Davina Cohen Giant monitors and telephones marked the dawning of a new era of techno-music last weekend. It didn’t happen by way of an onslaught of entrepreneurial ravers of the popular dance scene, but through a fusion of communications technology and live performance. An array of British and South African sponsors combined forces to present Call and Response, an interactive concert linking musicians and audiences in Benoni and Birmingham, United Kingdom. The basic plan was to use low-cost videoconference technology to link the East Rand and Birmingham, bringing together performers from marginalised artistic communities and promoting integration in cities with their own measures of strife. To most outsiders and, indeed, to many residents, life in Birmingham is humdrum. The modernist architecture is famously unattractive and the social landscape beleaguered by racial stratification. Birmingham’s lassitude is evidence that a network of highways is not the foolproof formula for a lush and vibrant urban space. Johannesburg’s endless list of maladies coupled with its lingering reputation for artistic vitality made it an apt transcontinental partner. Master of ceremonies and percussionist Steve Clare bellowed: “It’s time to show South Africa that Birmingham knows how to party!” Contrary to popular perceptions, a Birmingham audience in excess of 1000 illustrated vigorous support for local artists, if not a partying force with which to be reckoned. Benoni, in contrast, barely mustered 100 filled seats. Despite the technological success, something – namely an audience and community support – was lacking on our end of the telephone lines. South African coordinator Michelle Lowry teamed up with Clare Smith of Birmingham-based community music organisation Sound It Out and South African expat and renowned artistic innovator Eugene Skeef to select musicians from the East Rand. Workshops conducted at six community centres throughout Birmingham beginning in May produced a multi-cultural cornucopia including jazz flautist Eddie Parker, classical tabla maestro Mohinder Singh and percussionist Sarah Westwood.
The South African contingent began rehearsals only two weeks prior to the event and things were, at times, a bit “hectic”. Call and Response South Africa brought together the Via Katlehong Gumboot Dancers, the Cenestra Male Choir, the KwaThema Youth Choir and the Field Band Association of Dobsonville and Springs. Lowry blamed inadequate funding for having glossed over the kaleidoscope of cultures in South Africa, a disappointing irony in light of Call and Response’s ideology of urban integration through the arts.
For better or for worse, it will be some time before an event such as Call and Response is suitable for broadcast and before music generated across telephone lines winds up in your CD player. This kind of enterprise has the educational and creative potential to be more than just a temporal musical memory or a novel technological breakthrough. The awe and excitement expressed by marvelling performers and the willingness to ignore transmission mishaps were a global telecommunications company’s wet dream. The key, therefore, is to capitalise upon this corporate ecstasy, rather than succumbing to its attendant profit-making prospects and losing sight of the noble vision. Ailing arts patronage is the only serious threat to this marriage of music and technology.