Where Are They Now?

LGUHS

ASOP

FREEMAN

Saturday Night Fever

Have you got the Fever?

We’ve got dance fever and we’ll be getting to the photos of the final performance shortly. But first . . .

T-Minus 4!

Gosh, that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it -- Four more days. Or how about this -- less than 100 hours. That’s right, the return of your kids is only hours away!

Yesterday, we heard from jJsse Newton about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for several of the musicians to play in a Mongolian nightclub with their good friend, Wurigen. Here’s Jonah’s take on the experience:
 

Jonah Ullman, Jamaica

In the past couple of days, members of the group have gotten some interesting and slightly unconventional experiences collaborating musically with Mongolians. From loose jams to strict rehearsals, we’ve communicated without language and grown as musicians.

In the fall of 2009, I was sitting in the band room at Leland and Gray playing the guitar while Fabian was drumming when a couple of students of the delegation from the Mongolian arts college walked in. There was an extra guitar lying around, and one of the horse head fiddle players picked it up and introduced himself as Wurigen. I didn't expect him to be familiar with the instrument but he started playing American classic rock and blues songs better than I've ever heard them played. He barely spoke any English other than the names of his favorite guitar players and brand names. We traded solos and connected in a way that did not need words.

When we came to Hohhot, Julian and I were pleasantly surprised when Wurigen and Bahman came up to our room to play music. His English had improved slightly, and he came armed with a Mongolian to English translating computer and a gift of great Chinese yogurt. Despite the fact that we were in a packed hotel, we cranked the amps up all the way and played Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton songs. After a little bit of talking with heavy use of body language and gestures, we found out that he is a guitar player for the number one nightclub band in Hohhot, and he has shows almost every night that we are here. He invited us to come to his next gig, and we arranged everything with Tom.

Bahman, Diane, Mr. Kelley, Emmet, Jessie, Fabian, Julian, Phoebe and I were greeted by Wurigen at about 9. It was a short walk to the club, and we met his sister on the way there. After about 10 minutes we walked into a Tiki-themed club with fake plants hanging down from the rafters, and a few sullen looking regulars sitting around at tables in the corners. Wurigen assured us that he would start playing in about 10 minutes, despite the fact that there were no other musicians or instruments in sight. Although Wurigen is a very thoughtful, trustworthy person, one thing that I've learned over the past month is that in China, 10 minutes could just as well mean 2 hours. We waited for about a half hour for the music to start, and when they started playing, Wurigen was still sitting at our table. He then explained to us that there were 3 bands playing, and his was on second. Upon being asked when his band would play, he said, again, “only 10 more minutes.” After another half hour, more people started trickling in until the house was relatively full. After the opening band finished, and we were ready to see Wurigen, he told us that his band wasn't ready to play, and instead, we would be playing 4 songs before they got on. Luckily, we had almost the entire Journey East band there and ready to play, and with Bahman filling in on bass for Quinn (who unfortunately had to stay behind due to illness) we plugged in and played Ophelia, one of the songs from our show. Jessie sang, Julian and I played guitar, Fabian kept the beat on drums, and Mr. Kelley was a big hit with the Mongolians on saxophone. After Ophelia, we moved into a slow blues jam. Ordinarily, to save on time, we have to cut our solos short when we play the blues for Chinese audiences. This works very well for the show in terms of the big picture, but a short solo just isn't enough time for a guitar player to build ideas and intensity to make it more melodic and interesting. It was great to be able to open it up and express what we truly wanted to. After an incredible bass solo by Bahman, we took it out and Mr. Kelley called Phoebe and Emmet up to the stage to sing Five Years Time. By that time, there were more people watching, and a couple of young Mongolian men started dancing wildly, and loving every minute of it. I have to admit that before we got up and played, I was expecting cries of “lao wei” (a derogatory term for foreigners) but they were an engaged and pleasant audience. We got a great reaction when we finished, and when we sat down, Wurigen told us that his band would be on in 10 minutes (sound familiar?) After about 20 minutes, we asked him again and the answer this time was 2minutes, which finally proved to be correct. His band got up and were very proud to play all Mongolian rock songs. It was Wurigen's turn to play rhythm that night, and everything he played was perfectly on beat. A couple very friendly Mongolians who watched us play pulled us onto the dance floor where we were surprised to see a familiar face. We had visited a primary/middle school a few days earlier where a very young gym class was learning how to wrestle. By some strange coincidence, out of the millions of people in Hohhot and the hundreds of clubs, we saw their wrestling instructor, We danced for a while, and when Wurigen was finished playing, we decided it was about time to leave. It seemed like it was the time of night when things got too rowdy for a bunch of teenage Vermonters, so Wurigen walked us back to the hotel. It was an incredible experience to play in a Mongolian nightclub and how many Americans can say they've done that?

The final collaboration we had with the Mongolians was much more strict. A music instructor led us in a rehearsal this morning, with a few horse head fiddle players and a couple other musicians from the college. In the United States, rock musicians are very used to improvising. Another thing that we learned about Chinese habits is that flexibility is almost non existent. Mr. Kelley asked if we could extend the song and change the form slightly so we could improvise a couple solos, but when we asked, we didn't even finish the question before we got a firm “NO!” Apparently, the American aspect of the collaboration was allowing us to play drums, guitar, and brass/woodwind instruments. The song barely took any time to put together, and then we had a singing rehearsal. Jackson and I worked with a singer who spoke a fair amount of English, and tried to learn the accurate Mongolian pronunciations of the lyrics. The student who taught us, whose English name was Jerry, tried to help us by writing it out in Chinese Pinyin (phonetic spelling) rather than characters, but the pronunciation of the letters are much different in Mongolian, so we ended up singing by memory. Before we knew it, when were barely familiar with the song, the rehearsal was done.

All in all, I think the most important thing that came out of the musical collaborations was the knowledge that communication without words is not only possible, but sometimes preferable. When your only means of communication with someone is music, there's no small talk. Everything is to the point, and pure emotion. If you're happy to see someone, like we were with Wurigen, we told him exactly that with our music, rather than with words that are so much more vague. Musicians who play together have an understanding like no other that is really emphasized when no other connections are possible.

This is so true. In a country where the language and the culture is so different, these guys are able to communicate through music. A very special ability, a very special talent. A very special experience -- one these guys will likely never, ever forget!

The group spent the morning visiting a history museum, where they saw the Beacon Fire on the Grassland exhibition. The photos below will help explain the visit:
 

And now off to the big event - the collaborative performance. This performance is the biggie. This is the one the kids have been working on since they arrived in Hohhot. Each group performs individually and then they do several pieces together. The music, the colors, the smiles, the movements, it doesn’t get any better than this!

Cool! Looking forward to seeing the film. In the meantime, let’s look at the photos. I must warn you, however, that there are a lot of them. So make sure you are settled in for a while. Here we go!
 

And now, everyone together please!
 

Here’s Tom with some insight on the photos that follow:

The young man shown [in photos below] with the group of girls and then with individuals is Hudele, the dance teacher who choreographed the collaborative dance. They were all in love.

Hudele has been to Vermont twice, staying with Tim and Carolyn Scully and then, more recently, with Kate Fleming and Jackson Batchelder. The dance was great, by the way. We filmed it and will [show it] when we get home. 
 

Hudele

Here is a great photo of Tom, Jenny, Li Yulin (President of the Arts College), and Brendan Connor. President Li Yulin has stayed with Mike and Marilee Attley twice during the Arts College visits to Vermont. He has, and continues to play a very important role in the program; a strong supporter of the exchange. We are forever grateful and appreciative.

Here (right) is a photo of Jenny and Tom with Jin Long, who was in the very first Journey East exchange back in 2000. He is a very good friend. Tom said, when they met up with him, “He particularly remembers the jam session he had in Eugene Friesen's home back in October of 2000.” Jin Long graduated from the Arts College, spent some time in Mongolia and now has his own Mongolian band.

Today is a very special day in the lives of the journey east students. In the morning the students will plant trees in the Eco-Garden and then each member of the group will spend an afternoon/evening with a host family. This time spent one-on-one with a Mongolian family is a great opportunity for each student to learn, first-hand, life in Mongolia. This experience has proven to create life-long friendships both in Mongolia and here in Vermont, when the Mongolians visit each fall.

The stories of the visits are all so varied, yet they seem to carry common themes. We’ll look forward to the pictures and the stories tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, the group will spend their last day in Hohhot shopping, packing, and then celebrating their week with the farewell banquet.

In the meantime, it’s been fun and we have enjoyed having you all along for the ride today. Now as you leave the auditorium, we ask that you watch your head as the exits are quite small . . .

See you . . .