Blues Routes, originally a collaboration between Pavel Ramirez, Colin Grafton and Keiko Kitamura, began a couple of years ago experimenting with some gigs adding Sokim Keat, a player of the chapei dong veng, the Cambodian two stringed lute, looking for ways to integrate the chapei into a blues context.
Late last year Cambodian Living Arts created an opportunity to apply for a grant to put together performances for their Cultural Season in January and February 2022. Our intrepid quartet swiftly wrote up a successful proposal; then they had to come up with something.
“We have performed many times at a pub or at a gallery, but with me as the only Cambodian artist,” explains Sokim. “We were so happy to get the grant, but also nervous and surprised, as Cambodian musicians applying to work with musicians from other cultures. We started to think about what songs we could play, we got a storyline, a narrative about the chapei, an adventure from the traditional form to the contemporary.”
To recruit Cambodian musicians for the project, Sokim turned to the teachers at his music school, Friend Music. “They are traditional musicians, they know how to play a lot of instruments, Cambodian and western. We tried playing the songs with different instruments, and agreed together which instruments are good for the songs. There is a very special woodwind, pei or, that sounds like a cicada crying in the forest, we added bowed instruments, double bass and electric bass. It sounds very nice to put it all together.”
Professional Khmer musicians are expected to play a wide range of instruments. “Sometimes they play traditional music for a morning ceremony, and then play in a pop band at night – a lot of work they have to do. During this high season of weddings they have to play morning and night, morning and night.”
The programme, entitled Chapei Diary, is a blend of the old and the new. “Some songs are original,” says Sokim. “I wrote two of the songs, Pavel wrote one. Some traditional songs are played in a new way, with new instruments. One song is very traditional, a folk dance, played by Khmer instruments, but we use other instruments, like the Japanese drum.”
Similarly, the song lyrics are in a variety of languages. “Thavry, the singer, wrote the lyrics. The closing song, for a village ceremony, is in the language of Kreung, a ethnic group from Ratanakiri – January is a special month for celebration in the village.” “Thavry also does two African songs she has written lyrics to – one that she sings in Swahili,” adds Colin.
Pavel, Veasna, Colin, Sokim, Rotana, Thavry & Keiko. Photo: Cambodian Living Arts
Ten years ago Sokim was looking for a class to learn his favourite instrument, the Cambodian zither, or ta khe. “I could only find a chapei class at CLA, so I decided to learn the chapei, just for a hobby, not planning to play in any places. But I learned to love the chapei very much.”
Taking up the chapei led Sokim eventually to establish his music school, where others can follow in his footsteps. “Almost 100% students just want to learn for fun, not to become a professional. Sometimes they could not learn an instrument when they were a child but now they can afford it. Mostly people are interested in traditional instruments, I would say 70%. A lot of people are interested in the tro, even though they don’t know clearly the name of the instrument. There are three kinds of tro: tro sau, tro ou and tro khmer, but when people say I want to learn tro, I know exactly they want to learn tro sau.
“Sometimes they come in a group to learn as a band, to make their own band in their province. One group comes from Prey Veng, over 100 kilometres from Phnom Penh, every Wednesday. We also have on-line classes, some students from outside Cambodia, Cambodian people living in other countries, like Korea, Australia, USA. And now we are running another two branches in Phnom Penh.”
Chapei Diary features seven players, the original quartet augmented by three additional Cambodian instrumentalists. Pei or, two kinds of tro, and traditional hammer dulcimer or khim, plus electric bass, drums and Japanese percussion, harmonica, electric guitar and chapei.
“Most of the time people only see chapei alone, never see playing in the band,” says Sokim. “Chapei can also play in a band, it is one of the main instruments in a classical wedding ensemble, and the spiritual and entertainment ensembles as well. They also might say that a chapei player has to sing, but the chapei player in the traditional ensemble cannot sing.”
As well as the innovation of a pick-up electrifying the instrument, Sokim has configured a strap so that he can play standing up. There have been issues of differing harmonic structures as well. “The tro player has worked very hard at hitting some of the blues notes which are quite unfamiliar,” says Colin.
“They are all trained in western music,” says Keiko. “They can read music and they have very good ears. They don’t read music when we play together, but they have the knowledge.” The whole group has worked across the language barriers to find commonalities and share knowledge. “They know music,” says Colin, “They understand pitch and theory, so they know what Pavel is going on about, even though nothing is written down. We watched Pavel teaching Veasna how to do a reggae bass line; he picked it up really quickly.”
Traditional versus modern: Sokim Keat rocks the chapei standing up
It’s collaborative, but there is little room for improvisation. “For this performance we have to produce a programme,” says Colin. “It has to be about 45 minutes long, we have to limit every song to about three or four minutes maximum. This is very difficult for me; I need at least a minute or so to warm up. We have to remember, we have to count all the time, how many bars each one has.”
“I want to create an environment where people from different cultures can understand each other,” says Sokim. “This is an opportunity for local artists to learn something new – beyond their own tradition. They should know what is blues, what is reggae, it helps to develop their career. And also for international artists to understand more about Cambodian instruments. Maybe we can find other collaborations in the future, people can understand music from each other without having to use language. It’s a good start.”
The Cambodian Living Arts Cultural Season, starting tomorrow and running through to the end of February, features theatre, forums, workshops, dance and much more.
Chapei Diary will be performed as a dress rehearsal at 3.30 pm on Saturday January 29 at the Secondary School of Fine Arts in Tuol Kork ($2), with the full performance at 6.30 pm on Sunday January 30 at the Cambodia Japan Cooperation Center Hall ($4). Limited seating – to book your ticket call 093 485 898 or 010 941 224 or send a message via the Cambodian Living Arts Facebook page.