“Acoustemology” in Accra

Ethnomusicologist Steven Feld to present lectures, films on jazz in Ghana at UC Berkeley

Steven Feld, an ethnomusicologist, anthropologist, and linguist who is also renowned for his work as a musical curator and cultural advocate, will be in residence at UC Berkeley throughout April 2009. Beginning with his groundbreaking research among the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea, Feld has written about a dazzling range of musical cultures from Oceania, Europe, Japan, and most recently Africa. His current work focuses on the impact of John Coltrane and avant-garde jazz on the music of West Africa.

On March 30, Feld gave the opening address for his month-long lecture and film program, “Acoustemology in Accra: On Jazz Cosmopolitanism.” This five- lecture series will take place each Friday from April 3 to May 1. Additionally, Feld will screen three of his documentary films based on Ghanaian music and culture:

“Hallelujah!” (2008, 60 mins), April 2

Legendary drummer Ghanaba along with the Winneba Youth Choir present an African talking drums version of George Frideric Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.” Ghanaba’s unique approach to Handel mixes elements of African, Christian, and Islamic ritual with formal European concert performance, Ghanaian ceremony, and jazz improvisation.

“Accra Trane Station: The Music and Art of Nii Nio Nortey” (2009, 60 mins), April 9

The film distills three years of video conversations with Nii Noi Nortey, the Ghanaian sculptor, instrument inventor, and avant-garde instrumentalist. Nortey discusses the African legacy of John Coltrane and how it inspired invention of his “afrifone” instruments, and a series of twenty Accra Trane Station sculptures and four CD recordings.

“A Por Por Funeral for Ashirifie” (2009, 70 mins), April 23

Por Por is a style of music invented sixty years ago by a union of truck and bus drivers from the township of La in Accra. It is played with antique circular squeeze-bulb klaxon horns, removed from pre- and independence era vehicles, together with bells, percussion, and voices. Por Por is uniquely performed for funerals of prominent drivers, and its practice has numerous resonances to the legacy of the New Orleans Jazz Funeral.

Currently Feld is a distinguished professor of Anthropology and Music at the University of New Mexico, as well as a visiting professor at the Institute of Music Research at the University of Oslo in Norway. In addition to his scholarly work, Feld is also a musician and founded the VoxLox recording label in 2001.

In 1991 Feld received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship, and in 1994 was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A 2003–4 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow, Feld was also named in 2003 as the 15th recipient of the Koizumi Fumio Prize for Ethnomusicology, an award for career achievement in the field.

Steven Feld’s residency at UC Berkeley is co-sponsored by the Department of Film Studies, the Department of Music, the Center for African Studies, and the Townsend Center for the Humanities. For a complete list of events, please see the Center for African Studies website.