From: owner-god-shiva-digest@smoe.org (god-shiva-digest) To: god-shiva-digest@smoe.org Subject: god-shiva-digest V2 #16 Reply-To: god-shiva@smoe.org Sender: owner-god-shiva-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-god-shiva-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk god-shiva-digest Tuesday, March 2 1999 Volume 02 : Number 016 Today's Subjects: ----------------- More info on Cuba trip [Michael Yarbrough ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 12:47:02 -0500 From: Michael Yarbrough Subject: More info on Cuba trip From http://www.sonicnet.com/ R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Chuck D Join Cuban Cultural Exchange Jaunt Indigo Girls, Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood plan to write song with Havana artists. Contributing Editor Christopher O'Connor reports: An all-star group of musicians made up of R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Public Enemy's Chuck D and the Indigo Girls will fly south to Havana next month to spend a week working on music with local artists. An initial four-day period of group songwriting will build toward a climactic concert at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana on March 28, during which the artists will perform the best of their new creations. "I'm going as a songwriter, and I know I'm not gonna be as good a musician as those guys. They're all amazing performers," guitarist Buck said. "But I'll learn some things, and I think it will be fun. And I get to go to Cuba legally. I've got a government permit. I'll fly right from L.A." It's an interesting dynamic: songwriters from different cultures working on new songs and then performing their creations within the span of a week. But veteran songwriter Alan Roy Scott, organizer of the upcoming event in Cuba, said he's seen it happen four times before. "It's amazing how these things come together," Scott said. "Part of this is what I call the 'X-factor.' One thing I can't show anybody is this magic that just happens." If all goes according to plan, the magic will happen again March 21-29. Also slated for the trip -- the latest edition of a cultural exchange project called Music Bridges Around the World -- are singer/songwriter Me'Shell Ndegeocello, former Police bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, country star Kris Kristofferson and Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood. Buck, in Los Angeles recently to film a scene for the television show "Party of Five" with the other members of R.E.M. -- whose most recent album, Up, includes the song "Lotus" (RealAudio excerpt) -- said he is excited about the opportunity to work and create in Cuba. "It's pretty great -- a really amazing group of people," he said. "It's like Chuck D, Burt Bacharach, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, the Indigo Girls, Lisa Loeb -- all these kind of interesting people." Scott said that from what he's learned, Cuban artists, rather than sitting in a room writing with one or two other people -- as Scott did for Motown back in the 1980s -- prefer large-scale musical jams to shape their compositions. Scott, then, is planning to bring as many as 40 artists with him to Cuba to keep his options as wide as possible. Scott arrived at the idea for a music-based cultural exchange program in 1988, after years of traveling to other countries to participate in week-long songwriting competitions -- ones where he would write songs and a house band would help perform them. While he likened those events to an "international 'Star Search' " -- and met artists who now are close friends -- he also felt they were amateurish and could be improved upon. One night, over a couple of beers with friends, he said he arrived at the idea of working with professional musicians in a way that could have a cultural impact on the countries involved and build camaraderie between musicians. With the help of a friend based in Finland who had contacts in the nearby Soviet Union, he organized the first Music Bridges show. In the years since, his Music Bridges Around the World project has also visited Romania, Indonesia and Ireland. The years have shown that anything is possible, Scott said. As an example, he said the artists who participated in the Ireland exercise produced 52 songs in 4 days and performed 25 songs, mostly at a length between three and five minutes. Now, Scott doesn't know what to expect -- only that Cuba is a relevant place to be at the moment, as one of two major Communist countries still in existence. It also, he said, is known internationally for a rich musical tradition. "There's a creative excitement there. I thought it would be a cool place to go," Scott said. A house band will be used to perform a majority of the new songs, Scott said. The artists will spend four days writing and one day rehearsing before the concert. "This is a virgin run. That's the cool thing," Scott said. [ Sat., February 27, 1999 3:01 AM EST ] ------------------------------ End of god-shiva-digest V2 #16 ******************************