Yoruba Mozart 6 3
Ogungbe, who has been in Britain for the past
25 years, recently did an artistic residency at
Wormwood Scrubs prison where he set up a
male chorus. For six months he worked with
inmates preparing for a performance in front of
other prisoners. He said of the experience, “The first
time they performed to the audience it was to the
inmates. Being up there, in front of their peers,
I think that was important for them. It was very
special for me to see.”
But despite its success, things did not always run
so smoothly. “It took a while to drum up interest,”
he continued. “But then when they came it was
with expectations. Everyone was assuming there
were going to be lots of instruments, DJing, etc, but
it wasn’t about that at all, it was a choir, so it was
about using their voices.
“I think men sometimes feel vulnerable about the
voice, but once they got used to the idea of singing
then there was another issue, because there was a
wide disparity in ability. There were some people
who were professional singers, with record deals
and so on, and then there were others who couldn’t
hold a tune. So that was difficult to negotiate.”
A problem such as this is not restricted to that
experience, but can be applied even to singers
within the music industry, he asserts. One of his
biggest issues he finds in musicians is the debate as
to whether it is more important to be good technically
as a musician or to have feel. He cites his experience
of working with musicians in Nigeria as an example
of this,
There are professional singers
who couldn’t hold a note if you
paid them.
“I found that I had to badger the musicians in
Nigeria to practise and learn their music, whereas
when I work with musicians who are not from that
background, they will take the music, and when
they come back they will know it. The difference
is that they will not play it with the feel that I am
looking for. In the end working between the notes
is equally important.”
But after much prodding as to what he feels is most
important he relents, “For any musician it’s probably
most important to have as many technical skills as
possible,” he continues. “The more skilled you are
the more diversified you become, and hopefully feel
will follow.
“From the point of view of someone who is creating,
because not all musicians create, many just interpret,
so from a creative position, the feel is important
because in the end that is how you get closest to
what was in your mind. All art is about symbolizing.
And I would have thought that feel is the most
important aspect of that.”
For more information visit:
www.juwonogungbe.co.uk