Becoming The Maker

Essays and stories about creative processes, finding ones purpose, effecting positive change and just being oneself.

When it comes to making, writing and talking about Art, it is impossible to not become sentimental or even emotional. There is just something about most Art that requires the kind of passionate out-pouring that is often commensurate to genius. This is not to say that all emotional, sentimental and passionate writers, artists and writers are geniuses, yet there must be so much zeal in the expression that it must be tempered by creative articulation and above all practiced skill.

These stories are about various experiences, performances, trials, tribulations and triumphs within the glorious and perilous world of the have given myself, in order to document the life and lives of people involved in the Arts. The feeling to do this arose when I would watch and come into often intimate contact with individuals and groups who were mostly involved in making music. Most of these people would be striving to make a living from performing, organizing events and basically being involved in all that has to do with music.

I have decided to include other forms of Artistic expression because as a Poet and lover of all things aesthetical I feel that all types of known Art are compatible, it all depends on the creative imagination of those involved, who for the purposes of this book we shall call The Makers.

Of course for those who can understand the languages of the Nguni people, it will be clear that this choice also has a lot to do with my name, which also happens to be one of the names of God. So without rubbing it in, it is a play on the concept of the Artist as a god, a divine being, a creator of the possible and even an inventor of the impossible despite any given circumstances.

Also note that some of these stories will be subjective, meaning that they are mostly personal accounts, journal entries and even direct quotations from interviews, recollections and even notes from specific reviews.

To begin with, we shall delve into the spiritual lives, the mystical or cosmological significations that often go parallel to Artistic expressions. This does not mean that all Artists are spiritually inclined. There is often a sense that Jazz Artists in particular are working with something beneath the surface of what we laymen know, that they are both engaged in entertainment while expressing the deepest part of being human. Here I am mostly talking about practitioners of Free Jazz, what others call Jazz improvisation, not the regular Standards which consists mostly of repetitions of traditional and popular tunes.

Since I shall be dealing mostly unknown, underground and also little known personalities here, it will become clear that the Artistic expression will not be limited to Jazz, we shall touch upon Reggae, Hip Hop and as already mentioned, other related forms of expression. I certainly hope that these stories will inspire, inform and ultimately create an appreciation for what The Makers, and not just the movers and the shakers do. After-all life is filled with many hidden treasures, the often overlooked lives that ultimately find pleasure, livelihood and joy in Art.

Chapter 1: Becoming The Maker

“Emotions play such a major part in peoples lives – more negative than positive – that you would thing that the powers that be in the world would institute educational programs to teach the populace to properly understand and handle them. The ancient Egyptians (the Kamau) answered this question over five thousand years ago or more. Since man’s evolutionary goal is to become a God man/woman on Earth, who is a liberated being, then man must make an all out emotional commitment to the realization of this goal. It is a 100% emotional commitment to becoming a being that is free of emotional compulsions, a being that is able to be at peace in the face of the greatest imaginable challenges. In Kemet (Ancient Egypt) it is portrayed as Auset’s (Isis) devotion to resurrect Ausar (Osiris) the divine Self in man that was murdered by Set (the Archetype of Satan).”- Ma’at: The 11 Laws of God by Ra Un Nefer Amen

I have a curious name, it is not an unusual name or one that is uncommon among Nguni language speakers, in fact during my brief travels into various parts of the united kingdom, I have discovered that there are ‘English’ variations to it, albeit with an –es in the end. When I saw trucks and containers in some airports, especially in and around Northern Ireland with the word Menzies, I was compelled to joke to someone I was walking with by saying ‘you see my name is international’.

To my knowledge, Menzi is just a word in the IsiZulu, IsiXhosa and IsiSwati which means either Maker, Doer or even the Creator. When I quizzed my parents about why they’d named me as such, they said it was my maternal grandmother’s idea. When I was born, she sang the traditional gospel song “Menzi wezinto zonke, namazulu onke…” – which translates as “Maker of everything and all of the heavens…”, and so the name stuck. Apparently my father had the name Siabonga, which means ‘we thank you’ in mind. So in retrospect I should say, thank you Granny.

I raise this matter of the name because as a Poet, I am uncannily fascinated with words, their meanings and their denotations. Yet this name has steered my life in a direction that I don’t think I would have taken if I had been stuck with Siyabonga (no offence to all the Siya’s ). To me, this is among the most creative names in the Nguni language and I know there are more interesting and Poetic ones out there, but this one also happens to be the Name given to God Itself. Thus I have striven to be such a seeker of wisdom, a ‘deep’ person as some people like to point out. This deep-thinking, searching and quest to reclaim the purpose in my name, both from the emotive perspective of my parents and also from the folk metaphysical connotations of my immediate environment has led me down the proverbial rabbit hole of experiences.

Being a naturally amiable personality, I try not to take everything too seriously, but I often find that I fail at that task. Yes, I am can be playful, happy go lucky and even naughty (to a fault), but I cannot help but think beyond the shallow, the surface of this visible world. When I saw a film like The Matrix, especially the animated prequel The Animatrix, I could not stop thinking that I am so much part of the story line, that I had actually dreamed all of it before and I had even written about some of the philosophical questions it dealt with. I did not so much think I was Neo, but more like a hybrid of Morpheus and the Oracle and even Trinity.

After watching the trilogy, I thought that all I had to do is strive to master my emotions, gain mental and physical stamina so that I could achieve some miracles in life. Without the help of religious jargon, the plethora of self-help or self realization manuals that litter the bookstores. In my mind, and perhaps even beyond my brain capacity, I know that I can and that all these tomes are mere signs, stepping stones confirming what I already know.

Beyond wishful thinking or stretching of the imagination, as Menzi, I should be able to achieve ordinary and extraordinary miracles simply by being myself, thinking the right thoughts and being at the right places at the right time, All the time. In fact the concept of time and space meant very little to me after that. So I could say that re-seeing the Matrix was an epiphany in my mind. So what has happened to the miracles, and why have I not become the miracle worker that I expect myself to be? It has been about 9 to 10 years since the last Matrix film and I am still very much an ordinary person, experiencing the struggles, aberrations and temptations that everyone goes through. I am still not motivated by money, speculations or even the stuff that religions promise to every believer. Yet I believe that before I pass over, there is at least One ‘miracle’ or paradigm shifting feat that I will be remembered for.

So I guest, there’s more to Self realization and Self actualization than simply knowing about it. To say I think and know I can, is not the same as actually Being that which we can be, can do or can make. Theologians and experts in human potential and behavior say that there is nothing that one does that makes them extra-special in the Universe or in God’s eyes. It is neither goodness nor righteousness that guarantees one an entrance into the heavenly abode, but there is still something to be said of Free Will. So this means that somehow, I still have each moment of my life to realize, act and practice being the Maker, to realize the true meaning of my life, aside from minor achievements, or minor or major failures. This is not only true for people with loaded names such as mines, but for all human beings who strive to become someone in life. But there is this ‘belief’ that everyone needs someone else in order to fully realize their purpose, the old adage that’ no man is an island’ holds true.

In order to become the Maker that I already know I am, I need to congregate, to commune and to give in to or submit to another being, another force. Even biblically, Jesus/Yehoshua the Christ submitted to the council of his Father – God and required the acquiescence of certain disciples in order to fulfill his mission, a mission which he appears to have dreaded, yet due to its purpose, had to be fulfilled: “He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, ‘my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” He went further and bowed with his face on the ground, praying. “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” – (Matthew 26:36 – 39)

If even the gods of this world ( some would say the God) require collaborators and even additional strength and the Will of the Higher powers to fulfill their destiny, then it proves that even mere mortals or lesser divinities such as myself need communion in order to become the Maker. So does this mean that one cannot fulfill their purpose and still live to tell the story?

How about many of those over-achievers who not only gain material wealth and fame, write books about it and their stories are told to posterity, how did they manage to be masters of their own destiny?

It is clear that there is no simple answer to such a question; it is after all the very subject of many books, films and legends. We are inspired by the stories of Jesus, the Buddha, Tarhaqah, Osiris/Ausar, Haile Selassie I, Queen Nzinga, Mother Teresa, Queen Mkabayi  and many others who made a lasting impression on the psychology of mankind. The issue of whether their stories were real, embellished or totally metaphorical is not the subject here, what matters is that they managed or their stories were able to change the way we see and live in the world.

There are no accidental makers, accidental names or accidental miracles. Everything, including the improvised notes of a Jazz musician, the free-style poetics of the Rap emcee are well placed, meant moves that contain within them the Universal blueprint of causality. We can even say that one depends on both free will and fate, the well placed syncopation of tones, notes and anecdotes to arrive at the destined place. One can say that all of reality, the fatal incident and the happy coincident are all part of One continuum, both pre-determined and willed by some One, somewhere at a certain time. The Matrix is instructive:

“Tonight is not an accident. There are no accidents. You did not come here by chance. I do not believe in chance. When I see three objectives, three captains, three ships; I do not see coincidence, I see providence. I see promise. I believe it is our fate to be here. It is our destiny. I believe this night holds, for each and every one of us, the VERY MEANING OF OUR LIVES.”  - (Morpheus’s speech from Reloaded)

Matt Lawrence, the author of the book Like A Splinter In Your Mind: The Philosophy Behind The Matrix Trilogy adds:

“- He suggests that events in the world are all coalescing around a higher aim or purpose. And yet, despite this inevitability, he still believes in REAL CHOICES – as only partial fatalism allows. He makes this clear in his conversation with the Merovingian:

Merovingian:   You see there is only one constant, one universal; it is the only real truth – causality. Action, reaction; cause and effect.

Morpheus:       Everything begins with choice.””

The stories I have used here are only illustration of a Truth that we all should know. They can all  be seen as parables reminding us that we are all Makers and breakers of our own destinies. Much of what we choose to do determine what we become and what becomes of us even after our bodies have decayed in the soil or evaporated with the fires of existence. Master musicians do not gain their greatness by playing alone to the audience, but it is the many hours spent practicing their craft, both in solitude and within a group that their true worth is accentuated.

With this I reassure myself and you that we are liberated beings who are our own makers and un-makers. We do not have to believe in each others God to do this, we can just do it.

Njeza’s Dlamini’s Story In Short

One of the most amazing human beings I have ever met is a Durban based guitarist by the name of Njeza. When I was finding my feet as a young Poet in and around the BAT Centre – an Arts Centre (which we shall tell more about later), I encountered an elderly yet quite jovial and eccentric gentleman who I never had the opportunity to see sober. King Njazz as I affectionately call him had a love for as much passion for his guitar as he had for a certain beverage called Black Label. Needless to say that after a couple of Black labels at the BAT Centre’s ever changing (perpetually under new management) Bar, this always well dressed and lanky man would take to the stage and improvise on his own versions of some of the traditional Afro-Jazz, Mbhaqanga and even some Rhythm and Blues tunes.

Njeza would never wait for an audience to fill the seats or ask for any permission from the Restaurant/Bar owners; he would simply take to the stage and star riffing. He could sometimes play for hours without taking a break, aside maybe from fetching or calling for another Black Label, casually taking a slow swig and then resume playing what seemed like an beginning-less, lawless and endless strumming in and out of countless recognizable and sometimes obscure melodies. The music defied any categorization and it seemed to be pouring out of the man rather than the instrument itself, once sounding like Philip Tabane, Jimmy Hendricks and George Benson all at the same time.

Once after one of those rebellious solo sessions, a few of which I would join him with my amateur drumming or with my impromptu Slam Poetry or singing, we ended up talking and the subject turned to politics and the way in which a lot of people undervalue live music. I got home and began to write about our conversation with a hope that I would actually make some time to interview this enigmatic, struggling artist who exuded so much positive energy and was so well spoken. Looking at his face though one could not help noticing that underneath all that passion and beautiful music, there was some hidden pain. But perhaps a closer listen to the music would reveal that the pain was not so well hidden at all.

I will transcribe what I wrote then, directly onto these pages, so that the feeling I had at first is not lost:

Feeling For The Beyond:

Liberating Mculo: Will I Am John, John Coltrane!

If I had to speak in the language of the Buddhists or the Vedic sages, I would say that John Coltrane the tenor saxophone supreme wizard managed to free himself from Samsara.

It is also possible that he gave himself what the Japenese siren Miho Hatori called “Sweet Samsara”. Wikipedia gives various interesting translations of what Samsara means – Continuous Movement, and its found in several Far Eastern languages including:

Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Tibetan, Thai, Vietnamese.

Essentially, “it is a Pali term which translates as Continuous Movement or continuous flowing and in Buddhism, refers to the concept of a cycle of birth and consequent decay and death. It can only be escaped through enlightenment. Samsara is continuous suffering and or (dukkha) and is generally considered the antithesis of Nirvana which literally translates as extinguishing or unbinding. According to the Buddha, the beginning point of Samsara is not evident, just as there is no beginning point to a circle….”

This may all sound strange to a novice, since I begun by saying the Jazz artist freed himself while also saying that he also gained himself ( giving himself sweet samsara), but this is exactly the nature and complex simplicity of Brother John Coltrane, who is dead but never really dead. But then again, someone might claim that artists, writers and other creative geniuses never really die since they leave a long lasting legacy and an inheritance to be followed by many generations to come.

Yet this is different, when we say that the Trane is still moving, we mean it quite literally, we are talking about something much more than a recording artist, someone who exuded and produced a music so profound that life and death were both compounded and subdued in the sound. Please follow me as I re-type some telling passages from the liner-notes of the album Giant Steps:

“All musicians worth hearing during and beyond their time keep growing as their music deepens its hold on the listener. But John Coltrane committed his very existence to continually searching for more possibilities in his music – and therefore, in himself.

After all, he once told me, “the music is the whole question of life itself.”

At home, John Coltrane would practice for hours, sometimes silently – just running his fingers over the keys. He’s pick up new instruments and meditate and listen to recordings of Indian music and the sounds and rhythms of South African pygmies (Khoi San).

At one point, he decided to have two drummers in his group. He went on to add two bass players for a recording. I asked him why, “Because,” he said, “I want more of the sense of the expansion of time.”

A quiet man, excerpt when he played, he would talk softly about his reason for being.“I’m not sure of what I ‘m looking for,” he said to me, “excerpt that it’ll be something that hasn’t been played before. I don’t know what it is,I know I’ll have that feeling when I get it.”

And when he got it, audiences would sometimes shout because of the release of feelings in themselves.”

This is how Nat Hentoff, Co-Editor of The Jazz Review attempted to sum up the work of the Jazz giant at that particular time. It was all about the perfectibility of a feeling, an effortlessness that demanded thorough practice and dexterous composition yet at the same time so deeply spiritual that audiences were both disturbed, moved and emotionally challenged by Coltrane.

The music seemed to come from the man and not just the instrument and this cry was the cry of a man who was seeking the ultimate expression of Self Realization through umculo/music/ngoma.

It is no wonder that he kept a close ear to the rhythms and spiritual elements of India and even he neglected sounds of the South African indigenous peoples, the search was for something beyond the pale, a music which was once was lost to the crowd and could now be found in the freest expression that ever was, Jazz. Yeah, Jazz, listen to it at your own risk!!!

Music Without Fear:

This is a story, well it really is just an introduction for a couple of album reviews that I found interesting. Sometimes I enjoy reading album reviews before or after listening, yet there are times when I do not get to hear the music at all, just enjoy reveling in the Poetic nuances of the words and images.

Fortunately, for those interested in delving deeper into the ‘real’ music, and other parts of the creative process, I have added some links and recommendations:

The following is ‘lifted’ from the Brainfeeder collection of label-mates,.* (add links and pics)

1)

“RYAT
TOTEM
BF029

1. Windcurve
2. Owl
3. Howl
4. Seahorse
5. Hummingbird
6. Footless
7. Invisibly Ours
8. Object Mob
9. Invisibility Cage
10. Raiz
11. Totem

Brainfeeder presents the album Totem by new signee RYAT, a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer of avant-garde electronic music. A serious oeuvre, Totem blends classical elements and cinematic sounds with big beat influences and experimental time changes. Twisting through the gritty, disheveled beats like an elegant ribbon, RYAT’s gracefully processed vocals merge with electronic surprises to create a work of intense abstract art.

Trading the urban jungle of Philadelphia for the concrete badlands of Los Angeles, RYAT’s transformation was juxtapositioned with a new awareness of her natural surroundings and unexpected visits from animals, whose dream partners give the album its name. Every track of Totem represents a different spirit animal, each with a message translated through RYAT’s experimentation with unusual sound signatures.

Lead single “Howl” moves from a thatched start right into a swollen groove, with beats collected into random tide pools, full of unforeseen sounds. Footless” builds tension into a celestial knock with an off-kilter gallop that flies skyward, while the loose drums of jazz-influenced “Object Mob” generate an unexpected emotion of freedom.

Giving us just a glimpse of her journey through fire-filled vocals and captivating sonic twists, poetess RYAT lays an emotional path into a dream where animals speak in music and the beats have come alive.” - Brainfeeder

Add Pictures and other related stats:

2)

“You know that old saying, it’s not the destination but the journey that matters most? The same can be said about the creative process. Some of the most revealing aspects of any project occur during the act of making it. So we say, forget your final version—we want to get into the nitty gritty of your piece in its rawest form. We want to get to know the Work In Progress.

Throughout his career, Strangeloop has progressed his audio and visual endeavors simultaneously. As a member of Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder crew, he’s released his own productions, as well as created videos for the likes of Daedelus, Jonwayne, Mono/Poly, Lorn, and Austin Peralta, and he’s performed live visuals for an even more impressive roster:Amon Tobin, Kid Koala, Flying Lotus, Kode 9, Hudson Mohawke, Gaslamp Killer, Mary Anne Hobbs, Dorian Concept,Nosaj Thing, Araabmuzik… the list goes on and on.

Distinct as his style is, filled with alien landscapes, unidentifiable imaginary organs, and fractal patterns, his visuals are tailored to the sound of each musician. Lorn gets a looming army of menacing black dominoes, Gaslamp Killer amystic Middle Eastern tapestry, and Daedelus a Victorian stroll on acid.

CONTINUE READING ARTICLE AT: ANAMNESIA / THE CREATORS PROJECT .” – Brainfeeder*

The Science Of Black Noise

This deals with the notion that different people love and hate or are completely oblivious to other forms of music. Once certain people are exposed and get to dig a certain sound, be it popular or avant garde, there seems to be very little that can convince them otherwise. Not everybody is eclectic and not everyone is solely into the mainstream scene.

With these story we shall once again delve a little deeper into the his/her-story of popular music and try and ascertain just what makes certain noises more acceptable than others. We shall start with a brief history of Black Popular music.

It is said that, “ A San Francisco bandleader, Art Hickman, and his pianist-arranger Ferde Grofe’ are generally given credit for inventing the type of dance band which dominated popular music for half a century. Around the time of the First World War they were among the first to write separate music for the reed and the brass sections, combing the higher & lower instruments in each section into choirs, but for dancing rather than listening, as in John Phillip Sousa’s concert band. Hickman seems to have been the first to hire three saxophones, enabling him to write richer harmonies. He also wrote songs, among them ‘Rose Room’, published in 1917. It is surely no coincidence that ‘Rose Room’ is the sort of tune that lends itself to an interesting arrangement, and was recorded by Benny Goodman’s sextet nearly 25 years later or that Duke Ellington’s ‘In a Mello tone’ (1940) is a counter melody to it.” –

Tommy Johnson’s classic ‘Cool Drink of Water Blues’ begins with the famous line ‘I asked her for water/ She gave me gasoline”, and his ‘Canned Heat Blues’ gave the white blues band of the 1960’s its name( Canned Heat ), canned heat was used in cooking stoves; the best known  - It could be dissolved and used as a poisonous beverage by alcoholics.

Bracey was Johnson’s sidekick and recorded a water and gasoline lyric the day after Tommy did. Johnson made a few recordings, but through his unique guitar playing he was one of the most influential of all, along with Robert Johnson. Tommy’s brother Ledell who taught him some guitar, said that Tommy had acquired his final polish by selling his soul to the devil. Son House said the same thing about Robert Johnson, who was not at first thought to be a good player, but disappeared for a while and then turned up much improved.

In the hands of the greatest masters, the blues guitar sang with intensity, and Robert Johnson was a complete master. ‘Hellhound on my Train’ and ‘Me and the Devil Blues’ are perhaps his most apposite titles.

Johnsons death was violent and said to involve a woman; his acolyte Johnny Shines had heard that it was something to do with the black arts. It is now suggested that Robert Johnson was a far more ‘sophisticated’ performer than was hitherto thought, which makes his legacy all the mire interesting. John Hammond tried to find Johnson for his 1938 ‘From Spirituals To Swing’ concerts he produced in 1938 – 9 represented a turning point in American popular culture.” – The History of Popular Music*