BINGELELA was recorded in a single live session in New York City in December, 2018. The performers were all part of a large-scale theater work by South African artist William Kentridge called The Head and the Load. The piece featured a 50-member team of designers, actors, dancers, and musicians, all hailing from South Africa, Guinea, Europe, and the US, including the NYC-based chamber orchestra The Knights.
While the story of The Head and the Load was a solemn look at the experiences of Africans under colonial rule during World War I, the coming together of artists from so many different backgrounds provided some truly joyful moments. Impromptu grooves and jam sessions permeated the long rehearsals and pre-show warm-ups.
This record captures a special afternoon when a small group of the performers were able to extend the impromptu moments into a dedicated jam session, gathering to share music with each other, improvise, and even compose brand new tunes. The recording was all done live, and essentially unrehearsed. The learning and coalescing process is transparent and audible throughout, and while some edits have been made for length's sake, the goal was to keep the recording honest. The end result is hopefully a small snapshot of incredibly talented folks having a really good time together.
HUGE THANKS to The Knights, everyone at the Park Avenue Armory (but especially Jenni Bowman), William Kentridge, everyone at The Office, Rachel Chanoff, Laurie Cearley, Lynn Koek, Brett Parnell, Chris Boerner, and all of the artists of the Head and the Load for making this possible.
credits
released July 9, 2020
Track 1 by Tlale Makhene
Track 2 by Rob Harbron, arranged by Bham Ntabeni
Tracks 3, 4, 5 by Bham Ntabeni
Tracks 6, 7 by Hamilton Dlamini
Sudanese-Italian singer Amira Kheir delivers an album rich in melody and East African instrumentation, and full of spiraling guitars. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 29, 2018