Mankwe Ndosi

¶¶ I wish you peace. ¶¶
¶¶ I wish you patience. ¶¶
¶¶ I wish you harmony. ¶¶
(all; call & response) ¶¶ I wish... I wish... ¶¶
¶¶ ...you patience. ...you patience. ¶¶
¶¶ I wish... I wish... ¶¶
¶¶ ...you peace. ...you peace. ¶¶
¶¶ I wish... I wish... ¶¶
¶¶ ...you patience. ...you patience. ¶¶
¶¶ I wish... I wish... ¶¶
¶¶ ...you harmony. ¶¶
(Mankwe) What I was looking for
this morning was 2 women who have
sung together, who listen well to each other,
so are able to come together
and blend very quickly,
and who are comfortable enough to improvise
because we've worked together before. Yeah, but this morning,
this morning... (Mankwe)
This morning! ...is the first time that the 3 of us have sung together.
What you saw a lot more here of was Aimee improvising
the way she improvises, me improvising the way
I improvise, and Libby improvising
the way she improvises, which has to do with history,
and which has to do with
listening, like as musicians,
being able to hear each other
and move with each other
instead of only going by ourselves. So the magic of this
moment has to do with
people coming from different places. When you go to a doctor
and the surgeon, and the surgery
is an improvisation. But what you see more of is
all of the training that they've had, as well as all the
experience that they've had
in performing their surgery. But the surgery that moment in
time itself is an improvisation,
just like every time we walk through life.
I mean, living is improvisation. You have basic ideas,
but every single day is actually different. So it's like we all
are listening to the music
that we make together because each person
puts something out there, but then when somebody
else adds something to it, that's a different being.
Then when the other person adds
something to it, that's a whole other being.
And if you're not
satisfied in that moment, not getting scared
and pulling back, but say okay,
what else is there? Because that's the wondrousness
and the precariousness of improvisation because, just as in life, crashes do
happen. (Libby & Aimee laugh)
But then you continue, right? Unless the crash kills you,
you continue. So it's like you
just say yes to that. Okay, that was a crash, so
that's an expression of life,
and that's one of the reasons
why improvisation is so exciting is because the moment
will never be the same again. But the next moment
is there to save you if you're willing to
take the next step and say okay, what else can happen?
¶¶ I wish, I wish... I wish, I wish... ¶¶
¶¶ I wish, I wish... ¶¶ ¶¶ I wish, I wish...
I wish, I wish... ¶¶ ¶¶ I wish, I wish,
I wish, I wish, I... ¶¶
¶¶ Ha, ha, ha-ha, ha-ha! ¶¶
¶¶ Ha, ha, ha-ha! ¶¶ ¶¶ Ha, ha, ha-ha, ha-ha! ¶¶
¶¶ Ha, ha-ha ha-ha! ¶¶ (Mankwe) My work has primarily
been an attempt to expand the
vocabulary of singing.
I grew up listening to East and South African
singers in music, as well as pop music on the
radio because I grew up here,
as well as rock music, as well as music and singing
from international places
all over the world, and I also grew up listening
to the wind and the tress
and the birds and the dogs and the cars.
And to me, music is everywhere. Music is in the utterances
that we repeat. You can tell, you can
listen to different languages
and if you stop trying to worry
about what they're actually saying, you can hear the patterns,
the musical patterns in speech.
So I've wanted to play with
and bring into more singing a wider range of sound.
It goes back to what Mankwe was saying
about everything is music. Like, ah! right now, one of these lights is buzzing,
and it's buzzing to a pitch. There was a show that was
created with office sounds,
like the rhythm of the copy machine
combined with the hum on the computer, and all of these,
and how that makes a harmony
that we don't even pay attention to. So sure, if the kid that's playing the video game says
that it's not music, then he's right-- it's not music,
we're just up here laughing. But if we say it's music,
it is music, and we're laughing in pitch,
and every time everyone laughs, it's music. I mean, I think you get to decide for yourself.
And we can all disagree, and that's fine. (laughs) (Mankwe) You have to
get used to looking like
a weirdo. (Libby) Absolutely.
(Mankwe) You have to be willing to fall down and get up.
Opening
your ears to different kinds of sound and not thinking you know
exactly what beauty is. If you decide you
don't know what beauty is, then you can find it again.
Otherwise, you won't be able to
find it if you think it's this. (all laugh in harmony & rhythm)
My cheeks hurt! (all laugh)
(electronic music plays)
(narrator) Coming soon to "Minnesota Original"... When you make a pot �