By Tanya Batson-Savage, Staff ReporterTHE MONTHLY Poetry Society of Jamaica Fellowship took on an double function on Tuesday when it was used as a forum to launch the self-titled compact disc of poet and drummer M'bala at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts on Arthur Wint Drive in St. Andrew.
Mbala is an enhanced CD which also features an interview with the poet, as well as a video gallery of the masks he has produced. The gathering of poets and would-be poets was the perfect place to launch a collection of poetry.
"M'bala is one a dem bredda deh weh everybody like," said Tommy Ricketts, while introducing the poet. Ricketts informed the audience, which was spread out on the steps of the ampitheatre and the platform surrounding it, that the work was originally recorded live at the studios of Ricketts Productions, six years ago. As he was on Tuesday, M'bala had been accompanied by Hugh Pape.
The two have previously performed as the Papemba Big Band. Although this might seem like a strange name for a band featuring two musicians, the reason behind the name soon became evident.
While Pape would play either the flute or tenor saxophone, M'bala sat surrounded by three congo drums (two wooden and one metal) and a stand of gongs (namely a pot cover, one barrel cover and two shiny trays). As the performance got underway, other instruments would be revealed, including a hand piano, a guitar, a rain stick and a berimbow. To top it off, M'bala's wrists were covered in shakers, which would add to the music.
As he readily admitted to the audience, the set was not an organised one. As such, his introductions to a piece sometimes sounded something like, "One of them that use the sax. I don't know which one yet." Of course, this quite complemented the organic nature of the poetry he performed.
M'bala performance was a mix of the pieces featured on the CD with some of his later pieces. The featured poems included the intriguing (both in name and nature) Pbb pronounced 'pubub'. He pointed out that although Pbb is featured on the album, when performed it never sounds the same way twice. Whether the accompanying music changes, however, with words like I live not by bread alone/ but by every note from the saxophone are certainly strong enough.
M'bala also performed Skin Song, Enemy and Dis A Me, which are featured on the album. For Dis A Me, the band expanded to include most of the audience. Shakers were distributed into the audience, who became momentarily lost in a cacophony of noise as they tried to experiment with their instruments.
Soon, they were brought under control, however, and performed their duties as the rhythm section. The cicada-like sound was a wonderful addition to the poem, which relied heavily on natural imagery.
The final piece of the night was Jazzing in the War Zone. The poem, a call for peace, hoped to turn land mines into song by raising razor sharp words. Toward the end, the poem morphed into a jazz song, and was a great note on which to end the performance.
The night was not over, however. The audience then decided to take advantage of the presence of all the drums on the platform and a short, impromptu jam session ensued.
The evening had started with its regular feature of an open microphone segment. The segment allows poets to showcase their work and get feedback from the audience. Out of this a few very impressive performances came out toward the end of the segment. This included the short, witty Damn by Kashka Hemans, which satirises the attempts of some local poets to adopt the American break beat style of poetry as featured on shows such as Def Jam Poetry.
The set which sealed that segment, however, was a rendition of a series of poems by the group Jah Children. The group features three poets, all with very different styles and a singer. The set included Rasta Poetry, Mystic Moment and Candy Stripe and culminated with Woman.
