All our songs, like most good songs, have a story behind them. One of the hardest choices I had to make when producing our debut CD was which order to put the tracks in. In the end I went for … Continue reading Toumaranke Song Series. Track 1: Toumaranke – our ‘theme tune’….
I originally intended to start this series with Moussa Sylla, bandleader of Toumaranke and my husband. However Okameo got married recently and I’ve been looking at my photos and thinking over our friendship, so writing about him first developed out of that. The three … Continue reading Toumaranke band profiles. Mohammed Bangoura aka Okameo: Portrait of a friend.
Thursday 27th November 2014 I It’s very nearly the actual end of this visit, back to England tomorrow. The recorded Toumaranke files are safely there already with Martin. All the kitchen equipment, the big pots/bowls/cups/cutlery/big flask and so on, is packed up and back in storage. Most of the instruments are there too, just 2 balafons left here with us. I was hoping to leave the laptop we used but Martin had to take it back for some technical reason I didn’t fully understand. This means Moussa is without an operational laptop, Kossy’s still works but neither M or Oka now have … Continue reading Toumaranke Recording Project Diaries. The Day Before Leaving.
Martin and Hadja left yesterday so I am now without cook, other female or English companion. Everything feels very strange as Moussa and I are still at the lodge, no-one else is here apart from Maty and staff, and we’ve got nowhere else to go as we don’t have a house at the moment. We’ve not managed to get anything since last year when we had to leave yet annother suitable place. Finding somewhere which is musician tolerant as well as having basic facilities, like a well or a tap inside or geographically close, that isn’t too expensive is a hard task; … Continue reading The Toumaranke Recording Project Diaries – Day 13, Almost the End of Everything!
Sat 22nd Nov 2014 – last day of recording. Band politics were a bit tiring yesterday so hoping things may be easier today. Energy levels are low, as are supplies – powdered milk/tea/coffee all running out. The bag of potatoes … Continue reading Toumaranke Recording Project Diaries. Day 12. Last day of recording
Friday 21st November 2014. A really early start this morning. Moussa out of bed by 7.30 which is very unusual. He’s feeling better physically and wants to get stuff ‘sorted’. We’ve been to our house to look for various suitable … Continue reading The Toumaranke Recording Project diaries. Day 12. Off to Mosque in a Purple Haze.
Thurs 20th November 2014. Day 11 It’s breakfast time now, Martin is up and at the table. Jonny the dog, who went home with the band last night, has arrived with Kossy and Moese and is now pestering Martin for … Continue reading Toumaranke Recording Project Diaries. Day 11
Wed 19th November 2014. Day 10. Hopefully yesterday was the last day of the full-band recordings and we’ve just got the overdubs to do and then some general fiddling around. The idea is to start today with a listening session … Continue reading Toumaranke Recording Project Diaries. Day 10. Difficulties.
Tuesday 18th Nov 2014. Serious shopping this morning. We ordered Cherno and his taxi and went into town to buy mayo, sugar, eggs and various other things, eggs being particularly tricky on the bikes. I can do short distances with a tray of eggs on the back but the potholes make it very challenging. I always feel a bit uncomfortable shopping this way as I feel being seen in a taxi in town gives people the wrong idea of our finances, and most people already have the wrong idea about our finances. We dropped the washing off to Kaddy on the way, who conveniently … Continue reading The Toumaranke Recording Project Diaries. Day 9.
Monday 17th November 2014. Well it’s been a whole week now since we started work on this CD. Everyone seems to be getting on generally ok. Martin is comfortable with his work, the band, Sanyang, Gambia in general (although we’ve … Continue reading The Toumaranke Recording Project diaries. Day 8. Palm wine
Toumaranke UK 