"I was moved numerous times, by how these men, women and children go from ordinary to extraordinary with the smack of a drum or the crack of a whip or the sound of the pan and how it's the direct link to our ancestors through oral traditions, where you learn by listening and watching. Studying these folks was a dream come true." –Etienne Charles, musician
Jazz trumpeter Etienne Charles explores the spirit of mas in his January 29 concert Carnival–The Sound of a People. Part of that experience will be the interplay between the original music he has composed for his Carnival suite, and the imagery of some of our deep-rooted mas traditions as captured by photographer Maria Nunes in field trips throughout T&T.
While some images may express the wonder of a first encounter–like when you first see a horned jab jab howl in the dark, or feel the klangka- tang of an iron band reverberate in your belly–other photos reflect a deeper, multi-layered knowledge of specific traditions.
The T&T Guardian interviewed Maria Nunes on Thursday, January 19 to ask her about that experience of artistic collaboration, where the visual and the aural converse with each other in ways that illuminate our mas traditions.
"We were like a little team of three musketeers," commented Nunes.
She was talking about herself as photographer, sound engineer Robin Foster (of Engine Room fame) who did all the high quality audio field recordings and video cameraman Sean Edgehill, who came for three of the shoots. Together they accompanied Etienne Charles a year ago to document his journey throughout T&T to experience some of our traditional Carnival music and rituals firsthand.
Nunes acted as field producer, drawing from the relationships she's made with mas practitioners for the last 10 years to set up meetings and negotiate fair fees for all the artists involved.
Nunes has done this before, hooking up with Charles to document the creative process of his previous work, San Jose Suite.
This time round, Charles was inspired by our rhythmically vibrant, at times messy, or satirical, or even transcendent, beautiful and powerful Carnival traditions–all home-grown traditions, although influenced by many peoples: notably African, with some Amerindian, Indian, North American, European and possibly other influences in the mix. Tamboo bamboo, stick-fighting, tambrin, Jab Jab, Blue Devils, Black Indian, Moko Jumbie, Fancy Sailor, Dame Lorraine, and steel and iron bands all fascinated Charles.
"Three years ago I started conceptualising a suite of music inspired by the sounds and traditions of our Carnival ritual," he explains in press for his concert.
"In between 2015 and 2016, I spent 11 weeks in T&T on my Guggenheim Fellowship researching as many elements of Carnival as I could find. We recorded video and audio every step of the way. After gathering hours of field recordings, I began writing the suite."
This attentive level of research was his foundation for creating the music, which will be his fifth large compositional work. The research was made possible by a 2015 Creative Arts Fellowship in music composition from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
A common thread in Charles' San Jose and Carnival works is the respect he pays to indigenous voices often previously unheard, or very low key, or historically silenced by oppressive, racist colonial rule.
This concern with the resilience and beauty of our roots speaks strongly to Maria Nunes' own interest in exploring, documenting and celebrating our indigenous traditions, using her still and motion cameras as tools of discovery.
"Most times, people often don't have a clue of what an artist goes through to create his work," commented Nunes, who, a cultural researcher herself, sees great value in such documentary, archival work– for the artist, and for posterity.
"My biggest joy is to work with artists, seeing the beauty in the actual process of creating–not just in the outcome," she said. "It was exciting to do such high quality field recordings, and a great opportunity to photograph living tradition."
She recalled several high points during the documentation project. One was hanging out with the close-knit Toby family in Claxton Bay, with Bertram Toby singing lavways to the beat of tamboo bamboo, in a group of about 15 people. "We recorded them playing under the streetlights at night in the road in Claxton Bay...It was so real. It was electrifying! I remember seeing the look on Etienne's face–he was blown away! It was a really powerful experience."
Another was with Ronald Alfred and his son Ronald, whipmasters of the Original Jab Jab band. The documenting team also recorded the iron beating of the Laventille Rhythm Section, the Blue Devils of Paramin, an "amazing" tambrind band from Tobago, and some Midnight Robber oratory by Kurtis Gross.
Kalinda drumming was the only tradition to be recorded in a studio, said Nunes; other recordings happened in live performances, right in the road. She said Rondel Benjamin and Keegan Taylor of the Bois Academy enabled them to record "an incredible singer from Moruga." She also mentioned drumming sessions with two of Trinidad's most famous folk drummers, Everald "Redman" Watson and Wayne "Lion" Osuna.
"We are an under-documented culture," believes Nunes. She shared: "Photography has shown me there is a whole other way of learning history than the traditional way I learnt it, and taught it. Photographing aspects of our heritage is how I learnt more about the complexity of our society. It's how I rethink and reflect on a lot of what I was taught... then through that, I go and I read and I learn and I ask, and start to uncover so many things about our history that are not readily available in history books."
Documenting our culture is vitally important to her. "It is about showing the humanity and the incredible resilience of people who create such beautiful expressions, sometimes with so few resources. Yet they create things which enrich us. To me, I see the people I have photographed for Carnival as a vital part of our soul. They are not the only part, but they're a vital part."
"A lot of people in T&T are doing really incredible things but just because no light is being shone on it, that does not mean that it is not happening... Not everything has to have mass participation for it to be valid," Nunes reminds us.
Speaking about the Carnival artists she has gotten to know over the years, she said:
"These are our own indigenous artists, as much as artists with paintings on a wall... The dance of a Fancy Sailor, the crack of a Jab Jab whip, the dance of a Mokojumbie–they are artists in their own right... Their art reflects something that is in our DNA."
Nunes sees beauty even in the simplest things–like the ephemeral art of a Fancy Sailor on a Carnival morning, his face covered in powder, his eyes creased, the sweat running down, dancing down the road– tremendous beauty that is created for a moment in time, and then disappears. "That's the nature of Carnival–it comes and it goes... I love the ritual performance aspect," she says.
Nunes admires the commitment of musician Etienne Charles in researching the work he wants to create so deeply. She says it has been a privilege working with him, and comments:
"I was struck by how much he reads. He is a voracious reader. For example, he's read the best of the books on our history of Carnival. And he's a keen student of T&T music. He has studied all the great T&T music from 1910, 1920s, 1930s. He's a great student of calypso. He's in a global space but is still rooted in our indigenous traditions."
Charles himself has commented: "The (traditional T&T) culture is dying only to those who don't support it or know its history or its value or its vibrancy."
In an earlier video, The Making of the San Jose suite, Charles said something that applies just as much to his Carnival compositions: "I'm writing music that speaks to history–because if you don't know the history, what do you know?"
More info
?Etienne Charles:
http://www.etiennecharles.com/
Maria Nunes Photography:
http://www.marianunes.com/
Carnival–The Sound of a People:
Jan 29, 6 pm. Tickets are $300 and
available at Queen's Hall Box Office,
St Ann's–624-1284. Ticket
hotline–682-1070.
The John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation:
http://www.gf.org/about.