Music in Malawi

Anna: I first went to Malawi in 2011 to visit my Mum and Dad who manage a wildlife park on the Nyika Plateau. Mum’s also a teacher at the school in the village, and she invited me along one day and asked me to sing something to the kids.

I sang a song called ‘Magnus’ by Gretchen Parlato, which I had recently been taught by Gretchen herself while doing my jazz residency at Stanford University. The song is extremely complicated rhythmically, but they picked it up immediately and were magical. I was blown away.

I made this little video recording, and sent it off to Gretchen. She was really impressed and her agent asked me if Gretchen could play it at her Carnaby Hall concert – which meant these little kids in their village were being projected way up in the most prestigious venue in New York. It was so exciting, but it wouldn’t have affected the kids in any way unless I had done something about it. I needed to milk it for the children.

That’s when the Magnus in Malawi project was born. I decided to go back and record more music with them, which I could then make into an album to raise money for their secondary educations. You see, there’s no secondary school on the plateau and the closest village is about a five-hour drive away. Most parents can’t afford to send their children to school in another village, and so most kids are not able to go.

After fundraising in Wellington for recording equipment, I went back to Malawi for three months last year. I worked with the kids every day, and taught them different songs. I played them quite a bit of music that we listen to over here to see what would appeal to them – and, interestingly enough, for most of them it was Gillian Welch and Bob Dylan. I thought they’d be all for the flash modern-sounding synthy stuff, but they like folk! I was so impressed.

So, now I’ve got a lot of fantastic material of them singing that I’ll be sifting through and arranging, then laying them down with other instruments. Once the album is finished, I’ll work out exactly how much one term is going to cost, so if someone buys the album they can know exactly what they’re paying for – say, one term’s study for one child.

I’m doing all this because it feels like the very least I can do. Having been there and after getting to know the kids, and seeing how many want to go on to secondary school, but can’t — it just seems like a no-brainer to try and help.

To keep track of Magnus in Malawi, and to buy the album when it comes out mid-year, visit facebook.com/magnusmalawi.