Ruti Talmor, then an anthropology graduate student at New York University, invited me to come as she was finishing her fieldwork about Accra’s National Arts Centre and the local contemporary art world.∞ I’d help her out with some video work, and she’d introduce me to some musicians and artists. The idea was just a two-week look and listen. This was hardly what I had in mind when I first visited Accra in October 2004. But I do hope they will be productive of surprise and critical reflection, certainly about the shape of jazz as diasporic dialogue in an African urban modernity, and even more about jazz cosmopolitanism as musical intimacy. While luminous and vexing to me, I don’t expect them to be as memorable or unsettling to you. Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus Disc 2, Accra Trane Station: The Music and Art of Nii Noi Nortey Disc 3, A Por Por Funeral for Ashirifie Various Artists, The Time of Bells, 3: Musical Bells of Accra, Ghana (cd, 2005) Accra Trane Station, Tribute to A Love Supreme (cd, 2005) Accra Trane Station, Meditations for John Coltrane (cd, 2006) Accra Trane Station, Another Blue Train (cd, 2007) Virginia Ryan and Steven Feld, The Castaways Project (cd + dvd, 2007) The La Drivers Union Por Por Group, Por Por: Honk Horn Music of Ghana (cd, 2007) Accra Trane Station with Alex Coke and Jefferson Voorhees, Topographies of the Dark sculptural paintings by Virginia Ryan (cd, 2008) Nii Otoo Annan and Steven Feld, Bufo Variations (cd, 2008) The La Drivers Union Por Por Group, Klebo! Honk Horn Music from Ghana (cd, 2009) Steven Feld, Waking in Nima (cd, 2010) Nii Otoo Annan, Ghana Sea Blues (cd, 2011) xii OPUS FOUR-BAR INTRO ‘‘The Shape of Jazz to Come’’ I’m here to tell stories about encounters with jazz cosmopolitanism in Accra. All are published by VoxLox (with the exception of Por Por: Honk Horn Music of Ghana, published by Smithsonian Folkways (Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra (Steven Feld, dvd trilogy 2009) Disc 1, Hallelujah!: Ghanaba and the Winneba Youth Choir perform G. These related films and recordings feature performances by and conversations with musicians Ghanaba (Guy Warren), Nii Noi Nortey, Nii Otoo Annan, and the La Drivers Union Por Por Group, as well as photographs and interviews by associate producer Nii Yemo Nunu. BAKHTIN SET LIST OPUS xi FOUR-BAR INTRO ‘‘The Shape of Jazz to Come’’ 1 VAMP IN, HEAD Acoustemology in Accra: On Jazz Cosmopolitanism 11 FIRST CHORUS, WITH TRANSPOSITION Guy Warren/Ghanaba: From Afro-Jazz to Handel via Max Roach 51 SECOND CHORUS, BLOW FREE Nii Noi Nortey: From Pan-Africanism to Afrifones via John Coltrane 87 THIRD CHORUS, BACK INSIDE Nii Otoo Annan: From Toads to Polyrhythm via Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali 119 FOURTH CHORUS, SHOUT TO THE GROOVE Por Por: From Honk Horns to Jazz Funerals via New Orleans 159 HEAD AGAIN, VAMP OUT Beyond Diasporic Intimacy 199 ‘‘DEDICATED TO YOU’’ 245 HORN BACKGROUNDS, RIFFS UNDERNEATH 249 THEMES, PLAYERS 299 OPUS Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra is the book and photographic companion to a multimedia project of dvds and cds produced from 2005 through 2010. FOR ANITA AND BOB FELD AND IN MEMORY OF MICHAEL BRECKER The artistic will to polyphony is the will to the event. The 2009 Ernest Bloch Lectures in Music University of California, Berkeley Frontispiece: Accra Calling, photograph ∫ 2010 Steven Feld. Library of Congress Cataloging-inPublication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. Westmoreland Typeset in Arno with Din Schrift display by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. STEVEN FELD Five Musical Years in Ghana JAZZ COSMOPOLITANISM IN ACCRA Duke University Press Durham and London 2012 ∫ 2012 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper $ Designed by C. The words of the common obituary announcement, ‘‘Home Call,’’ are simply flipped on the signboard of my local mobile phone kiosk: ‘‘Call Home.’’ Jazz cosmopolitanism in Accra is a collusion of chronotopes, the time-space of the sky, of the road, and of the sea joining to sound an unending Black Atlantic musical motion, where older ancestral connections meet newer diasporic intimacies. ‘‘Reach Out,’’ ‘‘Stay Connected,’’ ‘‘Pay As You Go,’’ ‘‘Powerful Delivery,’’ say the ubiquitous cellular ads, mixing consumer urgency and religious resonance. Here, telecommunication towers now burst into night like the shimmering strings and swinging ostinatos of a seprewa, the Ghanaian harp. The vibe is not dissimilar in globally Afromodern Accra. JAZZ COSMOPOLITANISM IN ACCRA European and American modernist paintings and photographs have long evoked jazz and cosmopolitanism as night in the city, as dark shadowy buildings beaming the energy of bright lights into moody urban streets and skies.
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