Contact!

An eventful day. Multiple people on my isicathamiya list had said I should try to meet with them today. (To cover the basics-- isicathamiya is a style of Zulu a cappella singing that features elements of call-and-response, and powerful, full-throated harmony). As arranged, I called the first at 2:30. He told me to come over to his workplace and see him. His workplace turned out to be the Maximum B corrections center just outside the city. I drove out there and met my first real-life isicathamiya singer. He gave me a couple numbers for people to talk to-- the music director of his group, and the chairman of the area isicathamiya association, which coordinates competitions.

I called both numbers immediately and had success with the music director. He asked where I was and we ended up meeting in a parking lot and chatting for a little bit before he had to run off to a soccer game. His group, the Pietermaritzburg Naughty Boys, practices at a hostel in town, which will be easy to get to. He also knows the people in Durban I should be in contact with and will be able to give me good contacts.

Buoyed by my success, I decided to head out of town to sit in on the rehearsal of the Black Scorpions, a group from a rural community in Elandskop (about 45 minutes drive from the city). I had rough directions, and ended up asking the way several times, though I only made one actual wrong turn. When I asked directions from one nice group of ladies, they asked for a lift down the road, which I was happy to provide. Unfortunately, it looks like one of them managed to swipe my cellphone while she was in the car-- I shouldn't have had it sitting out, but I wasn't expecting anyone else to be in the passenger seat.

Finally, I found the store I had been directed to. The store manager directed a trio of young boys to show me the way to the house of the guy I was looking for. It ended up being a 10 minute walk down the road, after which we went back and drove the car there. All the roads here were unpaved and most houses were round mud huts with straw roofs. Chickens and cows in abundance. Also, though I'm stared at a little in the city, here I was more or less an alien. I don't think they'd had anyone who wasn't African in the village in quite a while.

The rehearsal started soon after I got there, and I just sat back and soaked in the music. It was pretty good isicathamiya-- incredibly powerful singing, with crisply coordinated attacks and cutoffs. There was a little of the vocal percussion techniques I'm trying to find, and some nice multi-part sections where the alto and tenor were doing something completely different from the rest of the group.

I didn't stay long to chat because it was already dark and I wasn't relishing the prospect of driving all the way home at night. I did learn a couple of interesting things, however-- the team learns all its music by ear and, what's more, the director teaches only the words and melody. All the parts are created by the singers themselves, working in their appropriate ranges. They complained that they don't have money for properly matching uniforms and said that this is what the judges always comment on in competition. Apparently, while they all wear black suits with black shirts and white ties, there is some variance in the style of each singer's suit, which they say is no good.

Also, found a store called Fruit and Veg Citi, which lives up to its name. It also has a good bulk nuts & snack mix section and will fill your bottles with fresh juice or milk. Highlight: 3 mangoes for 10 rand (~$1). They formed the basis for fruit smoothies for me and Chenge's family this morning.