I’m very pleased to present the “Twende Berlin” documentary trailer.
Tag Archive for Ukooflani
Akaenda Berlin – Part 2 – People
As with most things, despite my professed misanthropy and a firm belief that Jean Paul Sartre was right when he said “Hell is other people”, people are what makes this cosmic joke we call existence bareable.
Twende Berlin – Documentary Project
In a few weeks I will be going to Berlin to be a cameraman for Cultural Video Foundation (CVF).
Nairobi – Part 3 -Kibera Free Party
Within a few days of arriving in Nairobi I found myself at a most unusual concert,organised by the Goethe Institut Nairobi, being paid to take pictures.
The Teichmann brothers, a techno duo from Germany who were in Nairobi recording an Album with members of Ukooflani and Jahcoozi a dub/techno outfit also from Germany were playing an outdoor free concert at St George’s orthodox church in the heart of Kibera on a sunny Tuesday afternoon.
The residents of Kibera came to dance, relax and see what the strange Germans were doing out in the (almost) mid-day sun.
Everyone enjoyed themselves, especially the kids, and it really felt like something interesting was happening, the mixing of different musical styles and the co-operation between the musicians and the residents of Kibera.
Thanks to Katarina from Goethe for hiring me having only met me once, Sam for setting that up ;-), Hasani for driving me there, All the musicians for making me feel so welcome and a special thanks to Andi Teichmann for being a really damn nice guy.
Nairobi – Part 1 – Some of them are drinking wine
“Lavosti and Oren, Impromtu jam, Nairobi April 2010”
A few days after arriving in Nairobi, the house where I was staying, legendary for its parties, was host to the birthday party for a very lovely man called Sam Hopkins (Founder of SlumTV).
He turned out to be a ‘diamond geezer’ and was one of the people who made my Kenya trip so memorable.
The outside patio at the party turned into a jamming area with many musicians from many countries,
(Israel, Kenya, Italy and Germany to name but 4)
Yours truly played his thighs as bongos for so long that my thighs looked like this in the morning:-
But I digress, When I heard the guy in the video, Lavosti from the hip-hop collective Ukooflani, start blowing into his hands and this amazing trumpet like sound issuing forth, I stopped slapping my thighs and ran and got my camera…..
The video above is all I managed to capture before the song ended , more beer arrived and the jam moved on.
Lavosti is backed on guitar by Oren from the band Jahcoozi (there will more of them in later blog posts).
I couldn’t believe he was making that amazing noise with just his hands, and boy could he sing too.
He tried to show me how to do it, but I was embarassingly bad and probably a little too far gone to try by then.
I hope you are as amazed by this little slice of musical genius as I was.