obscurity is a worse threat than piracy" line, which is a great one.

later in the day, i was on another panel, spur of the moment, which went ok. i also got a chance to look around the museum africa, where the conference was held. great exhibits, showing the history and struggle of south africa, as well as a special music exhibit set up for the conference and the heritage month, which we are in the middle of right now here.

friday night we got to see a show by the artist philip tabani (i know i'm spelling his name wrong, but i'll fix it when i find my ticket). anyway, great guitar player, did some seriously funky blues style stuff, as well as gimmicky but great playing of the guitar with his teeth and head and other fun ways.

after that, hempza and andrew and i headed out to a club to check the launch of adrian's new band. nice stuff, but indy rock is tough after such sweet blues. managed to have some great interesting talks with adrian and hempza and hempza's friends as well though.

saturday was a rest day. some shopping around and wandering around and then off on saturday night to see a show by "arts alive" (http://www.joburg.org.za/artsalive/calendar.stm). they featured 3 zulu acts, and had as opener a male chorus in the style of ladysmith black mambazo. they had been having a competition all day long, and this group won the competition and got to open for:
Phuzekhemisi, Shwi Nomtekhala, Ihashi'elimhlophe (they played in reverse order)

awesome stuff. traditional music and dancing, and these are 3 of the top selling groups in south africa.

sunday was again to rest a bit. more shopping about and then on to a studio to hear some of vusi khumalo's new tracks for his new album (http://vusikhumalo.calabashmusic.com)
great stuff. so much great south african music.

then the engineer and i went out to dinner and a bit of house dancing later with some of his friends which was a good time.

yesterday was a national holiday, and i planned to spend the day with hempza. we met up around noon, and as it was his birthday, his mom had prepared a picnic lunch, which we took to the zoo, and chilled on the grass there on some of their vast open space at the zoo. we met one of hempza's aunts and one cousin there. and got to wander around after lunch and check the animals. i've got lots of pictures for you all later.

hempza and i had dinner and then met up with sipho and os12 for drinks later.

this morning i did an interview with a bbc reporter staying at the same guest house as me, and then i headed out for my meetings. finished 4 meetings by 1.30 and have been chilling since then. i'm supposed to do another interview later today and then have dinner with my south african cousins.

whew.

i'm tired writing all this stuff i've done.
anyway, i have a mix of fun and work left here, and at least 1 more show to go to.
i'm bringing back lots of music and photos, so i'm excited to share that all with you.
peace. and love.
e