In Conversation--Earth Frequency & the Eucalyptus Tree
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| photo credit Mitch Tobias |
Since we live in a world surrounded by traditional
instruments, some hailing back thousands of years, some misunderstood exploited
by dominate cultures such as with indigenous instruments--didgeridoo comes to
mind, we must grow more conscious of our relationship to these instruments. I
explored this concept in my (now between publishers) book Whole Music, in the
chapter about indigenous music.
Recently, I wanted to include an article on didgeridoo or
interview with a player on Whole Music Experience. Through synchronicity and me spacing out, I
came across Stephen Kent, or I could say I became reacquainted with his musical
contributions to world and other types of music because I reviewed his CD, Oil and Water many years ago. Quite accomplished as a player, musicians
from various genres and countries have invited Kent to collaborate with them
leading to some fascinating music fusion.
And with three decades of performing on the didgeridoo, someone could
write a book on Stephen Kent. In the
meantime, here’s a short interview that was done via e-mail. And the quickest
turn-around I ever had in a musician responding to my questions.
Whole Music
Exp: When did you first encounter the didgeridoo and what qualities of this
instrument drew you to it?
Stephen Kent: I first encountered the Didge when I was
offered the job of Music Director of Australia's first (now National)
contemporary circus, Circus Oz, in 1981. As the group was very politically
motivated and supporting Aboriginal Land Rights, along with Sexual Politics
(redefining male and female roles both in the show and within the company
structure as a whole) were top of the agenda in the groups' work, I felt as MD
I would make some of the music of the show a distinct reflection of the
political direction of the group. Also, as a brass player, I was able to make
sound on the Didjeridu easily, though the Circular Breathing required was more
challenging to learn at the time. On a more personal note the sound of the
Didjeridu resonated with me partly because it reminded me of one of my all time
favorite pieces of music, a wedding procession of Ugandan horn players
(Music in the World of Islam - Strings Flutes & Trumpets track
19) - I spent formative years in Uganda - and I felt that the Didge gave me the
possibility to create something along those lines myself.
I was taken then by the dramatic quality of the sound and
vibration and the resonance that it had with its indigenous background and a
feeling of deep connectedness with The Land. At the same time I also saw its
potential as a contemporary musical voice in the world, and one which had
hardly been explored in that way at all, as far as I was aware.
WME: Recently,
I pulled out Rahim Alhaj's CD Little Earth which includes the Iraqi oud player
collaborating with musicians from around the globe. And your
collaboration with the oud player, the track Qaasim caught my attention.
How did this collaboration come about?
SK:
Rahim called me on a chilly January morning a few years ago and proposed the
collaboration, which had been suggested by D.A Sonneborn (aka Atesh), Director
of Smithsonian Folkways. He had "Qasim" in mind already - a piece
dedicated to his nephew Qasim, who had been wantonly killed by American soldiers
along with 4 of his friends as they left a restaurant after having a lunchtime
reunion in Baghdad. They were completely innocent of any crime. I flew to Albuquerque
a week or two later and after a day getting to know each other and playing
together we went into the studio in Santa Fe in the snow and recorded the
piece. Later we performed the CD release of Little
Earth at the Globalquerque Festival in Albuquerque.
The
piece got a tremendous ovation and the result was an annual booking at
Globalquerque for myself and several different group projects, including my
band Baraka Moon - a collaboration with Pakistani sufi Qawaali singer Sukhawat
Ali Khan - and The Earth Sounds Ensemble with R.Carlos Nakai & two visiting
Mongolian musicians in 2012. Rahim Al Haj and I look forward to further
collaborations...
WME: What
has been your experience collaborating with a vast myriad of instrumentalists
and musical performers? I saw that you also worked with a circus at one point?
SK: Hard to speak of this in short form since it has
continually been my vocation in over 30 yeas of performing and recording with
the Didjeridu to introduce it in collaborations with a multitude of musical
cultural forms and genres all over the world. For myself perhaps most notable
of my collaborations has been the work I have pursued with Tuvan throat singing
group Chirgilchin, with whom I have toured extensively in the USA and in the
UK, although due to mismanagement and negative music biz dysfunction the only
piece ever released in recorded form of this combo is "Khoomei Song"
on Oil and Water, with singer/igil player Igor Koskendey.
However, I could name any number of my collaborations as
significant - those with Airto Moreira, Glen Velez and Zakir Hussain were for
sure and, recently, I have been recording the entire works of Australian
composer Peter Sculthorpe written for String Quartet and Didjeridu (4 works to
date), which, coincidentally, I was influential in inspiring, as my exploratory
work in 1992 with the Kronos Quartet was what directly inspired them to ask
Sculthorpe to compose for that combination! This recording, to be released
later this year on Sono Luminus is with the Del Sol String Quartet.
Other significant collaborations include working with the
late ethno-botanist Terrence McKenna on "Alien Dreamtime", a work
that was performed live in a San Francisco SOMA warehouse rave in
1993 and recently celebrated its 20th Anniversary at Art Basel Miami 2013 in
another performance, this time with visionary artist Alex Grey taking on
Terrence's spoken world role. Further significant collaborations have been in
Japan with contemporary Taiko artist Leonard Eto (formerly Artistic Director of
Kodo) and Choi Jong Sil of Samulnori in South Korea. I plan to bring my
lifetime interest in indigenous musical forms in Africa to fruition with an
upcoming series of duo collaborations with African artists, perhaps later this
year.
WME: Have
you experienced any healing effects from playing didgeridoo? For instance,
Charlie MacMahon on his website mentions that players protect their lungs from
viruses and bacteria, build immunity, and build lung capacity with the circular
breathing. Sound healers have worked with didgeridoo CD and the
instrument to remove blockages from chakras and shake up and remove stuck
energies in the body in general.
SK: As a youth I suffered greatly from myriad ear nose
and throat problems and, after an automobile accident in 1979, was told I would
never play a wind instrument again, I have found the Didjeridu to be a
massively healing instrument in my personal life. I now feel my general
resistance to such infections is in large part due to the long term health
benefits of playing the Didjeridu. I am also aware that, in the aftermath of a
medical study published in the British Medical Journal some years ago
(conducted by a Swiss medical team) which suggested that playing the Didge can
have very beneficial effects on people who suffer from a variety of breathing
issues such as Sleep Apnea that, teaching the basic techniques of playing the
Didge to those who suffer chronic Sleep Apnea, can be hugely helpful in
reducing, if not eradicating their symptoms completely.
However, the application of the Didjeridu as a
"Shamanic Healing" tool by New Age practitioners in the western world
is something that is extremely controversial for Aboriginal Australians who, I
am told, in their tradition only use it thus rarely and on those occasions the
instrument may only be performed by initiated elders.
That
increasing numbers of non Aborigines often with no connection at all to the
source culture from which the Didjeridu comes blithely set themselves up as
"Healers" or even "Shamans" to work with the Didge as a
healing force is deeply concerning. My own story with the Didjeridu came about
through my own personal journey into Aboriginal culture in the early 1980's and
for me it was important to receive permission just to play the instrument. My "contract"
as such is that I may play the Didge with the utmost respect for its origins
while not attempting to represent (or misrepresent) or appropriate Aboriginal
culture in doing so. As such, while I appreciate that sound and vibration can
have transformative effects on those receiving them in optimum circumstances, I
cannot and will not define myself in those terms. I believe that it is not for
me to do so, whatever the apparent positives of using the Didjeridu in that way
might suggest.
Final Words:
As someone who has walked a deep path with this extraordinary
musical instrument for over three decades I am continually learning and
evolving both as a player and a person. For me the Didjeridu is a whole body
instrument and the playing of the Didge is an intimate reflection of the
journey of self realization that I have been on for most of my life. The power
and culture of One Note is a vastly
complex and nuanced story and, as such, provides me with constant educational
opportunities in a world which, frankly, has very little regard for what that
can possibly mean, and largely dismisses the ancient wisdom of indigenous
peoples on the one hand while relentlessly proving with its science on the
other that those same ancient peoples have vast "libraries" of
knowledge that we in the 21st Century are only just waking up to -
yet with a different form of communicating that knowledge. The implied
application of those prejudiced viewpoints could be considered testament to my
own shallowness and lack of ability - that I am still plowing this deep
groove with this music 30+ years later. However I am not done yet and I feel
that with the passage of time comes more and more wisdom - wisdom which cannot
even enunciate its significance in words alone.
You can find Stephen Kent on Face Book at
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