DID I REALLY DO THAT?!!?

11/12 Somehow, my last Friday surpassed the day before. I am still in awe of how my day went. Again, it started off with a nice walk to my first interview site where I met again with the technician of the studio here in Tana. We had a good talk about the music industry that eventually led to a general discussion on Madagascar and other countries as well.

Then that afternoon, I had an interview with one of the most famous Malagasy artists every, Rossy. He has traveled all around the world playing shows and festivals all over Europe (France, Germany etc..), South Africa, the Untied States and more. He had stories of Harry Belafonte coming to his house and playing music, he showed me gifts that were giving to him by Jerry Garcia, he has even recorded with Peter Gabriel. Within Madagascar, he has worked with essentially anyone who is anyone.

We started out the interview at his house over a couple beers and he gave me a lot of information even though it was not always directly related to my questions. At 2:45, only 45 minutes into the interview, he asks the time and explains that he has a meeting at 3. He starts to give me options but I have a lot of questions still to ask, so I inquire whether I can just tag along. He says that fine, changes into clean clothes and he, I and another musician who is hanging out there get in his car and drive to a near by ministry. We are running kind of late, so once he parks the car he literally makes us run through the ministry looking for the meeting room.

When we get there, one of the government minister’s is there along with one of the most well known architects in Madagascar and his team. Rossy greets everyone and introduces me as “Ben, an American student who is doing research on Malagasy music” as if that somehow qualified me to be there. Everyone comes and shakes my hand and says “nice to meet you” in French and we take our seats, mine being next to the minister. I then sit there and listen in as the group of people prepare a presentation that will be given to the president of Madagascar! They are working on building a new outdoor theatre that will be used for political, religious and social uses and they are working out the details of the presentation as well as logistics of the stadium itself. I sit there listening to everyone debate and really, just trying not to laugh at the fact that I am even there. It was really cool to see part of the political process here and very interesting that a musician was being consulted so thoroughly for this government project.

Afterwards, we go back to his house for more beer and he begins taking out his accordions and playing them for me, showing off different one-of-a-kind makes that he has. Then he played me a few songs that he is currently working on and we got back to the interview. We talked for a while longer and it was getting late, so I decided to wrap up the interview. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to ask all of my questions because his answers usually segued into interesting and helpful but off topic stories, so I asked if I could come back in case I thought of more questions for him. He said that it would be fine, he was going to be at his house all week but then on the 20th, he was going to the East coast city of Tamatava. Now, no joke, I had been planning to go to the East Coast city of Tamatava to write my paper when my research was done and I was planning to leave on the 20th as well. I told him that I was planning on that and said I intended to take a public bus there. He said, “No. No. Just come along with us.” NO SHIT, HE DID SAY THAT hahaha. To which I immediately and graciously accepted. His wife then took my number down and said she would call me this week to tell me the details about the trip. I thanked him for his time and everything then left with the other musician. As we walked out, I asked if he was going to Tamatava also and he explained that a bunch of musicians were because they were going to play a concert there the night of the 20th. My response was, “O really? Where can I buy a ticket???” But he said, “naw man, you’re with us! We’ll drive up and get some food then go to the concert.”

I am still pretty much in awe of the entire day. As of now, I will be in Tana for a week finishing up my interviews with musicians and music executives, then I am going to drive to the coast with a bunch of musicians and watch their concert, stay there for a week and write this paper and then return back to Tana afterwards. Last Friday was easily one of the coolest days of my life, can’t believe it!