"This Time" up and under
Vera Jonas: <Speaks her native language> My name is Vera Jonas, from Hungary, Budapest.
"Lullaby" under and up
Bill Sellanga: <Speaks his native language> Hello. My name is Bill Sellanga from Nairobi, Kenya.
Vera Jonas: I was selected at a OneBeat Fellow in 2012. So that was almost two years ago. And when I got in it was amazing. And it changed me.
Bill Sellanga: I participated in the 2013 OneBeat program, which is--
Vera Jonas: OneBeat is a program organized and sponsored by the State Department, which gathers musicians from around the world to meet and collaborate [in the United States].
Bill Sellanga: It’s like you hang out together for two weeks getting to know each other and making music.
Vera Jonas: And I remember this Russian guy from, I think he’s from Moscow, who just came and brought a lot of games and a lot of ideas, and he would just start telling people to come and jam with him and he would set up his K-os pads in the studio area. And we would just have this massive jam, and I will never forget. There were, like, 30 people playing different instruments for hours and hours, and pretty much that’s what happened for the upcoming two weeks after.
Montage of Fellows playing
Bill Sellanga: For two more weeks, you get to travel around the States performing and sharing what you made for the two weeks when you are at the residency in Florida in a place called New Smyrna Beach.
"This Time" (USA version)
Vera Jonas: I really enjoyed doing the tour, playing music in clubs and festivals and artsy places and all kinds of different venues. I really enjoyed that, but I also was really curious and interested and fascinated by visiting schools and setting up mobile studios to connect with the people living in those towns and cities and villages.
"This Time" (USA version) fades
Bill Sellanga: We went to a school that teaches kids classical music in South Carolina. And for me it was, I felt like it was, a life-changing experience, because for where we’re coming from in Nairobi, for example, there’s no, there isn’t, a strong music program that is like that. And it’s something that I felt like I could bring to Nairobi.
Vera Jonas: It was amazing. I never worked with kids before, and it was truly beautiful to go to even kindergartens and schools and high schools and universities. The children were even fascinated by the instruments itself. You know, just imagine that you go to a kindergarten, and I brought my little looping pedal and my delay pedal, and for them it was like Disneyland, you know. They went crazy about it. And it was great, and I was so happy that they got fascinated by using it and checking it out and experimenting with it a little bit. And who knows? You know, some of the kids might be interested in trying, using some technology, on their own. And I’m really happy that I could show something to them. And I got a lot out of it as well, because it was a great experience.
Improvisation up and under
Vera Jonas: I think OneBeat is a very small but a very visible and important step towards openness.
Bill Sellanga: We’re stuck in our own little pockets or tiny world sectors that we are comfortable in. Then there’s my friend who beat boxes from Russia, shout out to Master Mic.
Master Mic beat boxes
Bill Sellanga: And before that I would never wanted to go to Russia because of how that it’s a very difficult place for black people. And so I’ve always had that mentality. But when I met Master Mic from Russia and we hit it off the first day, it was just all the things that I’d heard about Russia, for example, he was the exact opposite of it. He was very welcoming, it was very progressive, and we just worked very well together.
Vera Jonas: I knew that spending a month or a bit more than a month in the U.S. for me would be an eye-opening experience in every way. And basically you just see a lot and you let it sink in. And I wasn’t expecting a lot. I decided that I would just go with the flow. But I learned so much, and it was so much more than I ever thought it would be. It’s very hard to describe. It’s just a very natural way of meeting new people, meeting new musicians and learning about their culture, their instruments, their music, their everyday, you know, life and thought about the world. And it was just very natural. And that’s the most important thing for me, to have a culture shock without being shocked. Just to encounter new people who are completely different and then learn something and take something home with you.
Bag of Seven
Music Credits:
"This Time" written by Vera Jonas and performed by the Vera Jonas Experiment, from the album,
Game. Used courtesy of Vera Jonas.
"Lullaby"
composed and performed live by Bill Sellanga with other 2013 Fellows
and "Maqam Rashdi/Talaa Min Beet Abuha" composed and performed by 2012
OneBeat Fellows:
Chance McCoy (U.S.),
Aditi Bhagwat (India),
Amir ElSaffar (U.S.),
Kyungso Park (South Korea),
Devin Greenwood (USA). Both excerpts used courtesy of OneBeat and Bang on a Can's Found Sound Nation.
Special thanks to Elena Moon Park of Found Sound Nation.
Music, like love, is an international language. Cue OneBeat—an innovative program established by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, whose mission is to bring young musicians (ages 19-35) from all over the world to collaborate in the United States for one month. OneBeat begins with a two-week residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, and then, after several workshops and hours of rehearsals, the fellows board a bus heading north. They stop in small towns and cities along the way to perform, record in the streets with a mobile studio, and teach kids of all ages a little bit about who they are and what their sound is all about.
For many folks who don't have the means to travel the world, through OneBeat the world comes to them. So at some level, OneBeat updates, and inverts, the State Department's Jazz Ambassadors program of the late '50s and early '60s, where the U.S. sent jazz musicians to perform in politically charged nations like Russia and Egypt. In 2014, OneBeat continues to illustrate how music can shatter stereotypes and unite people from remarkably different backgrounds. In this piece, we hear from Hungary's Vera Jonas (Fellow, 2012) and Kenya's Bill Sellanga (Fellow, 2013) on how the program works and how music transcends differences.
