Kwaito Musik from Namibia through EES

Hier bei Easy German ist der EES . . . der als Kindergartner Deutsch lernte, und der schon gutes Deutsch spricht...



Was würdest du tun, wenn du 20 Euro hättest?

Schminke kaufen = to buy make up
mich belohnen  = to reward myself
ich hole meinen Jungen von der Schule = I fetch my son from school
Schminke kaufen = to buy make up


Hier singt Ees, aber nicht nur auf English und etwa Afrikaans, auch auf Deutsch.  Das Lied heißt ,,Alles Beste"  featuring The Hunta  (der Jäger?  -- the hunter?)



EES's bio from his home page indicates that he (Eric Sell) has his own clothing line EES WeaR, production company, and even his own energy drink.  Text copied here:

EES discovered his love for music when he was in Cape Town while doing his Diploma in Sound Engineering. At the end of 2003 EES finished his studies and at the beginning of 2004 he went to Europe to introduce and improve on his music skills while trying to promote African music at the same time in Europe.

Ever since he has be making a massive impact for Kwaito music outside of Africa and has received several awards of recognition including the MTV Listeners Choice award. His latest HIT Album release is the 22 Track, Totally African Pop “NAM Flava!” Sound Album called “Authentic Rebel” featuring a great selection of African Artist! It is the First Namibian Album to be sold internationally via music web services. Another Highlight is that EES just released his own energydrink called “WUMA” (www.wuma-drink.com).

Something that is truly fantastic is that despite working hard in Germany to make a name for himself overseas, EES has never lost touch with his roots. He is proud of his home, NAMIBIA, and makes that statement clearly not only in his music and his clothing line (EES WeaR) or in his music videos but in the way he lives as well. He proudly wears his country and his home town on his sleeve and not only in the figurative sense but literally as well. In his lyrics you can clearly hear the Afrikaans/English/German influence, and just when you thought it could not possibly get any better it does. EES in his early 20’s produced most of his music himself under his own label by the name of NAM FLAVA Music label.

All in all EES is a very outgoing person who just wants his listeners to enjoy his music and experience what he lives for, Yes-Ja! – NAM Flava Music!

Beethoven and Orff performed in the Congo

'Kinshasa Symphony': An Ode To Musical Joy In Central Africa

Credit: Courtesy of C Major Entertainment  by ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS   From NPR March 7 2012  2:34 pm

An amazing new documentary film is a must-see not just for music lovers, but for anyone who needs to see the nourishing power of the arts and human connections.

Kinshasa Symphony takes us into the everyday lives of the members of a most unlikely ensemble: the Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste, located in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a place ravaged by war, endemic poverty and corruption.

Trailer: 

The constant hassles and logistical problems these amateur musicians face should give serious pause to those of us leading far more privileged lives in music. They tackle big pieces — like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Orff's Carmina Burana — out of sheer love, learning their instruments and craft as they go.

Conductor Armand Diangienda founded the orchestra in 1994 after losing his job as an airline pilot. Never conservatory trained, he calls himself "just inquisitive by nature." He named the ensemble after his grandfather, Simon Kimbangu, a political icon in Congolese history, who also founded a Christian sect that went on to become Africa's largest independent African church.

When Diangienda first gathered 12 young people who wanted to learn to play the violin, he had only five instruments: "One of them would play for 20 minutes, and then pass the violin on to the next one." When violin strings broke, they replaced them with brake cables from old bicycles. When they needed a C trumpet, they cut up another instrument. And when they needed a bell for another trumpet, they transformed the wheel rim from an old minibus.

Albert Nlandu Matubanza, the orchestra's manager, also makes many of the orchestra's instruments himself. Years ago, there were many more instruments available in Kinshasa, but as Matubanza ruefully notes, a lot of them were stolen. Out of necessity, Matubanza has become a self-taught luthier; he took apart his own bass to figure out how it was made, then started making stringed instruments to equip the orchestra.

The group's open-air rehearsals are frequently punctuated by the noise and noxious clouds of dust and diesel spewed by cars and trucks passing along Kinshasa's unpaved streets. Electrical outages are frequent — so much so that the orchestra has a routine to deal with the annoyance. One of the group's violists, Joseph Masunda Lutete, knows to step in immediately: "When there's a power cut," he says, "I just drop my instrument and go start the generator."

The film's narrative arc takes us to their performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in an empty, dirt-filled public square. But what is most revealing, and most gripping, is to see how these musicians deal with the impossible reality of Kinshasa, made possible every day by its hardworking, creative and tenacious people. One of the most wrenching segments follows Nathalie Bahati, a flutist and single mother, as she struggles to find a $40 per month apartment to keep little more than a roof over the head of the young son who accompanies her everywhere, including to her rehearsals.

The joy they take in their music-making is what gets them through. As the orchestra's concertmaster, Héritier Mayimbi Mbuangi says, "When we're working on the music, there are no limits. It's like a staircase: You go up, and up."