Jordi Savall at Zellerbach Hall Auditorium, November 3, 2018

Cal Performances presents The Routes of Slavery (1444–1888) featuring Jordi Savall
Zellerbach Hall Auditorium
U.C. Berkeley, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA 94305 USA
8:00 PM, Saturday, November 3, 2018

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[8:10 PM lights down, announcements]

1. [8:13 PM] Music: Percussion; Narration (0): Aristotle
2. [8:14 PM] Music: Kora; Narration (1): 1444. Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea
3. [8:16 PM] Djonya (Introduction) – Improvisations by Mohamed Diaby; Lamentation: The African view of slavery
4. [8:19 PM] La Negrina: San Sabeya gugurumbé – Mateo Flecha, the elder (1491–1553) » Los Negritos/Gurumbé – Jarocho son (traditional)
5. [8:23 PM] Vida ao Jongo (Jongo da Serrinha) – African tradition (Brazil)/Lazir Sinval
6. [8:24 PM] Music: Guitar (Romanesca); Narration (2): 1505. On September 15, from Segovia, King Ferdinand the Catholic wrote a letter to Nicolas de Ovando
7. [8:26 PM] Tambalagumbá (Negrilla for 6 v. and b.c.) – Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla (1590–1664), Mss. Puebla (1657)
8. [8:29 PM] Manden Mandinkadenou (Griot song) – Musical version and improvisations by Mohamed Diaby and Ballaké Sissoko: The pleasures of youth are destined to be forgotten, but the great deeds of heroes of the past are remembered long after them, especially when they brought peace to their homeland.
9. [8:33 PM] Music: Malimba; Narration (3): 1620. The first African slaves arrive in the English colonies. António Vieira, Sermons, 1661
10. [8:38 PM] Velo que bonito (San Antonio) – Traditional spiritual song (Pacific, Colombia)
11. [8:39 PM] Music: Percussion; Narration (4): 1657. Richard Ligon publishes A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes at London, in which he describes the music of the slaves.
12. [8:40 PM] Saí da casa (Ciranda) – Traditional/Escurinho (Brazil)
13. [8:44 PM] Music: Slow drums; Narration (5): 1661. The punishments of slaves in the “Slave Code of Barbados.”; Hans Sloane, A Voyage to the Islands, London, 1706, vol. 1, p. lvii.; Jean-Baptiste Labat, Nouveau Voyage aux Îles de l’Amérique, Paris 1722, p. 248
14. [8:46 PM] Follow the Drinking Gourd – Slave song
15. [8:51 PM] Antonya, Flaciquia, Gasipà (Negro a 5) – Fray Filipe da Madre de Deus (ca. 1630–1690)
16. [8:53 PM] Music: Harp; Narration (6): 1685. The “Black Code” promulgated by Louis XIV
17. [8:57 PM] Another Man Done Gone – Slave song
18. [9:05 PM] Music: Malimba; Narration (7): 1748. Montesquieu, On the Slavery of Negroes, from The Spirit of the Laws, Paris 1748
19. [9:07 PM] Simbo (Griot song) – Musical version and improvisations by Mohamed Diaby: The mythical hunter Mandé Mory, clear-sighted as the kingsfisher (Kulandjan), is compared to the great hunter Soundiata and other hunter heroes.
    [set ends 9:12 PM]

[9:41 PM lights down, band out]

1. [9:43 PM] Awal (instrumental and vocal) – Improvisations (Mamani Keita, Mohamed Diaby, and Ballaké Sissoko)
2. [9:48 PM] Music: Guitar; Narration (8): 1772. Guillaume Raynal, A philosophical and political history of the settlements and trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies: “Wretched condition of the slaves in America”; Guillaume-Thomas Raynal, Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes, chap. X, Genéve, 1772
3. [9:50 PM] Son de la Tirana: Mariquita, María – Traditional (Costa Chica de Guerrero, Mexico)
4. [9:53 PM] Music: Kora; Narration (9): 1781. Thomas Jefferson, Notes of the State of Virginia
5. [9:55 PM] Tonada de El Chimo: Jaya llûnch, Jaya llôch (Indian ritual song in Mochica language, for two voices, bass, and tabor) – Anonymous, Codex Trujillo, No. 6 (E 180) Baltazar [Baltasar] Martínez Compañón. Peru, Bolivia, ca. 1780
6. [9:59 PM] Music: Harp; Narration (10): 1782. Abandoned by her master, the slave Belinda, aged 70 years, petitions the legislature of Massachusetts for a pension as reparations aer a lifetime of labor.
7. [10:00 PM] Tonada El Congo: A la mar me llevan (for voices and bass, sung while dancing) – Anonymous, Codex Trujillo, No. 3 (E 178)
8. [10:03 PM] Music: Guitar; Narration (11): 1855. Abraham Lincoln wrote to Joshua Speed, a personal friend and slave owner in Kentucky.
9. [10:04 PM] I’m packing up – Slave song
10. [10:06 PM] Music: Harp; Narration (12): 1865. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.
11. [10:07 PM] Amazing Grace (Spiritual) – John Newton (1779)/William Walker (1835)
12. [10:10 PM] Narration (13): 1963. “Why we can’t wait,” by Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York, 1963); Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Prize (1964), New York; Assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968
13. [10:11 PM] Touramakan (Griot song) – Musical version and improvisations by Mohamed Diaby; Touramakan, Soundiata’s half-brother, was a ferocious warrior who became a general of the Emperor’s troops and the ancestor of the Diabatés.
14. [10:13 PM] Narration (14): No place in the world can any longer put up with the slightest forgetting of a crime, the slightest shade cast over the matter. We ask that the parts of our history that have not been spoken be conjured up, so that—together, and liberated—we can enter into the Tout-Monde. And together, let us name the slave trade and the slavery perpetrated in the Americas and the Indian Ocean: Crime Against Humanity. — Extract from a petition sent by Edouard Glissant, Patrick Chamoiseau, and Wole Soyinka to the Secretary General of the United Nations in 1998
    [set ends 10:15 PM]
    
    Encore
15. [10:17 PM] ? (maybe La Folia?)
    [show ends 10:22 PM; applause through 10:25 PM, then all off]

• Béatrice Delpierre: flute, shawm;
• Pierre Hamon: flutes;
• Daniel Lassalle: sackbut;
• Xavier Díaz-Latorre: classical guitar;
• Andrew Lawrence-King: Spanish Baroque harp;
• David Mayoral: percussion;
• Xavier Puertas: violone;
• Jordi Savall: treble viol, musical and program director;

• Petter Udland Johansen: tenor vox;
• David Sagastume: countertenor vox;
• Arianna Savall: soprano vox;
• Víctor Sordo: tenor vox;
• Pieter Stas: baritone vox;

Tembembe Ensamble Continuo

• Enrique Barona: vihuela, leona, jarana, quijada de caballo, dance, vox;
• Ada Coronel: vihuela, wasá, dance, vox;
• Yannis François: bass-baritone vox;
• Maria Juliana Linhares: soprano vox;
• Ulises Martínez: violin, vihuela, leona, vox;
• Zé Luis Nascimento: percussion;
• Leopoldo Novoa: marimbol, marimba de chonta, tiple colombiano, vox;

• Neema Bickersteth: vox;
• Aldo Billingslea: narrator;
• Mohammed Diaby: vox;
• Ballaké Sissoko: kora, vox;
• Mamani Keita: dancer, coro vox;
• Nana Kouyaté: dancer, coro vox;
• Tanti Kouyaté: dancer, coro vox;

Like usual, Jordi Savall knocked me out with an amazing program. Tonight he synthesized a rich musical stew by combining several disparate elements (masters of traditional music from Mali, European early music specialists, South American folk music experts, and Americans). While the connections between the parts and performers might be awkward for a critic to follow, as an open-minded listener, I found it easy to lean on the common music thread of heartfelt expression. Despite the somewhat academic nature of the program listing, the actual performance was easy and natural. Bravo!

Program Notes or program notes

Jeff Kaliss posted a nice promo piece about the show at SFCV.

Nicholas Jones posted a review of the show at SFCV.

Joshua Kosman posted a review of tonight's show in the SF Chronicle Datebook.

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2018 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2018 event list! ☸ On to the next event!