Zambia Catch-Up Chris and Peter Makin a Joyful Noise

BAGRAM STUDIOS, NDOLA ZAMBIA

Basic track recording for

Mulampela Amapalo

(Bemba for: You Give Me Blessings)

Artist: Peter Simba M

guitars/bass/production: crisbaj (me!)

engineer: robert

rapper: Obi-B

Pix:

<>layin down some funk-bass

<>Peter Simba rollin' a vocal line

<>the boys learning the song together (Peter wrote it 2 days ago)

What can I say? One week B4 I fly, and I spend the better part of the night in a studio maintained by the Baptist Mission in Zambia (Thanks, friends!) with Peter Simba M working on a worship tune. This was the culmination of a dozen meet-ups to talk about worship and music and song-writing and recording... and did it happen!

Shortly after we traversed the city to get to the studio, we quickly got to work on this track. (trippy: out in a really poor neighborhood, walking thru really rough roads, and bang! There's the studio, and inside the walls and building is a computer-equipped recording operation!)

Once we had worked out something different for Peter... a R&B, groovy-funky line with smooooth and warm guitar lines underneath... Peter cut a demo-reference vocal so that we could build around that for the song... and a spirit of worship filled the studio, and all the studio staff (even the people from outside) were coming in the booth to listen, and began singing the lyrics... to a new song they just learned during the vocal take! Meanwhile, Obi-B, a studio teck started going off in a worship-rap... so we eventually recorded the rap, plus some sweet stuff around the track. By the time we left, there was a basic song, with Peter needing to come back and clean it up plus record a final vocal.

Riding home in a very dark taxi for quite a few Kms, Peter and I talked about the lack of a recording of the beautiful Bemba worship songs that everyone in Copperbelt knows. Nobody has captured those beautiful, melodic, call-and-response, uniquely Zambian-African songs. SOOOO... yep, we are planning a project in 2010 to do a simple instrumental + a small vocal choir and 10-12 of these great Bemba worship songs. Peter wants to make it a fund-raiser for the HIV orphan project he works at each weekend...

Next morning, word got out that Peter and I were recording this awesome track the night before, and the group pressed us to lead it out during morning worship. Once again, everyone was singing it with vigor after one trip thru... the sign of a great worship song, congregational sing-ability and quick connection.

OK, how am I going to get my guitar to Zambia next year...

your bro, Chris (or crisbaj on the album sleeve... recording due out Jan 2010).