Gospel Archiving
in Los Angeles (GALA) - 2004-05: A UCLA
in LA funded Partnership with the Heritage Music Foundation
"The circuitous route that took [Gospel] music to its present
popularity became a major thoroughfare in the first decade of
the twentieth century" (Horace Boyer, "African American
Gospel Music" in African Americans and the Bible, 2000).
A highly influential-and often overlooked-stopover on Gospel's
"circuitous route" was Los Angeles. Between 1906 and
1909 seminal moorings for Gospel were planted in Los Angeles at
312 Azusa Street, address of the Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission.
As Boyer writes, "on April 9, 1906, Jennie Evans … spoke
in tongues" at the Mission "and African American sacred
music was changed forever." Speaking in tongues, a manifestation
of being imbued with the Holy Ghost, led to singing one's own
song and giving voice to one's own testimony. Boyer notes this,
in turn, "served as the inspiration and the catalyst for
a catalogue of improvised songs based on the 'call and response'
practice, with a singing style of robust delivery, filled with
hollers and moans." In short, Gospel would not be what it
is today without Los Angeles.
Nearly a century later, Los Angeles continues to play a powerful
role in the Gospel world. Los Angeles area churches, such as the
West Angeles Church of God in Christ (largest CGC in the world),
the Faithful Central Bible Church (which recently purchased the
Forum), and the First African Methodist Episcopal Church (oldest
African American congregation in Los Angeles) host world-renowned
Gospel concerts every Sunday. At the same time, as Gospel becomes
intertwined with the larger music industry, Los Angeles is becoming
the center for Gospel's commercialized side. Kurt Franklin's record
company Gospel Central, which is known for integrating Rap with
Gospel, is based in Inglewood. And UCLA adjunct professor James
Roberson is CEO and president of the LA-based JDI Records, one
of the largest and fastest growing independent Gospel record companies
in country.
Despite its history and current role, LA is often overlooked
as a center for Gospel. Even Angelenos do not realize how important
their city is when it comes to Gospel and, vice versa, how important
Gospel is to their city. In order to raise awareness of LA Gospel,
document a unique history that slips away with each passing year,
and detail the enormous influence Gospel has on a pantheon of
other musical styles, the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive
and the Heritage Music Foundation, or HMF, are partnering
together this year. Known as Gospel Archiving in Los Angeles
(GALA), this yearlong collaborative project will pair the
Archive's resources and expertise with HMF's stature and reputation
in LA's Gospel music community.
GALA has five main objectives.
1. Helping HMF plan for Gospel House: One of HMF's primary
goals is to establish a Gospel House, a center for Gospel in Los
Angeles. The Ethnomusicology Archive staff will help HMF develop
a strategic plan for the Gospel House that will clarify collection
development, access, preservation, and outreach policies. This
plan will then be used by HMF to secure funding for the construction
and staffing of the Gospel House.
2. Expanding LA based Gospel and related music collections
in the Archive and at HMF: With help from community members
and UCLA students, we will make extensive audio and video recordings
of Gospel and Gospel related performances in and around the greater
LA area. HMF has already identified a number of events to be documented
and we will identify other performances as GALA moves forward.
In addition to documenting performances, we plan to conduct oral
histories with key people in the Gospel community.
3. Digitizing and increasing access to Gospel collections
held by HMF and others: The Archive will assist HMF and others
with Gospel collections to preserve and increase access to already
existing recordings that document Gospel music in LA. Depending
upon the desires of Gospel community members, the Archive can
accept the original recordings into its collection or accession
copies of the original recordings for the Archive. Whichever option
is ultimately agreed upon, the Archive will share its expertise
when it comes to best practices in the realm of archiving and
documentation.
4. Hosting an end-of-the-project symposium at UCLA: We
look forward to wrapping up the grant-cycle portion of GALA by
hosting a symposium and festival at UCLA. Such an event will allow
GALA participants to evaluate their experiences, celebrate the
creation of a new collection, and plan for further collaborations.
The event and concert will itself be documented and added to the
collection of recordings produced over the year.
5. Establishing and maintaining a CBO server: We propose
the establishment of a CBO server in the Archive. This server
will be maintained by the Archive and will allow Gospel and other
community members to both access and upload digital copies of
recordings via the Internet. The Archive will provide open and
public access to digital files whenever the artists agree to unfettered
use of their works, and will provide password protected and site-specific
access to those files that are given restricted circulation status
by the artists. We strongly believe that this CBO server will
further the mission of HMF and will allow to give artists easy
access to their recordings, while at the same time creating links
among community based organizations.
ABOUT THE HERITAGE MUSIC FOUNDATION
HMF is the only LA based organization dedicated to documenting
and providing access to Gospel. It in its over 20 years of service,
HMF has garnered respect for its mission and assembled a large
collection of Gospel sound recordings. In addition, HMF director
Dr. Margaret Douroux is widely respected throughout the Gospel
world as a prolific composer and dedicated educator. Her reputation
among members of the Gospel community should enable us to record
the groups and individuals that will make GALA a success.
Other factors that have influenced our decision to partner with
HMF include a recommendation from UCLA professor and Gospel expert
Jacqueline DjeDje, the research interests of several UCLA ethnomusicology
graduate students, and as mentioned above, the significant though
often overlooked significance of Los Angeles Gospel music. Additionally,
by documenting key figures in the LA Gospel community, GALA will
highlight alternative role models for African American and other
LA area youth.
OUTCOMES, SUSTAINABILITY, and BEYOND
It is our belief that community members-be they from UCLA, other
research institutions, the Gospel community, or the general public-will
actively use the collection and access the CBO server. Additionally,
by giving HMF audiovisual recording equipment, we trust that this
collection will continue to grow, well beyond the one-year granting
period. And, perhaps most importantly, we believe that the HMF's
capacity to realize its mission, and to document and promote the
music of LA's Gospel community, will be developed as a result
of GALA.
Finally, we believe that GALA and AFAMILA--our
recently completed UCLA in LA project--will act as models for
future collaborative endeavors between the Ethnomusicology Archive
and other LA music-related non-profit organizations. In particular,
with the establishment of our CBO server, we envision a network
of partnerships, not only between the Ethnomusicology Archive
and these organizations, but also between the community organizations
themselves. As community organizations begin to document and upload
their own performances beyond the length of the grant cycle, and
deposit the originals recordings into the Archive, then we have
surely succeeded in both bringing UCLA and LA closer together
and increasing the Archive's stature as a repository of locally-produced/world-class
research materials.
If you interested in learning more and/or helping us out with
GALA, contact the Archive for more information.
Written by John Vallier
AFAMILA Festival Rocks
Schoenberg
|
Members of The Foundation
Collective performing at AFAMILA, left, while well fed
audience members look on.
|
On the sunny afternoon of Saturday, May 8th, the
Archive hosted the AFAMILA Festival in the Ethnomusicology Archive
Courtyard. From Kulintang to Hip Hop to traditional Philippine
folk dance to indie rock, the AFAMILA festival showcased a broad
spectrum of Los Angeles area Filipino American expressive culture.
The Festival gave community members a chance to reflect upon
and celebrate nearly a year's worth of documenting Los Angeles
area Filipino American music and expressive culture.
The all-star AFAMILA line-up looked like this:
1:00 p.m. DJ E.T. spins
2:30 p.m. The Pakaraguian Kulintang Ensemble (indigenous gong
music)
3:00 p.m. Presentation: AFAMILA, UCLA in LA
3:30 p.m. Kayamanan Ng Lahi (traditional folk dance)
4:00 p.m. The Balagtasan Collective (spoken word)
4:30 p.m. Moonbella13 (hip hop/pop/electronic/R&B blend)
5:00 p.m. Foundation Collective (hip hop)
6:00 p.m. Abalos Pros (comedic dance troupe)
6:30 p.m. Sayaw Ng Silangan of UCLA (traditional folk dance)
7:00 p.m. Manaois Systems International (Pilipino combative
arts)
7:30 p.m. INVID (rock)
Beyond enjoying live performances and a constant
stream of free Filipino food, the festival gave community members
an opportunity to explore the Archive's growing collection of
Filipino and Filipino American audiovisual recordings. Special
thanks to everyone who made this UCLA in LA event such a success!
A Daily Bruin article previewing the Festival
can be found here.
We would like to gratefully acknowledge Professor
David L. Weide for donating his collection of (primarily)
Anglo-American folk music. Prof. Weide gives us a brief history
of the collection, in his own words.
The David
L. Weide Collection of Recorded Folk Music
by David L. Weide
In 1951, at the age of 15, I went to hear a concert
at a small hall in Los Angeles. The featured performer was a
man named Pete Seeger. That performance, I thought at the time,
changed my life. No longer an aimless teenaged boy content with
breezing through a less-than-challenging Junior High School
curriculum, I would master the art of Folk Music! At about the
same time, I fell in love with a marvelous sixteen-year-old
girl, daughter of a famous and well-respected screenwriter and
ex-Wobbly (“Workers of the World” union organizer).
My education began in earnest! “Long Haired Preachers Come
Out Every Night” … “Fight For Union Recognition”
… “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night” …
These were the songs I learned. No wonder that wonderful writer
had been blacklisted by Hollywood under the pressures of the
McCarthy era.
As a teenager, I worked: at a Hollywood recording
studio and then at Radio Station KFSG (Aimee Semple McPherson’s
church of the Four Square Gospel). Along the way, I spent every
dime I made on “That Girl,” my 1939 Dodge sedan, and
the (then) NEW 33 1/3 rpm recordings of American and British
Folk Music. Thus the collection begins in 1951 and covers 53
years, up to its transfer to the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.
In 1958, I was accepted into UCLA and decided
to major in technical Theatre Arts (stage lighting and sound
systems). Sometime during that year, I went to a concert sponsored
by the Music Department that focused on the folk music of Indonesia
and the gamelan. Again, you might say that I experienced an
epiphany; I would learn to play all those wonderful instruments!
Several weeks and another concert later it was “Music of
Japan.” Also that semester, I took the required American
History course for the Social Studies requirement. We had a
term paper. I wrote mine on “The Strike Songs of American
Labor.” The requisite paper, with footnotes, was accompanied
by a half-hour tape of songs… a tape made by six of us
who had formed a “folk band” called the Quasi-Modal
Chorus: a title later pre-empted by Gordon Bok!
I now found myself faced with the following dilemma:
learn to play the 6- and 12-string guitar, the 5-string banjo,
the mandolin, the Appalachian fiddle, the gaida, the koto, and
the shamisen, as well as the lyrics to about 600 neat songs
(in 5 languages!) and at the same time keep up my grades at
UCLA and work to earn a living. I quickly found that the only
road to sanity was to simply collect the recorded music.
All the collecting (and research into the history
and context of the music) paid off in 1984 when I was invited
to produce and host a radio program on KNPR (The Las Vegas Public
Radio Station). It was an exciting challenge and, for one hour
every Sunday at 4:00 p.m., I broadcast Mostly Folk, the Program
Where You Never Know WHAT is Coming Next. On September 10, 1989,
I moved the program to Radio Station KUNV (the F.M. station
operated by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where, by then,
I was Associate Professor of Geology) owing to the fact that
KNPR changed format and became “All Classical Music and
In-Depth News”… no more room for the folk, the jazz,
or the blues… I produced Mostly Folk for KUNV up until
June 2001, when the opportunity to spend the summer doing geology
in Scotland was irresistible! With no program for three months,
sadly, I gave it up.
But when I had an established radio program, I
had a legitimate excuse to BUY lots of material! The compact
disc had taken over the market and-literally-hundreds of collections
of L.P. records were being sold at bargain prices. I haunted
the used record stores, often taking 3-day trips to Los Angeles…
some months I bought 200-plus recordings! The collection exploded!
So much material! So little time!
The collection as sent to the Ethnomusicology
Archive contains 3535 L.P.s (vinyl), 2426 compact discs, and
1690 cassettes. Very early on in my collecting, I despaired
of ever keeping up with filing material alphabetically by artist;
add one more record and you MOVE hundreds! I thus adopted a
simple, numerical accession number for each L.P., compact disc
and cassette recording. This made bookkeeping very easy. Not
content with inventorying every album by title, artist, and
label… owning a computer made the next obvious step easy!
List every one of the individual song titles on each and every
album! That index now contains over one half million song titles
easily accessible by any number of “search methods.”
With song titles now controlled, I then began building “discographies”:
lists of relevant songs about any and all topics. These “discographies”
are now part of the UCLA collection, as are the lists of song
titles.
On reaching the age of retirement (about 68),
I began to wonder what would happen to the collection after
I went to that big Hootenanny in the sky. I had always considered
UCLA to be the Ultimate (after all, I got my B.A. and Ph.D.
degrees there). The folks who operate the Ethnomusicology Archive
have promised me a home. I have gratefully accepted.
“Home is the hunter, home from the hill
And the sailor home from the sea…”
“And Like the Mary Ellen Carter, Rise Again”
David L. Weide
Firethorn, Las Vegas, 17 April 2004
Archive
CD Review
by CeShaun Armstrong
Author/Name: Pape & Cheikh
(Musical group)
Title: Mariama [sound recording] / Pape & Cheikh.
Published/distributed: Corsham, Wiltshire, UK : Real World ;
Milwaukee, WI : distributed by Narada Productions, p2002.
Publisher number: 7243 8 13257-2 8 Real World - Archive
Call Number: ARCD 1816
The album, Mariama, by Senegalese duo Pape Amadou
Fall and Cheikhou Coulibaly is an example of the fusion of traditional
and contemporary sounds with 12-tracks. Both artists come from
the central Senegal region of Serer where they were greatly
influenced by the traditions of their land. Griots, musical
historians and performers, were a large part of precolonial
Senegal, and their influence be seen in the music of Pape and
Cheikhou. The end of French colonial rule, in the 1960s, allowed
for independence in life and freedom in music. The integration
of Latin music, like that from Cuba, and the reintroduction
of indigenous sounds, like that of the kora (harp-lute) and
the tama (hourglass pressure drum) are part of contemporary
Senegalese music.
Pape and Cheikhou are folk artists fueled by the
spirit of protest. Growing up in a rich tradition with formal
training allowed the duo to maintain strong roots with their
homeland. They also grew up inspired by the 1960s and1970s social
struggles in the West and artists like Bob Marley, Pink Floyd
and Bob Dylan. In 1997, the two began performing as a group
and in 2001 released their first album, Yaakaar. Their song,
"Yatal Gueew (Widen the Circle)," actually inspired peace in
a politically turbulent time in Senegal.
Mariama, their second album, keeps true to their
message of social and political consciousness while infusing
songs with traditional elements. The title track, "Mariama,"
is reminiscent of the griot tradition. It is a Manding story,
from the people of neighboring Mali, which tells a tragic tale
of a king and his family. The song begins with haunting melismatic
vocals. Acoustic guitar, synthesizer, light percussive sounds,
and even an accordion combine for a polyphonic symphony. Strong
vocals convey a sense of sorrow even though they are placed
over an upbeat tempo. The piece is rooted in the history of
the land but has a distinctive contemporary feel.
"Kamalemba" is a call for unity and peace in civil
war-torn Casamance (a region of southern Senegal). The song
moves with a sense of urgency to the soundtrack of a quickly
played guitar and clapping hands. The tama, which is often called
a talking drum, is a traditional instrument of the region. The
drum adds a rich polyrhythmic texture to the song. The vocals
move with the same urgency but without sounding harsh or forceful.
The duo manages to sing softly yet convey an important message.
"We pray that peace will return/Unite in working for peace in
Casamance."
The album as a whole stays rooted in Senegalese
tradition with instruments and the griot tradition of storytelling.
In addition to this there is a distinct Latin feel in many pieces
brought together by the acoustic guitar. The relaxed open-throat
vocals are also typical of West Africa but the instance of strained
melismatic singing is indicative of Arab influence. This combination
of singing style is typical of the Sudanic or savannah belt
region of West Africa, of which Senegal is a part.
Mariama, is overall an example of African folk
music. It is not about being bombarded with sound but rather
about keeping the music light and energetic. The music is therefore
a complementary background to the story. The albumıs fairly
constant tempo is enriched with the numerous cultural influences
from Senegal. It is refreshing to see that some beauty can be
taken out of conquest. The audience is able to dance to the
upbeat sound or just sit back and revel in a beautiful day.
The guitar and vocals are the centerpiece of the
music. The message they convey breaks through any language barrier.
The audience is taken on a cultural journey charged with a message.
Infusing the music with danceable rhythms seems to say that
even though we struggle, we can still give praise to a new day.
CeShaun is a recently graduating senior at
UCLA who received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a
minor in African American Studies in 2004. She has participated
in various campus and community service organizations and plans
to use her experiences to attend graduate school and work for
societyıs underprivileged. She appreciates all music but enjoys
hip-hop and r&b the most. Studying under Dr. Jacqueline DjeDje
has inspired a love for the music of Africa. She plans to take
time off to travel and study the culture of Africa further.
Note from the Editor - Are you interested
in writing music reviews for the EAR? Let us know! We are always
looking for new talent.
Summer Hours in the Archive
The Ethnomusicology Archive will be open by appointment
only, June 12 to October 4, 2004. Please call or email the Archive
to make an appointment. Before coming to the Archive, you must
receive a verbal or written confirmation of the date and time
of your scheduled appointment.
