MOSES MOLELEKWA
IJAH MENELIK
MADALA KUNENE
Carlo Mombelli's music sits on the cusp of sanity, where madness and brilliance share space, where true art resides. Mombelli has found in his music the expressive soul of the developing world mixed with the technical profoundity of the classical world. Carlo Mombelli & THE PRISONERS OF STRANGE "Rules don't make works of art. Works of art make rules." Debussy “If the music was composed or improvised from that inner child that we search for, pure and innocent, listening to the voice of your muse, then we are on the right track of beauty. Art must uplift you, transport you, challenge you, touch your inner being, bring some form of hope and faith and a sense that it is some sort of a miracle. An artist tells his side of the story in truth, sad or good. He tells his story of the everyday life through his eyes. Picasso's ´Guernica` is such an example of a great work,” says Carlo Mombelli. “The main way of composition is through improvisation. It is important to jam a bit after practicing. Improvisation produces composition. Improvisation means spontaneous in the moment: right then and there.” “Music comes from intuition. We've got our subconscious which is our library for information. When fighting in the martial arts they repeat the movements. They are filling up the subconscious with movements. They always learn slowly because accuracy breeds speed. You have to put the movements in 100% correct otherwise you start memorizing bad habits. What brings all the moves out of the subconscious is the muse. And that is how people play music.” “Technique is a means of how we can take what is inside and share it with a person outside. The better our technique the better we will be able to share it. Knowledge breeds quality. You got to have passion in anything you do. Passion drives you. You got to have talent. But the main thing is discipline. Discipline and Passion go together. I practice every day without fail. I force myself to improve. There is so much to learn. I want to be an incredible musician. I am not thinking about the future. I am striving for perfection. But perfection does not exist. That is the future.” CARLO offers private tuition from his home in Melville. He can be contacted on cmombelli@mweb.co.za
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At 8 my mom takes me to see the ballet ‘Swanlake'. I fall in love with the music. My parents send me to piano lessons. At 14 I start singing in my dad's restaurant with the regular cover band. I remember singing the Michael Jackson song ‘Ben'. I had a high voice and still have one. I had to leave the restaurant immediately after I sang as the stripper Glenda Kemp used to do her act after me with a python. I studied classical music as a subject at Pretoria Boys High where I composed a piano piece I played for an exam. I started playing the bass at 16 in a band after hearing Jaco Pastorius with Weather Report. I experienced the same Baptism feel about music that I had when I was 8. Our band played the music of Weather Report, Billy Cobham and Chick Corea. We worked out these tunes from Bootleg tapes I made of the Johnny Fourie band that played in Hillbrow. I carried the guitarist George Vardis's guitar a few kilometres to rehearsals every weekend and everyday in the holidays in exchange for information on the modal system (scales). When I left home in Standard Nine I worked in a music shop on the weekends. The owner was Andre Steenkamp and he introduced me to a lot of music and got me a gig with the Jazz pianist Ricky Anandale. I did not know anyting about walking bass so he wrote out all my bass lines for me. Around this time I discovered the music of Eberhard Weber, Ralph Towner, and E.C.M. Records that has had a major influence on my compositions. I tried to copy the sound. I started a band called Reflections that I used to workshop and develop my composition abilities. I got called up to the army and landed up in the ‘entertainment unit'. I was always in trouble for playing original music at the Generals weddings etc. Most musicians did not want to play with me as they said I was a pseudo intellectual bassist. So, they put me in the office to work out everyone's leave. This gave me the time to do a year long weekend gig with the pianist Ricky Anandale where I learnt to walk the bass over jazz changes. When I finished in the army Johnny Fourie heard me at a competition and offered me a six month gig, 6 nights a week playing jazz. This was my major jazz school. When the gig ended I went into a woodshed period practising 14 hours a day for about four months before I started my first professional original music group called ‘Abstractions'. As I was on my own I could not afford to study at an institution so I created my own environment. I learnt music on the stage.
In the mean time I started connecting with Brazilian guys, studying the music, learning the feeling. I was then asked to join the band Riez De Pedra. It was all Brazilian guys. The music is very complex and beautiful. We did an album for Engen records with Egberto Gismonti. He showed me the depth of music. When he put his hand down on the piano in the sound check, music came out. He never tested the piano. There was just music. When we recorded we would sit first and discuss what we were going to say with the music and we would all get into the same frame of mind and then play.
In the early eighties, a beer company put on a nation wide jazz talent search. I entered with a band I had at the time and even though I new very little about jazz, my group was chosen for the top five finalists. Johnny had also entered with Sean (his son) and was also chosen. The evening of the competition (held at the Sandton Sun Hotel in Johannesburg) was a stepping stone for me. Even though some smooth jazz group won the prize, a recording contract (nothing has changed), Johnny heard me play my music. He came over to me and told me how much he had enjoyed what I was doing. When I started to play in `76, I used to go and listen to Johnny Fourie, Johnny Boshoff and Tony Moore jamming at a club in Hillbrow and I used to bootleg their shows, go home and work out all the stuff they were playing. So these guys were stars for me. I had actually briefly met Johnny before that evening of the competition at a gig I had with a pianist Ricky Anandale playing standards every Friday and Saturday at a restaurant. Ricky showed me how to walk the bass and I had written all my bass parts out. Nothing improvised. Ricky invited Johnny to sit in with us one night as a special guest and I was extremely excited but I was just this guy in the back. Now after that evening of the competition Johnny got a gig at Spats, the night-club of the Sandton Hotel, playing jazz six nights a week for six months. He put a band together and called me to play bass. I didn't feel I was ready to do a gig like that, as all I knew about jazz was reading the walking bass lines that Ricky had written for me. I turned down Johnny`s gig but he told me, "you only get one chance". After he said that I took on the gig and prayed. Now I had always wanted to go and study music in America but that was too expensive and I never had, and to this day, still haven't had, a bass lesson, so this gig was probably the most important job I ever did. When a guru in India takes on a student, the student is with him every day, learning. Not like the once a week music lessons given in the West. Johnny took me in the breaks each night and showed me my mistakes and how to improvise. Johnny had become my Guru for the next six months. That band had Stan Jones on piano and Duke Makasi on sax who also took advantage of this guru situation. Now Neill Ettridge was playing drums and when he decided to do another gig Johnny got hold of this youngster, Kevin Gibson to finish the last month. When Spats came to the end, I was ready to play my own music again, but this time at a much higher level, so the first choice for my group was Johnny.
In the eighties there were many clubs in Joburg. The most important one was Jamesons. When you went down those stairs and entered that place you knew you were in an exciting place and you would hear interesting bands and the apartheid bullshit stayed outside. Another great club was Rumours in Yeoville where we would all hang out on Sundays to play the jam sessions. That place was packed and they had a real piano just like Jamesons as well as Kippies. There is not a single jazz club in Joburg that can boast a piano today, probably the most important instrument in the history of jazz music and the core centre of any jazz club, world-wide. I played with my band Abstractions on average three times a week to small audiences and did a solo bass spot at the ‘Black Sun' in Hillbrow at midnight every Friday where the Genuines where playing.
Abstractions was a fantastic group and we worked hard. We would every now and then do block rehearsals of five days in a row to work on the new material I kept on writing and everyone was there to make it happen. The band had Johnny and Jo Runde on guitars, and Neill Ettridge on drums. With Abstractions I experimented with sound and the band performed at a very intense level. Every art page spoke about the band and Shifty records recorded and released our first and only album. But the music went over the heads of most people, it was just too different and in 1987 I realised that if I wanted to make some progress I had to go overseas.
I have grown up since those days because then I couldn't have cared less what the people thought or said about my music. Now it's important to me that people can grasp and feel my music deep down. As history speaks, we know that jazz originated from the slaves that were brought to America from Africa, and classical music has it roots firm in Europe but that's long past so we cant say that just white people listen to classical music and black people listen to jazz and blues. It is my impression that Brazil is one of the few countries to have fused so many styles from all different cultures to make their own music on a level like no other. They took the music from the Angolan slaves, mixed it with the European classical music that the Portuguese and other Europeans brought, and mixed that with the music of the Indians and the Amazonas then introduced the jazz harmony from America and you have the most incredible music. Composers like Egberto Gismonti for example. I had the privilege of working and recording with Egberto in Europe and besides Johnny Fourie, the few days that I spent with Egberto were a major learning experience for me. Classical musicians master there instruments and are expected to perform at a high level of musicianship and professionality but what lacks in classical circles is the swing and the lack of freedom of expression jazz musicians have. So if a musician can perform at the technical level of a classical musician with the soul of the third world you have an interesting mix. That's what Brazilians have done.
We did a jumble sale in our house just to raise enough money to get one way tickets to Europe. When I arrived I saw brilliant musicians waiting for me. After two weeks there was a big band auditioning bass players for ballroom gigs, lanie stuff. I was very fortunate to get the gig. They give you a book of 300 pieces. No rehearsals. They call a number at the gig and you play. It's six hours. I learnt a helluva lot.
I got a job at the Registrars Conservator in teaching. The classical and jazz departments are great. There must be three hundred teachers there. The audition was very strange because you were invited. You walked into the room and you had loads of teachers to judge you and you had a student. First you had to have papers. I don't have a single paper. I am a self-taught bassist. I went from piano to bass. The guy auditioning before me was from Passport. The guy after me could play Giant Steps at double time. Hot guys! I played a solo bass piece and then I taught. I talked about silence and how to bring your voice out in your sound. We talked about art for half an hour. They asked me to play again. I played an emotional ballad. They said the performance was so passionate and the teaching was so intense. And I wasn't trying to impress anyone. And then they had to write a letter to the municipality explaining why they employed this guy with no papers.
Happy Sad (1992 ITM Pacific)
I started meeting up with other jazz musicians. I made an album in the Bauer studio. This was my dream. This place is like history. And the sound is incredible. When you go into mix you don't touch the board because it is perfect how the engineers set up. I was touring with Charlie Mariano. We did an album together. Six hours complete.
Dancing in the museum (1996 ITM Pacific)
I certainly didn't find it easier though when I lived in Europe. There are a lot more great musicians and sound engineers and more festivals and more discerning audiences. The overall standard is higher. Jazz musicians over there are also struggling to make ends meet, find gigs and most of the time pay for there own recordings. That's why most of the jazz albums are done in one or two days. Bats in the Belfry was a live recording, therefore done in three hours and the record before that with Charlie Mariano (Dancing in a Museum) was recorded in six hours.
Bats in the Belfry (1997 Baobab)
We did a concert for overseas on the radio. It was recorded onto DAT. It wasn't meant for release. The name of the band was Prisoners of Strange. It wasn't a commercial project. As I had no records out in South Africa I started Baobab art records to capture the art.
I have an oil painting I bought in Prague. The artist painted this girl walking and above her head flies a bat. Well I spent a lot of time looking at this beautiful work and I have the feeling that she is mentally retarded. I use the painting as a cover to the CD because most of the music on the album Bats in the Belfry has been inspired by the painting. People may think this girl is weird and has a bat in the belfry, yet her world can be beautiful, a place we cannot understand. I have seen this in my music that what is normal, natural and beautiful to me, is usually strange to many others because they are maybe scared to come into that world. I went to see the film `Chocolate` and wept afterwards because I saw the comparison. The chocolate lady created all these beautiful chocolates but everyone in the village treated her as strange and only those that were brave enough to go into her world and taste one of her chocolates realised how beautiful and delicious they really were and how normal she really was. The rest made her a Prisoner of Strange. We make all these wonderful chocolates but all the people want, and all that the industry want to sell, are crunchies and yogi bars.
“The reason,” he says, “why I gave up the teaching post at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich was to come home with my family, so that my two little daughters could grow up in this fantastic country. I was tired of greeting people who don't greet you back. I never felt European. My wife and I love South Africa and we never ever intended to stay away so long. The sunshine, the colour of the sand, the wildlife, the thorn trees, the music and the different cultures all in one country, this truly is a fantastic place.”
I've noticed that every one here is considered a genius. If that's the case Mozart, Beethovan, Jaco, Miles, Zawinel, they must be Gods. Musicians tha start new styles for me can be considered as genius. Musicians who are improvisers of the highest art form can be considered genius.
Let's get back to the music scene. One thing I have noticed here is the way Jazz musicians turn to licks and gimmicks once they become famous. These samemusicians played so beautiful then suddenly fame, and all that beautiful music flew out the window. Now I must say that when I arrived here two years ago people were raving about Herbie Tsoali. So I went to listen to him a few times and he sounded like a beginner but I could hear he played with honesty and passion. He is for me the musician that has grown the most in the time that I have been back. He truly has become a great bassist. Even though he has become well known he still plays honestly with passion, taste and a magnificent tone. My other favourite is moving to Amsterdam, Marcus Wyatt. The problem with the scene here is that there are only a handful of great musicians and the rest are all trying to convince you how great they are. So when we lose someone like Marcus there is no-one to really replace him in Johannesburg. There is Feya Faku whose trumpet playing I love, but he lives in Durban. So I would say another problem we have here is the lack of horn players that could play any chart you put in front of them, play it correctly, play it in tune, play it with soul and feeling then blow you off the stage when they improvise. Marcus has that. He now has the big task head of finding his voice but I am sure he will. That's what I respect with Hugh Masakela is that he has his sound. Even though I don't like the music he is now composing I still like to hear him play that Masakela style horn. Abdullah Ibrahim plays Abdullah.
I certainly didn't find it easier though when I lived in Europe. There are a lot more great musicians and sound engineers and more festivals and more discerning audiences but it's not more easier than in South Africa. Just the overall standard is higher. Jazz musicians over there are also struggling to make ends meet find gigs and most of the time pay for there own recordings. That's why most of the jazz albums are done in one or two days. Bats in the Belfry was a live recording, therefore done in three hours and the record before that with Charlie Mariano (Dancing in a Museum) was recorded in six hours. Most of the records in Europe are recorded like that, LIVE in the studio. That's why Marcus's record, Voice, Bheki Mseleku, Abdullah Ibrahims and Zim Ngqawana's records breath, because they are played LIVE.
On another note let me Quote once again from Nachmanovitches book, ´Free \ Play`. " One of the most insidious kinds of pressure to which an artist can succumb is the pressure to be accessible. Well meaning advisors may tell you that X is accessible, marketable, popular and so on, and there way be artists who naturally do X out of their own being and become popular and wealthy. But if you alter your work to be more X-ish, people will spot it as inauthentic; it will not be heartfelt X because it does not originate in your own being. By all means develop and revise your work to communicate more and more clearly; but if you alter one word in order to please some imagined market "out there", the integrity and originality of everything you do is at risk. Whereas if you create your own material in your own way, developing artwork that is more and more authentically yours, people will spot it as genuine. In resisting temptation to accessibility, you are not excluding the public; on the contrary, you are creating a genuine space and inviting people in. Ideally, artist and audience are close, inter-responsive, accessible to each others minds and heart. But in a world of mass economics and mass communication, producers and middlemen of all kinds insist that our work conform to a lowest common denominator. Natural communication between artist and audience is stimulated by the banalities of market research and advertising. This is a particularly insidious process because it arises not from anyone's bad intentions but from the fundamental nature of large systems and institutions. The danger to the artist is that under pressure of these institutions he might internalise those demands and replace his immaculate, natural voice with an artificially synthesized one. On the other hand, if we self-consciously try to be original, we can wander in the opposite direction, going for a distinctive voice or look that sets you apart from everybody else. Young artists easily fall into the trap of confusing originality with newness. Originality does not mean being unlike the past or unlike the present; it means being the origin, acting out of your own centre."
“Rules don't make works of art. Works of art make rules.” Debussy
"What unites classics and jazz is the search for new things. When you are searching you make statements like John Cage did with silence for 3 minutes fourty-four in 1945. He arrived on stage opened up the piano to premiere his new work and sat there for exactly 3:44. He closed the piano and walked off the stage and that was a piece of music. He can't do that again. What he was trying is what happens within silence is actually music. He wasn't doing that to try and be different. He was a deep thinker. When you try to be different it becomes a gimmick. When you search you become experimental.”
Carlo Mombelli is neither classics nor jazz. He is an improvised musician, one of the highest evolved human beings I have ever been blessed to know.
JOHNNY FOURIE
Today Johnny Fourie has died. I am certain he was peaceful, content and proud. For, his health has been going for more than 18 months. And he had retired to write a book on harmony. For harmony, I believe, was his greatest attribute. I came to meet Johnny Fourie through Carlo Mombelli. The love and kindness in their friendship, the honour and respect was a lesson all in itself. "JOHNNY FOURIE WAS LIKE A GURU TO CARLO MOMBELLI." He instilled a tremendous discipline and enthusiasm in the young Carlo Mombelli and gave him a lot of time and teaching. "It was like the Indian style of guru," Carlo says. What a humble and honorable man Johnny Fourie will always be! He has been a corner stone of the South African music scene since the 1950's and he has been deeply blessed never to be short of opportunity. He played top quality performances and did high stylish residency's. He cooked so much at Ronnie Scott's in London that the international Jazz scene acknowledged him. He played with Abstractions in Hillbrow in the 1980's, he was with the prisoners of strange in 2000 at that seminal 3AM gig at the North Sea Jazz festival (flights from JHB were delayed). And in 2002 he put out his first solo recording on Instinct Africaine. Carlo was the driving force behind this as he really wanted Johnny to have a record before he died. Because, despite having such a terrific career with such scintillating performance, not much was recorded. Johnny Fourie will be remembered as an extraordinary role model and a kind hearted gentle guitar guru and family man.
Johnny was never interested in fame. He was dedicated to playing pure music. He has gone virtually unnoticed by this industry. Johnny lived music. He was a musician on the stage, wherever he was, at the dinner table, in his sleep, everywhere. He played uncompromised music, and maybe that's why only a select few know who he is?
Born in a little dorp in the karoo in 1937 he played his first professional gig at the age of 15 in a boere-orkes. Being self taught he went on to do a three-year stint in the house band of Europe's most famous jazz club, 'The Ronnie Scotts', in London. There he played with all the international greats. He worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, worked in New York with Billy Cobham and Hubert Laws, and on a recommendation by his friend John McLaughlin he was one of two guitarists to audition for Chick Coreas' new band 'Return to Forever'. And yet in South Africa he is virtually unknown. He has battled to get a chance to play on festivals and was not commercial enough for the record companies. There is recorded work of his thanks to Shifty records that recorded Abstractions in '87 and the label Instinct Africaine that released Johnny's trio recording in 2000. This album was disqualified from the SAMA's, because there wasn't enough original music on it! But, part of being a jazz musician is the art form of interpreting standards in your own personal way. If you want to know a little about Johnny, get hold of that recording. Melt 2000 have just released a recording that Sean, Johnny's son, made of Johnny playing solo guitar. It's beautiful. I hope that The SAMA committee come to their senses and don't disqualify this release as well. This has been the story of Johnny's life in South Africa. Yet he gave us so much music. Writes Carlo Mombelli :
Johnny Fourie, my Guru and friend left this planet yesterday afternoon.
25 years ago I got a call to join his band where he had a 6 month jazz gig at the Sandton Sun hotel in Joburg, 6 nights a week. At first I turned it down telling him I was not good enough to play in his band. He called me back and told me, you only get one chance and I must dive in the deep end. Fortunately I took the gig and it was those 6 months where I learnt to play jazz. All the musicians used to practice in the breaks and he would advise us where we went wrong, give us tips and teach and inspire us. This was my university. The Johnny Fourie School of the Arts, live on stage, and every musician that has played with Johnny received something like this from him. A Guru. He was a generous spirit and extremely honest. If you played bad that's what he would tell you, and if you played great he let you know. Johnny loved the way I played and he loved my compositions. He booked me for me. (Often I play in a group and they want me to play like someone else). Johnny taught me to play with musicians because alike they do what they do. I have learnt from Johnny that as a bandleader, one must be an inspiration and challenge your musicians to push the boundaries but recognise and appreciate the art and beauty each musician has to offer. He taught me that you get band-leaders and you get band-rulers. He was an artist and a bandleader.
When will this music industry wake up? How could they have let Johnny Fourie slip by? He should have been playing at all the festivals here. Every time we have a great jazz hour on radio it gets taken off the air and replaced by two hours of sissy jazz. Metro, Khaya and SAFm what happened? The one good DJ told me once they replaced her show because she played that strange funny jazz music.
My deepest condolences to Val, Johnny's wife, and to Sean, his son who both loved him and supported every note he played. Also my condolences to the rest of his family and everyone that will miss him.
JOHNNY I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU GAVE ME. I WILL CHERISH IT FOR LIFE AND YOU WILL ALWAYS BE IN MY HEART AND MY MUSIC...
Carlo
I stared into my head (2007 Instinct Africaine)
“It has taken me years to start hearing me in my music. I have been influenced by so many people. And now at last in my new record there are things there that I have not heard on this planet.” Carlo Mombelli
27.01.2007
The auditorium was full of audience. And the stage was full of musicians. When the show was over everyone was in a terrific mood.
Carlo Mombelli was the generous host in the centre of this engine room of sound. Instruments and personal stood together in a jazz orchestra. In different collaborations they played a repertoire throughout Mombelli's professional career from the 80's : 90's and 00:'s.
Mombelli's fingers danced on the bass. His creativity was emphasized on incidental sounds. When the drummer whacked and flapped heavy signpost sheeting it made the sound of 'scratching' (like Ready D!). A balloon, two bottles, a pair of scissors looped with a whisper created the sound of a boat! And the sound of his wind-screen wipers lead to the fabulous composition ‘Sun Love'.
The 80's were represented by "ABSTRACTIONS". By the manner in which the young guitarist Jonathon Crossley performed, like a cat stalking a rabbit, it was clear that this was some kind of crazy hip music they were playing.
The 90's were represented by the Munich sessions of 'Bats in the Belfry' and ‘Dancing in the Museum'. At this point Carlo changed his bass and sat back on a high stool. He feels the bass as if it were the ocean. From an orchestra arrived strings and cello to add sweeping texture to melodic compositions that moved elegantly to a sultry rhythm
There was an interlude of solo piano called ‘The mime artist'. To create a contraband sound for the composition Jill Richards placed books on the strings of the grand piano. The composition for Walter Battiss followed. Here the string section really tested their wits on a delightful jig of sorts. The conductor would sweep elegantly with his right hand and then tuck and tie with the left before cupping his hands together behind his leaning back and grinning delightfully.
At this point Mombelli's band of individuals (the Prisoners of Strange) presented their fresh and fantastic characters. In Mombelli's anti-war song "We come in Peace" the cellist and male violinist were singing along as brothers in the cause. And Siya stole the heart of this recent period with the gentle street song Malunde, Sun Love and 'Trance by Chance'.
Carlo Mombelli is a deeply original artist :
Mombelli played tribute to his wife on three occasions. And announced the album 'I stared into my head' (Instinct Africaine) officially released. Cover artwork by Norman Catherine
On the opening track we are in a dining club. The band has been hired to entertain fluently. What comes out is a groovy trance beat with punchy scatting and a raunching saxophone. And then comes a peace for Mombelli's daughter: Soft and private. Third track is a profound and beautiful offering to Gito (one of the great spirits of this planet). On the fourth track we are underground, this can be at any time and at any place but somehow a mystic revolutionary force is preaching anti war. "We come in Peace" the chant in a song about Ethical Sam who travels the world advising everyone on how to cook their own traditional foods. Fifth track sonic design : meditations in my backyard. Track 6. Malunde. Where is your home? Running from your memory. Raunching horns and then that bassline that says jazz launches the plight for streetlights. Malunde what will you find? Siya Track 7 is way out sonic design. Volcanic eruptions in slow motion! Picture that. Track 8 is the silence of the storm . Bassline growls, symbols amash. It is a mood. Track 9: Brief and bluesy recital of Untitled Prayer ('96). Track 10 the Battiss jig which is both extraordinary and unordinary. The album receives a final track resurrection of Trance by Chance through the rights of springs. ARTWORK BY NORMAN CATHERINE
Carlo Mombelli has recently completed his doctorate study in composition at Wits.
“My thesis was on the idea of how improvisation produces composition. The main way of composition is through improvisation. Improvisation means spontaneous in the moment. Conversation is improvisation. The composer brings a topic and gives a platform for a debate. And I invite high quality and interesting speakers to debate the topic with their voice. All the music that I play is enjoyed by all the musicians.”
* Please note Carlo has a personal archive documenting his life story. He has jammed with slash at a late night Munich venue. He is one with the oneness of the world. And this is how deeply his music touches people. At a Johannesburg robot, on a rainy day, with he windscreen wapers moving, my girlfriend broke into such angelic song. “Sun Love”, she sang. And that is Carlo Mombelli's song! Composed and improvised at a robot on a rainy day with the windscreen wipers moving. The universality of the music is heart touching.
Carlo has entered a collaboration with French musician Jean Louis Mechiali whose school 'lutheries urbaines' (urban instrument makers) is attracting global significance through the support of the Alliance Francaise.
Alliance Francaise have supported successful projects in Mozambique and the Congo and are currently piloting one in Gauteng.
Carlo is conducting a project in Mamelodi and Soweto of approximately twenty students per class. One class per week. The two classes will come together for a collaborative workshop in February, preparing for the arrival of Jean-Louis and his team. They will be bringing all sorts of extraordinary instruments constructed from recyclable material, such as a piano!
I attended one of Carlo's classes in Mamelodi. It was uplifting to my spirits as well as the students for the music they played was complex and the instruments simple. Plastic bottles were used for percussion, brass pipes as bells and wire cases as foot stampers and body percussion. For professionals in the audience such as Piet van de Erve (africandrumming.co.za) it was a learning experience to see delightful multiple rhythms interlaced with the exuberance of youth and learning.
Carlo Mombelli is always at the center of his class combing individual attention to each member together with his brilliant perception of the goal of their efforts. Carlo loves music and is therefore a shining light of inspiration.
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