PROBLEMS WITH AUTHENTICITY AND INNOVATION FOR EUROPEAN PERFORMERS OF LATIN AMERICAN
John Harborne
When I delivered this paper my first instinct was to confess to an overwhelming feeling of academic inadequacy. I teach trombone students as a part-time lecturer on the Trent Park campus at Middlesex. I am in the process of studying for an MMus in Ethnomusicology at SOAS but since I am doing this part-time, over three years, I had not even sat my first year examinations at the time of the conference. When Stephen Cottrell and Michael Bridger circulated a memo inviting contributions I rather foolishly offered my services and, as a result, found myself in the company of Doctors and Professors feeling somewhat intellectually naked.
However, since the subject of the meeting was performance and I have been a professional performer for the past sixteen years I hoped to be able to offer some practical observations, based on my experience, and refer to some of the relevant concepts that I have encountered in my academic studies. I do not wish to imply by this that all academics lack sufficient practical knowledge of performance, but some of what I have read does give me considerable pause for thought.
My experience as a trombonist has covered playing with jazz groups, pop bands, studio sessions, theatre pits and the usual range of function work. In the last ten years I have been mainly active on the Latin American scene in London. Initially I played with salsa bands, and still get regular calls to deputise in various groups, but I am currently much more closely involved with Brazilian music. As part of my masters course I have been required to do a fieldwork project and chose to feature a duo of Italian percussionists and singers that I met while playing in salsa bands. This group, known as Afroshock, performs their own arrangements of Afro-Cuban folkloric music into which they have incorporated elements from their European background. It consists of Davide Giovannini and Mauricio Ravalico.
I now hope to give a brief overview of the kind of problems that are encountered by Europeans attempting to play Latin American music, which is a term I am using in a very wide sense, based on my own experience and that of Afroshock. In case any readers are interested or involved in this area I am going to make some suggestions that I hope will be helpful. I realise that they might be relevant to other types of music but I am only going to refer to styles that I can actually play myself. On a theoretical point, in Ethnomusicology there has been a strand of the discipline concerned with bi-musicality, a term coined by Mantle Hood, which is basically concerned with students actually learning to perform the music that they are studying. There have been debates as to whether this is necessary, but in any case bi-musicality is primarily seen as a tool for academic study and not as a means to becoming a competent performer, although some have taken their performance studies to a high level. For example, Tim Rice gives a detailed account of his efforts to master the Bulgarian gaida (bagpipes) in his excellent book May it Fill Your Soul: Experiencing Bulgarian Music (Rice 1994). Outside academia musicians have been concerned with learning to play a music in order to become practising professionals and it is the problems in this area that I wish to address here.
Before proceeding I should define my terms. By authenticity I mean the attempt to be able to copy as closely as possible the nuances of a native musician. I do not mean to put a stylistic limitation on this term, for example privileging traditional music as being more authentic than popular forms (whatever these labels might be deemed to mean). The kinds of (often unarticulated) conventions that make the difference between acceptance and rejection of a musician's performance are, of course, just as relevant to the western performer in a symphony orchestra as a European trying to play the trombone in a Cuban band. By innovation I mean the difficulty of getting inside the 'aesthetic' of a foreign music system to the point that one's departures from conventional devices can still be deemed stylistically acceptable, although by whom is a further complication to the equation!
To begin with we might ask why anyone should want to play this music and so I am going to give an example of why I want to play Brazilian music. I will admit that this is a shameless attempt to get you to listen to, and hopefully enjoy, some music that I like very much, but I am also going to point out some things that are connected to this recording. I am also going to play the track in its entirety since I hate hearing snippets of music played as examples and faded after a few seconds. (Unfortunately copyright restrictions mean that I cannot include this example here so I can only urge the reader to find a copy of Enredo do meu samba by Grupo Fundo de Quintal.)
It should be obvious that the reason I want to play this music us because I think it is fantastic and I make no apologies for such a blatantly subjective value judgement. Many Europeans have been drawn into playing Latin music because they were attracted by the sound. This is what happened for Afroshock, who were introduced to salsa by a group called Ocho Rios in their hometown of Trieste. In case anyone does attempt to find the recording mentioned above I should warn him or her that it is not generally available in this country. This brings me to my first main point, which is the difficulty of obtaining information. Many things that are taken for granted in the native culture may be unavailable, or difficult to find, even in a large cosmopolitan city like London. For example, the instrument that is so prominent in the introduction to Enredo do meu samba is called the cavaquinho, which is a ukulele-like baby guitar with steel strings. I have been learning to play this instrument for the past four years but I had to go to Brazil to purchase one because they are simply not available in music shops here. It is possible that you could buy an instrument from somebody who had bought one back from Brazil or get a lucky friend who goes on holiday to bring you back a special present but this is likely to be a rather hit and miss affair. The better alternatives are to go to the country to buy an instrument yourself, which will involve an expensive airfare, or find someone here who can make an instrument for you. Afroshock have their instruments made and maintained by Jacques, the leader of Ocho Rios.
Speaking of foreign travel brings up the problem of language. I must admit that in many cases I have only a vague idea of the meaning of the lyrics to the songs that I listen to constantly, although I have studied and can speak some Portuguese. Fortunately language classes are fairly widespread in London, especially as part of the adult education system, and are sometimes provided by cultural organisations, as outreach projects by embassies and by private individuals. Davide and Mauricio had little difficulty in becoming fluent Spanish, and later English, speakers. If, like me, you suffer from being linguistically challenged the process of understanding the lyrical content of the music may take a long time, but even from the slow progress I have made I would say that it is well worth the effort. In the event that you find yourself in an environment where you simply cannot understand what is being said you could always employ a translator.
In a round about way this brings me to the next problem, which is finding people who are able to offer musical instruction. In this country they are likely to be foreign musicians who are able to speak reasonable English or British musicians who have already learnt to play to a reasonable level. I was fortunate to be introduced to the cavaquinho by Paul Healey, the English bandleader of the group Viramundo. I originally joined the band as a trombonist but when I decided to learn the cavaquinho he was able to offer me some initial guidance, based on what he had taught himself by listening to records and experimenting. Thereafter I adopted the same method. Afroshock were shown basic drum patterns by Jacques, but then had to rely on recordings and exchange of information with other enthusiasts to extend their knowledge. It is possible to pick up information from foreign musicians living here. For example I learnt a great deal about salsa trombone styles by playing in groups with Joe de Jesus, a Nuerican trombonist, and Jesus Alemany, a Cuban trumpeter (who went on to world domination with his group Cubanismo). In both cases what I learned was less a matter of technique and more of stylistic features like sound and phrasing. There really is nothing like standing next to a musician that represents the genuine article, although I realise that I have been unusually fortunate and privileged to have had this experience (and I got paid). Some players are willing to give formal lessons.
Another way of absorbing these stylistic points is to see bands play. Latin bands frequently visit this country and it is possible to get hold of video recordings of live performances, although these can be of variable quality. The point here is that it is often difficult to work out how people are playing from sound recordings, observing how musicians physically play can give vital clues as how to approach a particular technique. I must add that sometimes seeing evidence of different performers achieving the same effect by differing means can cause confusion, but that in this case the learner should experiment and find the method that suits them best.
There are some additional sources of information, such as books that have been published in English. These tend to be more concerned with describing the history and development of styles than technical details of performance but can provide valuable background information. There are a few books that are more concerned with performance details, such as The Music of Santeria-Traditional Rhythms of the Bata Drums (Amira and Cornelius 1992), which includes transcriptions of several pieces in staff notation that could be used as a blueprint to learn to perform. It is sometimes possible to find magazines devoted to a particular topic, for example I subscribe to a samba periodical, Cavaco, which has interviews with musicians, tips on how to play and transcriptions of songs. However a company that imports Brazilian papers procures this for me and it is in Portuguese.
One of the most striking features of Latin music is of course its rhythmic content. I have found that it is useful to be aware of and in some cases attempt to play percussion instruments. My first efforts where modest, learning to play the ganza, agogo and tamborim but I surprised myself by being able to master things that I thought I would be incapable of and have been encouraged to try other drums. There is a long established tradition in Brazil of Samba Schools and it is possible to find similar organisations here, such as the London School of Samba, where you can learn to play the various drums. I have found this to be extremely valuable in finding out about the organisation of the rhythmic basis of the music. I am pleased to say that some music courses are beginning to offer introductions to Latin music as options, for example the modules on Afro-Cuban and Brazilian styles that are available at Trent Park (especially since this provides me with further employment). Students do find that there is an incredible amount of information to absorb and I think that it takes about five years to get to grips with any one of these styles and begin to feel comfortable as a performer. Ultimately it is probably necessary to be able to play with native performers of a style. I have been lucky to be able to do this in both Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music without leaving London, although I do hope to eventually spend some time in Brazil. Afroshock found that they could not get all the information that they needed in Trieste and decided to travel to Cuba, where they learnt to play many different dance and folkloric styles. Having accumulated all this information and practised until one achieves a reasonable standard the next problem is what to do with these skills.
This is mainly a matter of having opportunities to perform. As I have said, I have been very lucky to play with a lot of bands in London. As a result I feel competent to play the trombone in salsa bands in an idiomatically correct style, indeed this is the reason I get called to deputise in groups. I am also involved in a Brazilian group that gives me the opportunity to put into practise the things that I am learning to play on the cavaquinho. Afroshock have found a division between the styles that they can play. In terms of dance music like salsa, son and timba they consider themselves to be fully competent and as good as Cuban players. This is because there is a scene in this country where they can perform this music regularly and hone their skills. They have very limited opportunities to perform folkloric styles and have used this music as a study, which informs their performance of other music. As I will explain later, they have also used it as the basis of their own explorations.
Live music is in a constant state of flux in this country and both the salsa and Brazilian scenes are subject to lean times. It is not really possible to predict whether these styles will become a permanent part of the UK music scene or if they will go the way of the African scene in which regular live performances by UK based bands has all but disappeared.
I thought that I would mention one thing that is more of an irritation than a problem. This is the occasional Latino who comes up to you after a gig and informs you that you play very well 'for an Englishman' when it is quite obvious that they cannot play any instrument at all. (One is often tempted to give a robust Anglo-Saxon riposte.) In their opinion this obviously does not disqualify them from making value judgements about performance, and this leads me to the question of the cultural background of music. As Bruno Nettl has pointed out, despite all the efforts of a non-native to learn a music system it is well nigh impossible for them to acquire all the cultural baggage that even the average native non-musician has which enables them to interpret and interact with the music. One of Nettl's teachers said to him "you will never understand this music" (Nettl 1983: 259). Unless one spends a great deal of time living in the country which the music comes from this is likely to be true. Even Davide and Mauricio, who have made many trips to Cuba, and been initiated into the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria, feel that their distance from the country affects their ability to stay in contact with cultural changes and for this reason they have decided to be innovators by making arrangements of folkloric music for their own unique ensemble and by allowing the music that they grew up with to become a part of this process.
It is here that my experience parts company with theirs since I have never really tried to go beyond playing in a coherent authentic style and still feel that I have much to do to achieve this. However, the idea of innovation in a foreign music brings up other problems, which I think are worthy of consideration.
At this point it becomes necessary to consider the issue of ownership. In short this is a simple question of 'who do we think we are and what right do we have to play this music?' This is of course relevant to the performer who tries to achieve authenticity but becomes even more important when you consider using foreign material as the basis of some transformation. When I put this question to Davide and Maurizio they said that they agreed with Poncho Sanchez's statement that the music belongs to the people that play it, therefore including themselves in that group. They have been particularly interested in the music connected to the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria, which is performed on the Bata drums and by singers (and dancers). They learnt to play this music in Cuba and found that it was in a state of constant evolution during the course of repeated visits to the country. They also observe that many European performers tend to play this music in a way that sticks rigidly to one model that they have learnt, without allowing any flexibility or development. They freely admit that in their own arrangements that have incorporated elements that a Cuban would not but feel that this is closer to the spirit of innovation in the original music than a note for note recreation. I know of one other project that uses this music as its base were the leader went to Ife for a divination in order to gain permission to proceed. Afroshock did not do this but have received approval from Cuban practitioners of Bata drumming and priests of the religion. They have also attempted to make their transformations appropriate to the spirit of the original music, which they hold in great reverence.
These are rather complex questions of cultural identity, intellectual property and the power relationship between the first and third worlds. I think that Afroshock have demonstrated that they are sensitive to these issues, they have entered into Cuban culture at a deep level and would not wish to exploit it. Even if they did they would be effectively prevented by the next problem, which is that the project is so esoteric and difficult to categorise that they have found it very hard to get work for the group. After many years of study, practise and performance it remains for them largely a labour of love, which they nonetheless find immensely challenging, stimulating, exhausting and rewarding.
As part of my fieldwork project I arranged for them to give a master class, which I videoed. I concluded my presentation at the conference by showing part of this video but since the sound and picture quality are not of professional standard the band requested that I include a track from their CD here. I therefore enclose a sound file of 'Obatala'? as I hope that by now you are dying to hear what you have been reading about. If you want any further information you can contact the group on-line at afroshock@hotmail.com.
As Kurt Vonnegut would say "I thank you for your sweetly faked attention".
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Amira, John and Cornelius, Stephen (1992): The Music of Santeria-Traditional Rhythms of the Bata Drums. White Cliffs Media Company, Crown Point,
Hood, Mantle (1960): The Challenge of 'Bi-Musicality'. Ethnomusicology 4:55-59
Nettl, Bruno (1983): The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-Nine Issues and Concepts. University of Illinois Press
Rice, Timothy (1994): May It Fill Your Soul: Experiencing Bulgarian Music. Chicago University Press
DISCOGRAPHY
Afroshock (1998) Accommodating [sic] Gods. CRCD01, Calmi Records/ Afroshock
Grupo Fundo de Quintal -Enredo do meu samba is on Nos Pagodes da Vida (RGE 6010 2) and Ao Vivo (RGE 8068 2) (the same version)
