Black is the Color...

Nina Simone
14 x 11 inches, various materials on paper, 2020

I'm starting to loose my mind here. Getting carried away copying a photograph: The one Wikipedia uses on their page dedicated to Nina Simone. Their photos are typically high resolution, with warts and all. The more precise you get the more glaring the mistakes. Just a sixteenth of an inch error on the placement of an eye for example changes the whole feel of a drawing and brings out the subjectivity of any drawing more clearly. So here's the first American song in the Top 100 2020 now presiding at number 9. Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair is a traditional ballad of Scottish origin and did become a sort of anthem for Nina Simone. She recorded the song numerous times and this year's version comes from Nina Simone at Town Hall. [Colpix, 1959] Even though the American presence in the Top 100 is steadily diminishing (due to a focus on field recordings of the world's indigenous people) during the last years of compiling these lists, the United States still easily provides the most entries per country. The US is on top of the statistics of the COVID-19 too, easily, with about a quarter of all cases reported, about the same amount as recordings in the Top 100 in recent years. Now the US is a huge country with an enormous population, so their numbers per capita are not that different from other countries in the industrialized world. North Carolina, the place of birth of Nina Simone, for example, compares with say Serbia. What I would like to note in the context of Nina Simone here is the disproportionate illness and death rate among African-American citizens. No politics here today from my keyboard. The epidemic is bad enough.

Piaroa

Piaroa lineup, some in costume
11 x 14 inches, various materials on paper, 2020

The collection of field recordings from The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, vol. 9: Venezuela features a block of five songs with recordings of the native Piaroa peoples. The recordings were made by Pierre Gaisseau in 1949 in the Upper Orinoco. He was probably also the one to provide the photograph in the booklet of the album produced by Juan Liscano and Alan Lomax. The source I used was a different photo, it is the banner of a facebook page dedicated to the Piaroa. Seventy years between the two photographs but nothing changed. (The presence of a woman in the newer photo may be a change from the old one as in the liner notes it is stated that these costumes were hidden from the women.) The Piaroa are egalitarian in organization which is not all that common in native societies of the Amazon region, or anywhere in the world for that matter. This not only applies to the social hierarchical structures but to the genders as well. They are anti-authoritarian and opposed to the hoarding of resources. [Wikipedia] Like Zen Buddhists they are taught to not hoard possessions and not take themselves too seriously from an early age. They ridicule anyone who displays pride or vanity. They laugh a lot. (Why am I so serious I often wonder.)

The COVID-19 situation did not change a lot in Venezuela since I last wrote about the country on April 8th. There are now 329 cases reported with 10 deaths, three weeks ago the numbers were 166 and 7 respectively. Venezuela is one of a few countries whose numbers will be followed in the months to come as at least four more recordings have found their way into the current top 100. The Piaroa now reside at #8 and have another recording lower down the list. Venezuela as a country, of course, has other issues to deal with beside the coronavirus. (Like corruption in a failing oil-based economy—I'm not sure how this all would affect the Piaroa, I hope they continue to laugh a lot.)

Tomaraho

Tomaraho (in full regalia)
11 x 14 inches, various materials on paper, 2020

The Tomaraho are a small community living in the Chaco region of Paraguay near the Argentinian border. They have remained concealed from Western eyes until relatively recently. The area, arid to begin with, is being further threatened by deforestation. I've been writing down at the bottom of each drawing in these series the numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the music's country of origin. The numbers themselves however, do not reflect the severity or absence of the coronavirus in the communities portrayed. The more seclusive a people are, the less affected one would think. While this may be true in general it could also mean that once the disease is introduced there might not be the same resources available to fight it thus the effect on such groups might me more severe. It is known that the coronavirus was introduced to the Yonomami by illegal miners deep into the Amazon rain forest and recently further south as well when a Kokama woman was tested positive after being in contact with a medical doctor. The authorities in Brazil are fearful for the potentially deadly impacts the disease could have to these communities. The numbers in North America's Navaho Nation (in an area across the states of New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona), who are of course not nearly as secluded, the numbers of infected and deaths are staggering. I could not find any COVID-19 data on the Tomaraho. Paraguay, home to these people, is lauded for its response to the outbreak and had just 228 cases with 9 deaths when I tagged the drawing. 

The Top 100 song, again from Voices of the World: An Anthology of Vocal Expression [Les Voix du Monde], is a song for the dead titled on the cd box-set as ouhla teichu.

Dit

Eipo woman
14 x 11 inches, various materials on paper, 2020

The Eipo are a people speaking the Mek (Eipo-mek) language along the valleys of the Eipo River in Western Papua which is the part of Papua that belongs to Indonesia. The other half of this giant island is the autonomous country Papua New Guinea. As I have been doing for a while I have written down the COVID-19 numbers applying to country of origin of the music at the particular moment of me finishing the drawing at the bottom. The large number of infected and dead people in Indonesia are not very representative of the situation in West Papua, so I included also the numbers for Papua New Guinea (only two known cases a few days ago.) The track from the Eipo people in the Top 100 is again from this majestic compilation Voices of the World: An Anthology of Vocal Expression. [Le Chant du Monde, 1996] The track is named Dit, individual singing and refers to style of song that is teasing, often sexual in content.

The Ye'kuana

Ye'kuana ceremonial dance
14 x 11 inches, stancil and pencils on paper, 2020

Number four here from the top 100 2020 series that I now should nickname as the COVID-19 series. The song illustrated is called Edanaka hani amöde but is the very same as the Yucca Fertility Chant in last year's 100. The difference is made by the collection it is featured on. Whereas last year's came from a compilation record of South American indigenous music, this one comes from a record dedicated specifically to the Yekuana of Venezuela [Music of the Venezuelan Yekuanan Indians] and was like the Anthology released on Folkways (1974). I painted a Ye'kuana Indian in August on 2019 and discussed the song briefly (as brief as the liner notes) accompanied by a longer political rant. Read about the song and rant right here. 

I used three different stencils in making this work on paper. It situates itself between a print and a unique work. There is no edition or anything but I would be able to reproduce this drawing to a great degree of similarity while it still would be a unique work. I'm tempted now to compile the new series using a similar technique. It would allow me to, if I stick with it, to reproduce the whole series. I would be able to offer a complete set of 100 unique works for a relatively low prize.

Trois jeux de gorge

Nellie Echalook and Rebecca Natialuk
11 x 14 inches, mixed media on paper, 2020

As long as the stay-at-home order stays in place, I'll keep doing these meticulous drawings for the Top 100 2020. I'll go by my preliminary list starting at no. 1 which I did last week. This is then the no. 3 thus far; a recording made by Nicole Beaudry at Cape Corset, Baffin Land in 1974. The recording is the first track from the CD Canada: Chants et Jeux des Inuit [Musiques & Musiciens du Monde, Unesco Collection, 1991; first appeared as an LP in 1976]. The track is labeled Trois Katajjait de la Terre du Baffin and alternatively Trois Jeux de Gorge, Katajjaq. The one track has three recordings made on different occasions by four singers (each recording is a duet, as Katajjait are typically performed by two singers.) The performers are: Elijah Pudloo Mageeta, Quanak Martha Meekeega; Napache Samaejuk Pootoogook, and Napache Etidloie Toonoo. I have not been able to find any photographs of any of the performers on the CD but was delighted to find an image of two performers who in a previous year were listed, Nellie Echalook and Rebecca Natialuk. I did not have this image available to me when I made a painting illustrating their katajjaq. At this point there are already ten different katajjait listed in my top 100 list, several from the CD mentioned above.

Coronavirus

Tsantsa (shrunken head) with rope, Shuar
14 x 11 inches, various materials on paper, 2020

Manganja Woman
14 x 11 inches, various materials on paper, 2020

The Coronavirus has stopped life in it tracks for the most part yet the top 100 moves forward. We're well into 2020 and the list for this year starts to take shape. Represented here are the numbers one and two thus far. Both come form the 3-cd set Voices of the World: An Anthology of Vocal Expression [Le Cant du Monde, 1999]. Coordinated by Hugo Zemp it features recordings by some of the world's renown ethnomusicologists. The box set is dominating the list and the track Chingolingo, chant yodle by a group of Mang'anja women from Malawi is destined to end on top at the end of the year. 

It felt appropriate given the circumstances to make these drawings. It's the sort of activity that takes time, is a lot of tedious and sometimes rather mindless work. Like most everybody else, the days spent at home are consumed by the cascade of news surrounding the Coronavirus. I've always been a numbers and lists person and that's what I get lost in; percentages, numbers, comparisons by country and regions, and other statistical trivia. I thought it appropriate to add some stats under the captions I penciled in. When I finished the Mang'anja woman Malawi was one of only a handful countries in the world with no reported cases. This was a few days ago. Now there are four. Nobody's died yet from the disease. Vietnam, whose Bahnar people I wrote about last week, has since doubled their cases, but still no deaths there either. The first country represented in these series who suffered fatalities is Ecuador. The count there as of today: 3,465 cases and 172 fatalities are reported. 

The Shuar, better known by their older name Jivaro, live in the Amazon Rainforests of Ecuador. I won't dwell on their history too much, as history of their shrunken head traditions have been a focus of many writings (including in this blog) but one anecdote I learned today I will mention: The function this tradition has in Shuar culture is for men to keep their wives and daughters in line. The track Ujaj, currently residing at number two, is sung by a group of women. I've always wanted to draw a picture of a shrunken head.