Post number 1

To blog or not to blog, that has been the question. But I finally decided it would be the easiest way to keep everyone up to date who wants to be.

So down to business. If you’re not already up to speed, check out the Haizina website to get the back-story.

It’s late Sunday morning here in Antanananrivo, capital of Madagascar. At over 4,000 feet, the weather here is quite comfortable, t-shirt and sandals, a bit overcast with a light breeze. Monique and I arrived in the country just after midnight on Saturday morning. The 18-hour train and plane trip, which would normally have been merely gruelling, was rendered heroic due to the dozen pieces of luggage we were schlepping, to the great delight of Air France’s shareholders. We’d spent literally all Thursday night bent over the bathroom scale trying to stuff in yet another mic cable to get the most out of the 23 kg/bag limit.

Contained therein were not only my keyboard and amplifier, but an entire PA, one sufficient to make a 12-piece band rock a small venue. The only gear we need to source locally are mic stands, floor monitors and maybe a sub-woofer. For rehearsals, we have everything we need. Sorry for geeky details about musical gear, but I’ve been obsessing about this stuff for months. A little like Columbus, Amundsen or Armstrong planning their respective missions. You don’t want to show up in the East Indies, at the South Pole or on the Moon and find you’re missing that crucial female XLR to mono 1/4" patch.

We’re staying with family here in Tana. I’ll recount more about our domestic arrangements in a further post. Suffice it to say that the living room’s large enough to be used as a rehearsal space.

* * * 

Yesterday we had our first band meeting. Musical readers will know everything that implies; the rest will have to follow along as best they can. Monique laid down the law about punctuality and our strict rehearsal schedule for the next week and a half, and provided wardrobe guidelines. Unlike previous band meetings I’ve attended, this one also covered such topics as, does everyone have a functioning instrument? Forewarned, I had brought along strings, guitar cords, replacement pick-ups, bridge pins, tuners and capos. (Thanks to brother Chris for expert advice on this.) The drummer was out of luck. His stick request came too late. Welcome to Africa.

So far as I could tell, everyone seemed pretty cool. Way younger than me, of course. But fortunately, they still respect the elders here. I’d only met two of the musicians before. Once I get better acquainted – and learn their names properly – I’ll tell you more about them.

* * * 

Last evening after dinner – still our first day in town – Monique and I drove a short distance along the intermittently lit, shambolic third-world streets to meet up with Vovo. (Nicknames of this sort are universal here.) Vovo filmed the Ravola clip, which exploded onto Madagascar’s TV channels in December and, everyone tells me, set a new standard for music videos in the country. We were at his place to do the final editing on the next clip, Reolo.

But what I wanted to talk about was the refreshments. Vovo is from the northern part of Madagascar, known for both vanilla and rum. Sure enough, he came out with this recycled Johnnie Walker bottle containing three-year-aged rum in which a monster vanilla bean had been macerating. This hooch cannot be purchased in a liquor store near you. Nor anywhere else, for that matter.

Despite or because of the rum, we finished the clip. Reolo will hit the airwaves early this week. I’ll let you know when it’s online.

* * *

While I set up gear in the living room Monique headed off to do a radio interview. It was a phone-in. Apparently the only callers who could get through were from out in the provinces because the phone lines here in the capital were jammed. Monique was surprised and touched by all the provincial listeners asking when she would be performing in their city. They’ll have to wait, she told me. What fans in those towns can afford to pay for a ticket is so little that it’s complicated setting up shows for a twelve-piece band in those areas.

Rain this evening. There’s a cyclone heading down the east coast of the island. It’s small, not like the one a few weeks ago that did serious damage. But even 200 miles inland we feel it.