Afro Beats

The other night almost everyone from blueEnergy made their way down to the BSS apartment where we found a wonderful collection of local musicians waiting to entertain us. After a few rounds of dominos, nearly a full case of beer and what passes for pizza in this country, Kila-B took the stage and began freesyling to some funky beats. I'm pretty sure I've never seen anyone speak so quickly, rhythmically and mesmerizingly in my life. He rapped in a language somewhere between English and Creole while Kali-boom joined in with some back up and Zabu added his own mix of beatboxing with crazy clicks, whoops and cries. As the three of them got going, they traded off verses and mixed their voices in a cascade of tones that made your blood tingle until you had no choice but to start moving.

As soon as those three had exhausted themselves, a new round of musicians took the stage (aka the living room). These guys, whose names I have unfortunately forgotten, opened with some classic Bob Marley played on guitar and congo drums. The moved smoothly into a few Spanish ballads before coming back to Marley. The whole night was a constantly shifting flow of music from one style to the next. Every once in awhile, they'd let the boombox take over, but that was a fairly rare occurrence. For the most part, the party progressed with live music, dancing and of course, "Beer AGAIN!!!"

It was such a treat to be surrounded by the region's best musicians for a laid back private party where they sang when, how and what they wanted. Of course, some of the show was really just for the documentary film crew, but we all got to enjoy it anyway. I really can't wait to see this documentary when it comes out. It's gonna be really interesting to see what they include and what perspective they approach the myriad of stories that make up blueEnergy.

Well, I gotta go pack up for an early morning trip to Managua, but I did take a couple videos of the musicians, so if I ever manage to get them uploaded, I'll be sure to share. In the meantime, you can check out Kali-Boom and Zabu on UTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AZMzLR3eXI

Enjoy!