Recorded
live in the lounge-room ‘studio’ of the Koroi family home, Vuci Road, Nausori,
Fiji by Dr Robert Wolfgramm – former Lecturer at Monash University, Editor of
the Fiji Daily Post newspaper and Editor of the New Fijian Translation of the Holy
Bible.
In the
early 1990s, this sheltered white boy from Beaumaris undertook studies through
the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Monash University, Frankston.
In my second year I met and was taught by the amazing Fijian Sociologist Dr
Robert Wolfgramm. From him I learned fundamentals in the Sociology of
Indigenous and Ethnic Relations, the Sociology of Religions and the Sociology
of Popular Music. Robert changed the course of my life. We became close friends,
he invited me to stay for a couple of months with him in his ancestral village of
Qamea in group of small, remote islands north of Taveuni.
As our
friendship progressed I served as Best Man at his wedding to Lupe Koroi and
when we returned to Australia, Robert suggested that me and steel guitarist
Terry McCarthy (now with The Special) join with members of the local Frankston
Fijian community Luke Cama (RIP), Male Lete and George Atu in forming a
Fijian-language singing band called ‘The Bula Brothers’. Recording for SBS
radio and playing festivals and community events, the Bula Brothers stayed
together for 6 years, forming life-long friendships and shared memories.
Fast
forward about 10 years, Robert announced that he was to take over the role of
Editor of the non-Rupert Murdoch owned daily newspaper in Fiji, the Fiji Daily Post. Robert stayed in the
job for several years, providing the only non-coerced voice in the island’s
political climate, before at gunpoint, the newspaper was shut down by the military
coup government led by Frank Bainimarama.
Despite the
stresses and fear for his life and that of his family that Robert experienced,
he chose to remain in Fiji and do his bit to keep up the spirits of his people.
Robert joined the team tasked with providing the first Fijian translation of
the Bible for over 100 years, updating erroneous translations, and correcting out
of date historical and European Colonial oversights inherent in the earlier
translation. Christianity is of course a huge part of life in the Islands.
To lighten
his spirits from the heavy burden of the biblical translation, Robert used his
love of music and technical nouse towards ‘his
soul music’, the music of Fijian grog (or kava) bands. The music unique to
the Pacific Islands and he decided to record it en plein air as best captures the dynamic and soulful spirit of the
singers and instrumentalists of Fiji. Too often a ‘safe’ and clinical
studio-approach has been taken to Developing World musics, so when I received a
CD in the post in 2012, it was so incredibly refreshing to hear the music as it
should be played and heard, live and lively, recording outside on the porch,
kava in reach, long into the night. Cheap instruments sure, but such raw
beauty. The Musicologist in me delights here the absence of standardized
Western tuning, so ingrained in most ‘Folk Musics’ since the invention of the
piano-accordion, that one barely hears diverse cultures anymore, rather merely
exhibits of a homogenous ‘World Music.’ Here is something different; proudly OF
its culture, something you cannot replicate elsewhere.
Anyway,
enough about politics; this music is BEAUTIFUL. Truly SO Beautiful. Play it on
a summer’s day when you want to deeply relax. The voices soaring, the polyrhythms
bewitching. True art is made here. Add
kava into the mix and the high is even further extended, but even with plain water
the effect is captivating. Delightful and beguiling.
The Naigani
Serenaders are: Siriaki Boleasi (guitar, vocals), Dan Johnson (uke, guitar,
vocals), Tevita Matakarawa (uke, guitar, vocals – now deceased), Iowane
Salaibula (guitar, vocals), Jone Soro (uke, guitar, vocals), and Iliesa
Tadulala (uke, vocals).
The Naigani Serenaders Vol. 1 is available
through i-Tunes and Spotify
As a
footnote, I thought it might be interesting to add that Robert is a nephew of
the legendary steel guitarist Bill Wolfgramm and father of the vocalists ‘The
Wolfgramm Sisters’ who have worked with everybody from INXS to the Avalanches,
to Ed Shearan. And in the 1970s, Robert released his own gospel records on the
Galilee label.
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