Jennifer: We're gonna be able to really go for it. Pape really likes it in terms of his vision of the production‚ which is to incorporate the musicians with the dancers. They're not separate in his mind. It's a very integrated piece.
Gordon: There's one part… I haven't learned a whole lot of moves yet‚ but in one part I get up and walk over with the banjo to the girl lying on stage and act as assistant shaman and de-demonize her body.
Is that a role you see yourself in a lot of time when playing banjo? [laughs]
Gordon: Lots of demons…
Jennifer: It's the first grant we've gotten‚ but I think it's something we're both really interested in‚ the melding of Vermont's musical ethnic diversity. So many talented musicians‚ and Gordon's influences are so varied‚ as you can tell‚ that we're looking forward to playing with a lot of people. We started having this idea about the whole world music movement out of Vermont. Blending musicians. It's a really exciting time.
What other ideas do you have about projects like that? Is there anything else you're chewing on?
Jennifer: This is gonna be about an hour long. But Pape's training is in Senegalese ballet. So there's a ballet. Jake Ulu produces a ballet every year. It's a culmination of their work. That would be something that we would look forward to. Take this piece‚ more of Gordon's stuff‚ the two of them can collaborate on more music‚ and make it an even bigger piece with more dancers‚ in an auditorium. Then‚ just in terms of our fantasy world would be to incorporate other musicians from other parts of the world; maybe a South American vibe going on.
Gordon: Brazilian music is very deep. We have a sister city in Nicaragua. Have you heard of Burlington's sister city [Puerto Cabezas] in Nicaragua? [laughs]
Jennifer: What tribe is it? Mosquitoes?
Gordon: Yes‚ the Mosquito tribe. They've seceded from the country because they got tired of being oppressed or whatever.
He (Dan Higgins) was headed there. Dan Higgins is a photographer and a videographer; he lives in Winooski‚ and actually knows these Senegalese guys‚ but he is mainly involved with the sister city project. I went over one day to record‚ and he was trying to synch up the Nicaraguan musician with me and get us to play together on screen. We were trying to synch up the music‚ and it wasn't really working. But it will.
He ended up filming you guys separately?
Gordon: Yeah‚ but I had met the guy years ago. We'll see what happens with that. It'll be fun.
That's interesting technology. We talked about this briefly a few weeks ago‚ new ways of collaborating.
Gordon: It's pretty cool. You've seen that stuff on YouTube? "Stand By Me"?
Yeah. I remember talking to one musician who sent his record‚ the stripped-down version of it‚ just to his friends‚ and the idea was that his friend was gonna keep it for a while‚ and he was gonna send it to a different city‚ and everyone's gonna kind of add they're thing to it‚ and it was gonna go around till they were done and it was gonna come back.
Gordon: He's gonna put it out no matter what?
Jennifer: It's still on route?
Yeah. This was a while ago‚ so I never heard what happened with it. Maybe it just fell apart-it could have been a train wreck.
Gordon: Not many time restrictions on that‚ I imagine‚ especially if he's sending it to other musicians.
Jennifer: There was something I heard about a couple times‚ this idea of auditioning on the internet for different projects. There's a Carnegie Hall performance with nothing but musicians who auditioned on YouTube. Have you heard about that?
No‚ I haven't.