It was great to have 2 men amongst our number this week, providing some lovely bass notes. I think I also counted 5 sets of twins! It was a busy week, and the singing sounded fantastic.
We began with a good old call and response number called Kumala Vista. I learnt this on a Royal Opera House course for teachers, but it also appears in the Sing For Pleasure books. Some nice info here - pretty much every version I find is a little different, so we should record our own. Seems like even Jamie Oliver is a fan of this one:
in order to meet all of the babies, we tried a new song I learnt over breakfast from Elizabeth Mitchell's Sunny Day recording:
She says of the song: "I first heard this song on an album by Bessie Jones called Step It Down. Bessie was a member of the Georgia Sea Island Singers, a folk and gospel group who were recorded by Alan Lomax in the 1950s. Bessie's incredible music can only be matched by her work collecting and transmitting the songs and games of the Sea Islands for future generations. Storey learned this song in a music class taught by my good friend, Nancy Chusid. The song is accompanied by a dancing game where you stand in a circle, clap your hands to the beat, and call out for your friend to fly across the circle like a bird."
It's all of those birds in the park again...
I enjoyed our choruses of Mary Mack, Belle Mama, Mama Don't Allow, Fly Like an Eagle, and Ooh La La Lay. It was one of those weeks for singing through old favourites.
Once I have worked out how to make more space on the ipad, we'll hopefully bring you some new recordings straight from Paradise Park.
See you next week.
Michelle x
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