Words of the Day: Griot and Baobob (an adventure in world music)

This week I finished writing an article listening to the soundtrack of "Besieged," a 1999 film by Bernardo Bertolucci. It's only when I really need to concentrate that I listen to music while I'm writing, and if it's somebody singing, it has to be in a language I don't understand (except for James Taylor - why he's the exception I don't know, but I digress).

Baobab in Kruger National Park,
South Africa. Photo: Oscar Chao

The film opens with a powerful image - an aged barefoot African storyteller, or griot (GREE oh), swathed in a bolt of loose orange cloth, standing beneath a baobob tree (you know, one of those big, solitary tree-of-life-like oldsters from the African plains). He sings (or perhaps "intones" or "chants" would better describe it) the first part of the story to the accompaniment of a thumb piano ostinato.

I have no idea what he said, or what language he was singing in, and I can't imagine that many people who saw the movie actually understood any of his words. But I'm content to think it was some African dialect, and the point was made: We were at the beginning of a story.

I won't summarize the plot here - that has been well done by Richard von Busack in the online archives of the San Jose Metro. But I'll tell you that the griot shows up a few more times, in unlikely places and garb. Those sightings are interspersed with some masterful grand piano playing by another one of the film's main characters.

Other than the griot's tale, there are precious few words in the entire movie, but that's OK. You get the idea without any effort. It's a nice story. If you're feeling the least bit adventuresome, I'd recommend checking to see if your local library has the film.

Meanwhile, if your curiosity has been aroused about the music, you can hear the opening piece (Nyumbani) from Besieged performed by J.C. Ojwang online at www.last.fm/music/J.C.+Ojwang/_Nyumbani. I have to warn you, though - you only get one chance. From what I can tell, the site knows if you come back and ask to hear it again, thanks to cookies and such, in which case they'll offer to sell it to you. (Here's an alternative URL that worked more than once this evening.)

Incidentally, Puccini is the other music I listen to while writing (besides James Taylor). Very singable in a la-la-la sort of way.

As Suze Orman would say, and now you know.