I have bought myself a jazz drum set rather than a Harley Davidson. Choices, choices!

I think I have just bought a jazz drum set! Sorry about the picture but words without images can be misinterpreted! I hate that colour, but the other ones are for people who are evidently older than I am!

If you are not using Amazon, these things are by no means certain as the company jumps out of its skin because you want to send it to Zambia, which we all know is somewhere in South America where everyone is dying from war, disease and starvation, and is otherwise sending a probe to Mars! Or was that another insignificant economy that owns Land Rover and a few other trifling companies, like one of the largest steel companies in the world, Tata Steel, and the GBP 3 billion mining company Vedanta! It must be Friday!

Trevor Noah was great last night! Go tonight if you can get tickets, and park in Arcades, believe me. I hope he is well by tonight.

Jazz drum set and viola, and Damyna

So, I have now done my fourth lesson at the jazz drum set, and it was frustrating:

a. I still haven't got my stick technique right;

b. and no answer to where I will be by the time Jason leaves - in five months - other than 'depends on how much you practice', which is not helpful if you only have one practice mat and a book, and the problem is the bass drum and the ride cymbal, which you see once a week.

The obvious solution is to have a real drum set, and I see no benefit to having an electronic one or more practice pads since presumably I am learning drum set to do something, like start a jazz band for example, which at least is a short list. This has nothing to do with commitment. After thinking about this for several days I concluded that I could well set up a jazz band, quite within my nature, but the problem is, can I bring myself to buy something as physically big as a drum set, which won't go in a suitcase? Everything that I own that I value can go in a suitcase, and always has done, so that I can 'flee' at a moment's notice - I've actually only been couped once. And this is what it comes down to, and probably consistent with many others here.

So I have got over this and have ordered a drum set, and the CD 'Song for my Father' by Horace Silver, pianist, a contributor to hard bop, has arrived, which I am listening to now. A quintet, trumpet, tenor sax, piano, bass and drums, entirely different from Miles Davis' Kind of Blue.

I am also learning the viola. I have to tell you that learning a new musical instrument is a real pleasure. I play the flute, but I think re-visiting an instrument that you might have played well is frustrating, while learning a new instrument of a new type is new at every page turn. If you want to be useful, learn a non-school instrument, oboe, bassoon, horn, viola, and then you get to be in the orchestra by default. Ever played in an orchestra? If you want to learn an instrument, facebook Ngoma Dolce Music Academy.

The premiere of Damyna, Damyna is now going to be performed April 4, 2014. I am writing a standard version for a simple ensemble, and then writing another version, very similar, but for an eclectic mix of musicians from Germany and Zambia, including serious percussion capacity, to be conducted by Theo Bross.

Third lesson, jazz drum set

Listening

Horace Silver (1928-), Song for my Father. I have yet to receive this CD

Chick Webb (1905-39), jazz and swing drummer, band leader, including Stomping at the Savoy, Harlem Congo, Liza, others. Died at 34 years old of spinal tuberculosis, kept band in employment because of depression, despite dying at the time. This impresses me, given the faceless people we have on this planet today.

Doing

With the paradiddle, my shortfall on the left hand is not containing the stick sufficiently and not allowing the stick to rise enough, through wrist movement. My right hand also does not allow the stick to rise enough. Use a tempo of 100bpm with metronome set for 50bpm on second and fourth beats, on visual, audio or on phones, check.

Using a tempo of 100bpm with a metronome set on 50bpm to count the second and fourth beat, playing ride cymbal and snare drum together with the bass drum on quarter notes and the hi-hat on second and fourth beat. My main challenges are to keep the snare drum quiet in comparison with the ride cymbal and to allow the ride cymbal stick to rise enough, or at all really! This is actually okay, I can nearly manage!

Now, here is the challenge! Maintain this rhythm but introduce a swing on the ride cymbal, a quarter note followed by two sixteen notes, the whole repeated. The first note is to the right of the normal position, the first sixteen note has the accent and is to the left of the normal position, moving across the cymbal to the right. First, do this without the snare drum. This is challenging!

A final word

The chance of any drummer being remotely close to the calibre of Jason visiting Zambia at any time and being available for teaching is slim. If you want to learn jazz drum set, take advantage of this opportunity.

A big message about what we the voiceless think of politicians

I just love this picture. While maybe not subtle, it extends from ordinary but well-educated (in bookshop) woman with no voice to ordinary but well-educated person with no voice. It sums up the desperate frustration we all face with our increasingly pathetic politicians worldwide. It is very much of our times and suggests perhaps the end of democracy, or at least increasing intolerance to political incompetence. It ought to be in a gallery. (Sorry to move it Nats but Facebook is not always very useful.)

Carmina Burana, Lusaka, front page of the Times Entertainment section

Front page of Entertainment section of the Times shows Lulu and children performing in Carmina Burana.

Les Promenades Musicales at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

The final concert of the Promenades Musicales was to a packed Alliance Francaise de Lusaka last night. The concert featured a 36-piece orchestra and the finale was Carl Orff's spectacular Carmina Burana. It was a fabulous evening.

Royalty free photographs of the Lusaka International Music Festival at the Alliance Francaise de Lusaka, 28 September to 5 October, 2013 are available here. Click on an image to enlarge, and then right click to download. Please acknowledge copyright to Langmead & Baker Ltd 2013 if used in the press or on the internet. Please contact if you need a larger file.

Carmina Burana rehearsal at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

This is the Carmina Burana rehearsal: two pianos, definite and indefinite pitched percussion with voices. The profane songs about wine, women and love are in medieval Latin and will be performed tonight at the 'last night of the proms' at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka at 19:30hrs, together with other well-loved pieces.

Damyna, Damyna, my opera, which is in rehearsals for December performances, is in the Daily Times today. #Lusaka

A rice farmer with his son in Lambwe Chomba, Zambia

The first attempt to photograph Mosi-oa-Tunya was by hunter, trader and photographer James Chapman, on an 1859-63 expedition with Thomas Baines, after the latter had been dismissed from Livingstone’s expedition (Ryan, 42). This attempt failed. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Stuttgart Percussion Duo in concert at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

Last night at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka's Promenade Concert,there was an amazing display of percussion by Se-Me Hwang and Lukas Ehret of Germany. Both percussion with definite pitch, like the marimba, and indefinite pitch, like drums, were played with consummate skill and finesse. Percussion, although the oldest of the music groups, continues to be excluded in much popular classical music. There are exceptions, Bartok, Chavez, Milhaud and Orff, but percussion only really began to gain a foothold in contemporary classical music the 1960s, with Takemitsu, MacMillan and Reich. The percussion music played last night was a rare opportunity to hear very recent work from professional musicians, distinctly a cut above. If you missed it, you really missed something, and you will have to wait for the Promenade Concerts next year.

There is no concert tonight but the 'The Last Night of the Proms' is on Saturday night at 1930hrs, which includes Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana', which is distinctly percussive as well. Again, it is not something to be missed.

Commercial wheat harvest, Chisamba, Zambia

Although Charles Livingstone was required to photograph ‘characteristic specimens of different tribes’, this was difficult due to lengthy exposure times and the lack of familiarity local people had with being photographed. This may also explain why, in early expeditions, the expeditionary team was not photographed; every picture had to be posed for several minutes. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Andreas Ritzinger, Agnese Eglina and Theo Bross play at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

Andreas Ritzinger, a German violinist, and Agnese Eglina, a Latvian pianist, delighted a large audience last night at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka as part of the Promenade Concerts, with duets by Beethoven, Op 12/1, Paganini's 'Devil's Laughter', No. 13, and three pieces by Tchaikovsky, No. 42. They were joined later in the performance by Theo Bross, a German cellist, for Mendelssohn's Trio, Op 49.

There is a very exciting percussion Duo playing this evening's concert. Given that serious percussion has only just, relatively, found its way into composition and orchestras, this kind of performance is rare and is not to be missed, from 19:30hrs at Alliance Francaise.

A beekeeper, Mumbwa, Zambia

The camera arrived in the geographic area now called Zambia with David Livingstone’s brother Charles, the photographer on the Royal Geographic Society’s (RGS) 1858-64 official British expedition to the Zambezi led by David Livingstone. There is one surviving photograph of 40 by Charles, a stereoscopic picture of a baobab, which is in the Livingstone Museum (Ryan, 32). Dr Kirk, also a member of the expedition, was a keen amateur photographer, but he used Talbot’s calotype, and ironically many of his pictures still survive. The expedition did not include Mosi-oa-Tunya. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Vox Zambezi sings a cappella at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

Vox Zambezi, an 'a cappella' (church-style) choir at the Promenade Concert last night at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka, performed a wide range of music, from traditional African to classical European and jazzy American.

Barefeet to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, Manda Hill, Lusaka, Zambia

Although photographs were taken in Zambia early in the history of photography, they were not the first in the region, and there may be others undocumented. The earliest surviving photograph taken in southern Africa is of a Native Woman of Sofala, Mozambique, claimed to be Queen Xai Xai, taken by E. Thiésson in 1845 (Haney, 35). Photographic equipment and chemicals were reportedly available in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth from 1847 (36). ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Agnese Eglina plays Laura Gustovska's Silk at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

Last night the international Latvian pianist Agnese Eglina played Laura Gustovska's 'Silk'. This is a very new and different piece from this Latvian composer. It is a great privilege to see this performed anywhere, let alone in Lusaka. Should you have the opportunity to see this, do not miss it. It is recognisable by the piano being, well, played all over: a piece of silk is draped on the strings of a grand piano and the hands and glass beads are used to play the strings inside the piano and the keys outside. The pictures shows Agnese collecting the glass beads after the performance.

Bottlestore, near Keembe, Zambia

Today, we are rarely conscious of photographs, but in those early times, the issue was: can the image be trusted to be an accurate copy of the subject and, if so, how can it be art? A question that was explored using notions of ‘precision or composition, clarity or idealism and Naturalism or Pictorialism’, culminating in what has been called ‘Victorian aesthetics’ (Bate, 28), an approach that still describes many photographs taken today. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Agnese Eglina piano recital at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka, tonight 1930hrs

Tonight, the promenade concert at Alliance Francaise at 1930hrs is a solo piano recital by the internationally known Agnese Eglina, playing at least Bach, Debussy, Brahms, Garuta and Piazzolla. See you there.

Ngoma Dolce Music Academy's Youth Orchestra plays at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka

The Youth Orchestra and soloists from the Ngoma Dolce Music Academy performed last night at Alliance Francaise de Lusaka. And there was a fantastic rendition of Theo Bross' arrangement for the cello and piano of Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf', by Theo on the cello and Agnese Eglina on the piano with narration by Paul Kelly.

The brochure to the Ngoma Dolce Promenade Concerts, Lusaka

The brochure to the Ngoma Dolce promenade concerts at the Alliance Francaise of Lusaka, from 27th September to 5 October, 2013

Brenda Muntemba's 'In Retrospect' book launch, Lusaka

Brenda Muntemba's 'In Retrospect' book launch is here

Promenade concerts at Alliance Francaise in Lusaka

Charcoal: livelihoods or deforestation?

In this book, the motivation is to disrupt this cliché and show the subject not as a victim but as a dignified participant in his or her own increasingly successful economy and environment. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Oboeist and drum set musician wanted in Zambia.

The great news is the Opera.Z's production of Damyna, Damyna, the opera, is now only two short of a light orchestra, an oboeist, with oboe, and a drum set musician, who can read Weinberg's drum set notation. Let us know, if you are in Zambia. Please Facebook Ngoma Dolce Music Academy.

Opera.Z singers and dancers measured for costumes

The Opera.Z singers and dancers were measured for their costumes by Charity Nyirongo, for Damyna, Damyna, the opera, the leading fashion designer in Lusaka.

A Mumbwa sidewalk, Zambia

A common criticism of documentary photography is that it ‘constructs a victim for its always privileged audience in terms of class, ethnicity, gender or other social category, […] and the dignity of the subject […] is not guaranteed by any particular viewer (Bate, 62). Just such a negative approach has misplaced aid and development for many years and now there is a need for a new photographic response. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Charcoal outlets on public roads, Zambia

Although oppressive times may be becoming scarcer, albeit remaining in living memory, it is time for a change in outlook; there have been developments in the mechanics of photography: a transition from film to digital photography enabling the simple and instantaneous production of images for newspapers, magazines, poster-prints, slideshows and websites, mobile phones, social media or the photograph album; photography is more a media for the masses than ever before. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Sundown in South Luangwa National Park

From Postcards from Zambia, a collection of photographs that reflects aspects of life and society in Zambia

Lusaka Highland Games

Photographs of the Highland Games in Lusaka can be seen and downloaded at http://peterlangmead.com/Proflight/Proflight%20Highland%20Games/

Cooking, Mkushi, Zambia

Such control was no more acute than during the states of emergency in South Africa between 1985 and 1990; yet, despite oppressive behaviour towards photographers by the South African government, there were opportunities for many photographers. One of those was Gideon Mendel, a South African photojournalist who now works from London documenting social issues, particularly in Africa, and who won the Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photography in 1996; Eugene Smith himself was a noted documentary photographer. In comparison with South Africa, Zambia has never had the stark subject matter that deep oppression incurs, but it has a need to record social change for posterity, which is a continuum that remains largely undocumented in the country’s museums. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Opera.Z developments

Following the discovery of the orchestra pit at the Lusaka Playhouse, Cathrine is now hunting for instrumentalists for the small orchestra that will be playing for Damyna, Damyna the opera, at the Lusaka Playhouse in early December.

I am please to announce that Charity Nyirongo will be making the costumes for the opera, both singers and dancers, and will be measuring up on Sunday for the dancers and Monday morning for the singers. Further, she will also be providing clothes for PR interviews before the show.

Although not finalised, it is anticipated that the foyer, auditorium, lighting, stage lighting and back-stage of the Playhouse will be refurbished in time for the Premiere performance in December.

A problem shared, Mpika road, Zambia

So from the 1960s to 1980s, photography theory wrestled between semiotics and traditional realism: the latter insisting that there is no difference between signifier and signified, and the former highlighting the distinctions and subjectivity inherent in semiotics. There are advocates of both theories but ‘by the end of the 1980s, photography finally began to be absorbed into art institutions […] as a dominant modern art form’ (Bate, 29) and some governments ‘acknowledge how powerful photographic images can be’ (30) by controlling advertising images and muzzling the press. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Proflight Misty

Photographs from Proflight's Fly5 function at Misty are here.

My latest book is now available on amazon.co.uk

My latest book, The Zambians, is now available at amazon.co.uk. It will be available in Zambia in a month's time.

Secondary transport - Landless Corner to Mumbwa road, unfinished.

Structuralism evolved into post-structuralism through the incorporation of psychoanalysis and deconstruction. There was much political disruption at this time and there were profound effects on a range of disciplines, including photography. Yet, despite this period of unrest, of all countries, Zambia was an example of a non-warring state and, despite the ‘grave handicaps of its colonial heritage’ (Roberts, 250), remained a free country. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Government projects

Extended from linguist Ferdinand de Saussure’s (1857-1913) earlier work on semiotics, the image of a dog signifies ‘a dog’; it is the signifier that is ‘read’ as a dog. The actual dog was ‘signified’ but it does not exist any more Together they represent a sign. De Saussure importantly recognised that a sign is not necessarily the same in all languages. It is easy to see that this can be extended to creed, race or political disposition, or indeed, the ‘West’, ‘colonialist’, or ‘neo-imperialist’. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Clearing a bit of forest for his farm, near Lusaka, Zambia

The world was in turmoil in the late 1960s; it was the apartheid era in South Africa, the time of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and of America’s war in Vietnam where war photographers Don McCullin and Larry Barrows made their names. There were civil rights movements about race and equality for women in the USA and, in France, students rioted. This was Structuralism, when society focused on structures and rules. For photography, it meant incorporating the concepts of semiotics, which became the foundation of ‘reading’ photographs. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia.

Roadside trade, Chisamba, Zambia

In the same year, the Photographer’s Eye was an influential photographic exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, a collection of admired photographs curated by John Szarkowski, the museum’s director emeritus of the Department of Photography. A year earlier, in 1963, former Drum photographer Peter Magubane became the first black photographer in apartheid South Africa to exhibit his work, in Johannesburg, before being arrested and imprisoned for two years in 1969, and then banned from taking photographs for a further five years (Haney, 109). Drum is an important South African magazine that started in the 1950s, gathering professional African photographers and a readership of erudite Africans, often ANC members. Another ex-Drum photographer, Ernest Cole, eventually managed to publish House of Bondage (1967) in New York, which was the first published photographic account of apartheid in South Africa by a black South African. He died unhappily in exile in New York on the day of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison (111). ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Ministry of Agriculture and LIvestock building, Choma, Zambia

Despite the Polaroid camera being sufficiently developed to take positive colour photographs in 1964, the world’s press recorded Kenneth Kaunda taking Zambia to independence in October that year in black and white. Although this is where the Zambian colonial project ended for Britian, it is where the globalisation project started, a positive feature of a changing world for some, the domination of the Third World by the First World for others (Ashcroft, 101). ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Milk arriving at Choma Milk Cooperative, Zambia, 2008

Globalism, technology and social change ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

On Track, at the Railway Museum in Livingstone, Zambia

But this was a dark time for Zambia: the faltering Northern Rhodesia African National Congress revived under economic stress and falling employment; Kenneth Kaunda, Simon Kapwepwe and Sikota Wina had rebelled against a new constitution based on a minority vote for Northern Rhodesia and formed the Zambia African National Congress, which was banned in 1959 and Kaunda and others were jailed. They were later released in 1960. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

And this really does turnout to be quite a feast. Chatala School, Mkushi

The iconic photographic book The Americans was published in 1958. It is a compendium of street photography taken by Robert Frank across America, capturing the USA as it was in 1956-7. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia

Zambezi Sawmills Mulobezi Office, built c. 1920.

For the next two decades, the country’s development continued apace, and so did that of photography in Europe. In 1947, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David ‘Chim’ Seymour formed the Magnum cooperative, in Paris, which continues to be a leading photographic agency today. Many of the world’s leading photographers work or have worked there, including the social documentarian Sebastião Salgado and the war photographers James Nachtwey and Gilles Peress. ~ Peter Langmead in Postcards from Zambia