Abubilla Music

71 Hours to Monday, Global Remix

Written by Jimmy

We are very proud of this video and hope you enjoy it:

If you’d like to learn more about the video, here are 10 little background items:

1.  The Samba Drummers:   This is a group of 17 drummers from Campo Limpo outside of Sao Paolo.  We met them through Flavio Pimenta, who founded Meninos do Morumbi.  The recording was made in a little concrete park in the centre of Campo Limpo, using the mobile recording equipment we set up for the Singing Wells Project.    The computer was plugged into a 100 foot extension cord, which ran across the park, across a two lane road (to the right of the band), through the ‘band’s bar’, through the kitchen of said bar to a backroom, to a wall socket.    The little boy in headphones at the beginning of the video, spent a good deal of his time running back and forth across the road re-plugging in the extension cord.  Too many cars, too many folks at the bar or in the kitchen.    The band was working hard to listen to the song and play to the beat – but as good samba drummers, they chose quite often to go to new and different places.  We do not show footage of Mike Park re-doing some of the surdo and Tamborim in a hot conservatory in London (not really rock and roll).  Here are some of the drummers from Meninos do Morumbi – next year we hope to do a video with them for Meninos do Morumbi:
   
2. The Dancers of Campo Limpo just appeared. Our taxi driver/tourist guide joined in the dancing, which was a bit of a problem because she was also filming while Jimmy recorded and Mike drummed.  A lot of her footage is a bit wiggly.   We also were joined by the Mayor of Campo Limpo for a while who appeared with a large entourage and gave a little speech about having formally organised this session as part of a cultural renewal programme.  It was the first time we met him, but were apparently had organised this weeks ago with him.  Nice.
3. The London Strings:  The strings were recording on the roof tops of an office complex of Piccadilly and in the basements.  It was a former MI 5 building which meant the acoustics of the basement were pretty good.  The strings players had to spend a bit of time in the rain for those shots – strings players and rain don’t really go together and there were a number of concerns about the impact of water on expensive instruments.    Andy wrote the parts and the paper you see flying around is the real score (with a couple of misplaced notes).
4. The Third Verse: Makadem wrote and performed the third verse of the song, with Priscah Wairimu, the executive assistant at Ketebul Music.  The brief to Makadem was to capture the spirit of the third verse, but to make sure that it worked musically for him so not get overly faithful with the English.  He delivered!  But it led to some fun translation and re-translation issues.
5. African Guitars:  While the song was based on original SMCC version from our first album, by the end, not a single note remained from the original.  What  you see in the video of the Nairobi studio is Bishop re-doing a bass and guitar track, while Ayub Ogado puts down the Nytatiti.  Results in a new rhythm section of African and Brazilian musicians who have never seen each other.    You will know Ayub from his version of Kothbiro in the Constant Gardener:
   1. Original English Verse 3:   I’m dancin’, prancin’, aggressively financin’ a Saturday evening with you. I’m rummin’ and cokin’ and frequently stokin’ them romantic fires in you. And I’m wakin’ in my efficiency, in an efficiency graveyard, boxed in my apartment block. Alone again on a Sunday, dreadin’ a Monday; about to shoot that damn clock.
   2. Final Swahili Verse 3:  Naamini hii fani na mimi na dhamini jumamosi moja mimi na wewe. Gogoni-motoni-moyoni mwako nazidi kutia miale mizito ya mahaba. Kwa upweke naamka kutoka kwa hili kaburi la maisha, bandani nilipo hifadhiwa. Peke yangu tena jumapili hii Nikihofia jumatatu ijayo Maskini kidogo niibamize hio saa
   3. Re-translation of Swahili Version back into English:   I believe in this showbiz and I will finance one Saturday with you. Like  a bonfire in your heart, I continue to plant heavy romantic fires. I wake up lonely from this limbo, in this shack where I have been preserved. Alone this Sunday again, dreadful of a coming Monday – poor me, I almost bashed the clock
6. African Voices:  Winyo, Makadem and Ayub Ogado all took turns adding vocals to the long outro.  We left Nairobi with about 40 vocal tracks.  The video shows all three adding tracks.    The only problem, which you can see in some of the footage is that the rest of Ketebul music, mainly Pado on video, kept going into the studio to film but ended up dancing and playing along.   A bit too much ‘spillage’ as they say in the business.   We are co-producing Winyo’s album Benga Blues which will be released by Ketebul music in the Autumn.  Here’s Winyo performing:
   
   
7. Opera Voices:  Camilla Bull worked part time at Jimmy’s gym.  She didn’t want to be there anymore than he did and when he discovered that her first love was opera, we invited her into record with us.  She started by re-doing the strings part. Then we took a lovely phrase from one of Winyo’s track and she re-did that.  Then we had her play off the African voices.   We have some video of her laughing in the final shoot.  She was being attacked by Lewie the Cock-a-poo in our London studio.
   
8. Louise’s lead Vocals:  Louise largely reprised her vocals from the first version of this song, but shifted to an English accent and joined Winyo in the outro.    Toward the end, we catch her doing the shoulder dance of the Sengenya dancers.  Here they are in action:
   
   
9. The Tribal Dancers:  All the tribal dancers in the video were part of our first Singing Wells project, where we travelled to four villages near Malindi Kenya to record 8 different tribes.  All of their music and video of their performances is available at singingwells.org.
   
10. The Video Mix:    Jimmy, Andy, Pado and Greg did all the video shoots.   But then Greg did the final mix.   What we love is how he captured the laughter.  It was a lot of fun to make and for most of the artists, this is the first time they’ve actually appeared together or seen the full performance.

Finally, in the CD liner notes of King Henry’s Tears, our latest album, we’ve included credits for allthe performers (more than 30!).

Jimmy