Kaia's Music Our repertoire is includes world music with heavy emphasis on
African and African-American pieces. We also perform jazz, blues, improv,
spirituals, original works, and anything else we like! See below for
sample mp3s and vids.
AIN'T GONNA LET NOBODY TURN ME 'ROUND Adapted by the Albany Movement from traditional African-American
Arr. Ysaye M. Barnwell and Kaia
The Albany Movement, formed 1961, was a broad-based campaign challenging
all forms of segregation and discrimination in Albany, GA. Martin Luther
King, Jr was a member and shaped its views on nonviolent activism. This
song was popular during the civil rights era. We've updated lyrics to
make it relevant to our struggles today. Sample
(mp3)
ALE BRIDER Eastern European Yiddish folksong adapted by A. Litvin
Lyrics adapted from 1890 Morris Winchevsky poem Akhdes
Arr. Joshua Jacobson
This raucous stompin' song was extremely popular among progressives in
Europe in the 1920’s, celebrating the common bonds of humanity.
Join in with us!
Transl.: "We're all brothers, singing joyous songs. We stick together
like no one else. We're all united, no matter what we have. We all love
one another like newlyweds. We're happy and lively, singing snogs, tapping
our feet. And we're all sisters, too, just like Rachel, Ruth, and Esther."
ARISE Lyrics Julia Ward Howe
Music Lara Weaver View & rate the video at YouTube!
A stirring musical setting of an excerpt from Julia Ward Howe's "Mother's
Day Proclamation." Written in 1870, Howe's Mother's
Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American
Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe's
feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies
at the political level. In one of history's ironies, Howe is known today
primarily as the author of the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
BANDO RIBINNEAN Trad. puirt-à-beul (mouth music)
Eigg, The Hebrides, Scotland
Arr. Libana
BLOOD & GOLD Andy Irvine & Jane Cassidy
Arr. Cairril Adaire
Written by an Irish duo in response to the 1990's-era slaughter in the
states of the former Yugoslavia. Blood & Gold lyrics
deconstructed (PDF) Sample
(mp3)
BRE PETRUNKO Trad. Bulgarian
Arr. Philip Koutev
The following decription of the song is from Libana: Petruna is leading
the dance. A young bumpkin, thinking to court her, gets into line right
next to her. In his eagerness to impress her, he dances so wildly that
he knocks over her bouquet and covers her feet with mud. Sample (mp3)
DEATH CAME A-KNOCKIN' (Travelin' shoes) Trad. African-American spiritual
Arr. Angela Berzins, Cairril Adaire, Lara Weaver View & rate the video at YouTube!
Our soulful, tear-down rendition of this classic celebratory spiritual.
DISTRESS Anne Steele, 1760
A lovely shape-note song about how patience, hope, and faith help us overcome
life's tribulations.
DOSLE JE SU IVANCICE Trad. Croatian
Brought to us by Sue and Marytha of Libana,
this Balkan piece is a traditional Croatian Midsummer/Solstice song. Groups
of girls travel the village singing it, wishing good crops and good luck
to the farmers. In return, villagers give them presents of eggs and cheese.
The girls are called Ladarice because they sing to Lada, goddess of fertility. Sample
(mp3)
DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE Trad. African-American spiritual
Arr. Sweet Honey in the Rock and Kaia
Popular civil rights song Sample
(mp3)
DREVO Ukrainian folksong
As sung by Drevo
A lament for a woman's dead fiancé, but also an allegorical lament
for the death of the spirit of the Ukraine.
Translation by Nadia Tarnawsky:
"In the field, there is a tree, very thin and tall
On this tree there are leaves, wide and green
Upon that tree sits a black crow who caws
And for a Cossack a young maiden weeps
Oh Cossack, you with the periwinkle plaited into a cross
Who will make your bed for you on your journey"
DURME, DURME Trad. Ladino folksong
Arr. Cairril Adaire
Beautiful lullabye from the Jewish tradition.
Translation by Amy Jackson:
Sleep, sleep mother's little boy
Free from worry and pain
Listen to your mother's words
the words of prayer
Sleep, sleep mother's little boy
With the beauty of Sh'ma Yisrael*
*Sh'ma Yisrael is a prayer recited before sleep for spiritual protection
EARLY IN THE MORNIN’ Lara Weaver, with Kaia
A wonderful tune about greeting the day with a song, no matter what the
day might bring. Sample (mp3)
END THIS WAR Trad. African-American
Lyr. Cairril Adaire
A stirring call for an end to the war in Iraq.
EREV SHEL SHOSHANIM Music: Josef Hadar
Lyrics: Moshe Dor (from Song of Songs)
Arr. by Cairril Adaire
Gorgeous love song often sung at Jewish weddings. Sample
(mp3)
Translation by Sara Kramer:
"Evening of roses
Let us go out to the grove
Myrrh, fragrant spices, and incense
Are a threshold for your feet
Night falls slowly
And the wind of roses is blowing
Let me whisper you a song, secretly
A song of love
Dawn, a dove is cooing
Your head is filled with dew
Your mouth is a rose unto the morning
I will pick it for myself
Night falls slowly
And the wind of roses is blowing
Let me whisper you a song, secretly
A song of love"
EVERYBODY LOVES MY BABY Melody Spencer Williams
Lyrics Jack Palmer
Arr. by Cairril Adaire, from an arrangement by the Boswell Sisters
This fast-paced, syncopated jazz piece comes from a 1920s recording by
the Boswell
Sisters. They were an exceptionally talented jazz trio performing
in the 1920s and '30s. Tommy Dorsey, Bunny Berigan, Ella Fitzgerald, and
many other jazz greats counted the Boswell Sisters as significant influences.
This is a classic example of their style, with tight harmonies, multiple
changes of tempo, and the world's most challenging scat singing! Sample
(mp3)
THE FARMER Wicked Tinkers
Arr. Lorraine Hook
An Irish bawdy song from one of the wildest acts in Celtic music!
FATSO Jonatha Brooke/The Story
Arr. Cairril Adaire
A darkly humorous look at the agonies of dieting and the sometimes twisted
nature of women's body image. Sample (mp3)
FHIR À BHATA Jane Finlayson
Arr. Sheena Phillips and Kaia
Composed by Jane Finlayson of Tong, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, for an Uig
fisherman named Donald MacRae in the late 18th century. It speaks of her
longing and worry for him as she waits, wondering if he will ever return.
He did—and they married. Sample
(mp3)
Transl.:
O boatman
My fond wishes go with you each place you go.
1. Often I look out from the highest hilltop
Trying to see the boatman
Will you come today, or will you come tomorrow?
Or will you come at all, me being so sad?
2. My very heart is broken and bruised
Often tears fall from my eyes
Will you come tonight, will I expect you?
Or will I close the door with a dejected sigh?
3. I often ask the other boatmen
Whether they’ve seen you, if you are safe
But all they ever say is
What a fool I am to love you.
FIRST NATIONS LAMENT Cairril Adaire
Mel. Zuni lullabye (see Mamamerica, next column)
This arrangement came out of an improvisation that Kaia did on a Zuni lullabye after listening to Legende de la Femme Enmuree (The Legend of the Walled-Up Woman) from the CD set Unblocked: The Music of Eastern Europe. Cairril chose Navajo words to tell a story of the destruction of First Nations peoples. Doo k'é nizin da, is an extreme insult translating as "He or she does not think according to kinship." Kinship is not just with other humans; it's with the entire natural world. Ritual is necessary to integrate the ill individual back into the collective whole. Ch´ééna expresses the deep lament of those who were forced to migrate over "what had been lost in their move across continents and oceans and never regained." The final word, Manaba, is a Navajo name meaning "War returned with her coming." In the wars and forced migrations across this land, her first peoples were decimated in soul as well as body. We offer this piece to honor all that was lost and to tell of the consequences of disconnection from the Whole.
HIN, HIN, HARADALA Trad. Scots mouth music (puirt-á-beul)
Arr. Janice Bagwell
Depicts a chase through the woods and back and forth across a river.
Mouth music is a type of singing devised to imitate instrumental sounds,
usually pipes, often for dancing. It arose after traditional Highland
instruments were banned after the Scottish rising against the English
throne in 1745. "Lyrics" are usually nonsense sounds that preserve
instrumental sounds. Sample
(mp3)
HODJA Todd Rundgren
Adapted by Cairril Adaire
From Rundgren’s groundbreaking album, A Cappella. A fabulous exploration of Sufi mysticism and peer pressure. :-) A teenager pleads with Hodja to "please show how to spin; I wanna do that dance 'til I forget where I am." All of this is a reference to Sufi Whirling Dervishes. Nasreddin Hodja was a Sufi mystic who taught through humor; the song's uptempo rhythms and desperate teenager who wants to become a mystic just to be popular are a great reflection of that.
HOME By BARNA Trad. Irish, collected in Eastern Canada, though still sung in Sliabh
Luachra, Co Kerry, Eire
Arr. Amy Jackson and Jane Goodman View & rate the video at YouTube!
A wonderful example of traditional Irish music, cautioning the late-night
traveler against spooky things that go bump in the night!
HOTARU KOI
Trad. Japanese
This version came from Libana member Linda Ugelow, who learned it from
some Japanese women.
Transl.: "Come, firefly, come! Over there the water is nasty; over
here the water is sweet."
I Love Everybody Civil rights-era song
Kaiasistah Lara learned this piece at a workshop given by Ysaye M. Barnwell,
who in turn learned it as a prepatory song for a civil rights march in
the 1960s. In the basement of a church, knowing they were heading out
to face hostile law enforcement armed with water cannons, dogs, and guns,
the group was told to sing the song until they meant every word of it.
No matter what they faced outside those doors, they would carry love
in their hearts.
This recording from Bloomington's community celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. That's Lara and her son Jade rockin' out on the drums!
I WILL Radiohead
Arr. Cairril Adaire
From the album Hail to the Thief, a reference to the 2000 "election"
of George Bush. The song chronicles the journey from the desire to give
up struggling to the determination to rise up—for the sake of creating
a better world for our children.
ISTANBUL (NOT CONSTANTINOPLE) Lyr. Jimmy Kennedy
Music Nat Simon
Arr. Cairril Adaire
Written in 1953 for The Four Lads (though based on an earlier piece), this amusing piece of musical fluff
was given new life by They Might Be Giants on their 1990 album Flood. Our arrangement combines swing, jazz, and an excursion into Brooklyn.
THE KAIA ANTHEM! Mel. Father’s Whiskers (and variants thereof!) Lyr. Angela Berzins
Arr. Kaia
Blatant self-promotion using our version of barbershop harmonies and Julie Andrews pronunciation.
KHOOLA Trad. puirt-à-beul (mouth music)
Arr. Libana
Transl.: "I heard it of three and I heard it of four that my love
has gone away." Sample (mp3)
LA ROSA ENFLORECE Trad. Ladino folksong
Arr. by Amy Jackson and Angela Berzins
Transl.: "The rose blooms in May but my soul wilts from love sickness;
the nightingales sing with sighs of love. In your hands are my soul and
fate. Come quicker, dove, hurry and save me."
LEPI JURO Trad. Croatian folksong
Transl.: "Beautiful Juro made the bonfire in the evening on St George's
Day. With his right hand, he made the bonfire, and with his left hand,
he made the wreath."
A beautiful Croatian song praising Juro, who brings the Spring. Sample
(mp3)
MAIDS, WHEN YOU'RE YOUNG, NEVER WED AN OLD MAN Trad. Irish drinking song
Learn the chorus and sing along with us!
Because he's got no faloorum, fai-diddle, fai-loorum
He's got no fa-loorum, fai-diddle all day!
He's got no fa-loorum, he's lost his ding-doorum
Maids, when you're young, never wed an old man! Sample
(mp3)
MAMAMERICA Medley: Zuni lullabye/God Bless America/Hopi chant/Hey Mama/Mother,
I Feel You Under My Feet
Zuni Lullabye: Hm atseki okshits'ana pokets'ana. Transl.: "My
boy, little cotton tail, little jackrabbit" God Bless America: Music by Irving Berlin; Lyrics by Lara Weaver Hopi Chant: Hey Yanna Ho Yanna Hey Yanna Hey Mama: Pagan chant by Gypsy Mother, I Feel You Under My Feet: By Diane Martin
Zuni/God Bless/Hopi arranged by Upstart
Hey Mama/Mother arranged by Cairril Adaire Sample
(mp3)
MANGWANI MPULELE Trad. Xhosa
Arr. Kaia
Many thanks to Jim Cubbin, who pointed us to a translation of the lyrics for this!
Translation by Theodore Bikel in Folksongs and Footnotes: An International Songbook: Aunt, open the door for me, I am getting wet with rain.
Whether I am here, whether I am there, I'm getting wet with rain.
MAQUERúLE Trad. Colombian folksong
Arr. Julián Goméz Giraldo & Kaia
Transl.:
Maquerúle was a baker fellow from Andagoya, they called him "good
old Maquerúle," going broke selling on credit.
Knead the bread, Maquerúle, work it out; work the bread with your
hands, sweat it out.
Maquerúle isn't here. Maquerúle is in Condoto. When he returns,
he'll find out his wife's gone off with another.
Knead the bread, Maquerúle, work it out; work the bread with your
hands, sweat it out.
Maquerúle kneads the bread, but now he sells cash only! Maquerúle
doesn't want to sell his bread on credit.
Knead the bread, Maquerúle, work it out; work the bread with your
hands, sweat it out. Sample (mp3)
Od Yavo Shalom Alaynu Trad. Hebrew
Arr. Amy Jackson
A combination of Hebrew and Arabic lyrics show the desire for peace in
this uplifting folksong.
Transl. "There will be peace for us and all the world. Peace for
us and all the world; peace, peace." Sample
(mp3)
OLILILI Trad. Bantu lullabye
Arr. Lara Weaver from Miriam Makeba
A beautiful lament about a mother who cannot feed her starving child, and tries to hush the crying child to sleep.
Translation by Jonas Gwangwa & E. John Miller:
Early one morning, in the homelands,
on my way to my favorite haunt
In the homelands, I heard a beautiful voice from the hilltop.
It was a haunting melody in the homelands.
The woman sang beautifully in the homelands.
Her voice was beautiful, beautiful over the hills.
Oli-li-li, A lu-lu-lu, Oli-li-li,
Oli-li-li, A lu-lu-lu, Oli-li-li.
Sleep, my baby, I am lulling you to sleep.
Do not cry, my baby, I am comforting you.
Sleep, my baby, I am lulling you to sleep.
Do not cry, my baby, I am comforting you.
ON OUR WAY TO FREEDOM LAND Trad. African-American spiritual
Arr. Cairril Adaire
A rousing gospel call-and-response song used during the civil rights movement.
PASTEVECKE HELOKANIE Czech mountain holler
Arr. Libana View & rate the video at YouTube!
A great way to get someone's attention across the street.
Rise In Love Ysaye M. Barnwell
Arr. Cairril Adaire
Commissioned by The Mystic Chorale, Rise In Love is Barnwell's/Sweet Honey in the Rock's response to the events of Sept 11th. The piece is dedicated to Cesare Giovanni Mathis Melussi, born two weeks after 9/11. Barnwell says "Rise in love" emerged as a mantra she found herself saying over and over in the wake of Sept 11th. Cairril takes a more contemporary R&B approach to the piece, simplifying lyrics without losing the political edge and the call to love so beautifully expressed in Barnwell's original.
PASTEVECKE "HELOKANIE" Czech mountain holler
Arr. Libana Sample
(mp3) See the video!
SARVAM BRAHMAN Hindu Chant
Arr. Janice Bagwell & Kaia
Transl.: "All this creation is wholeness, oh my!" Sample
(mp3)
SINGABAHAMBAYO Trad. Zulu
Arr. Janice Bagwell
Transl.: "We are leaving this world but we have a home in heaven."
(With thanks to Murray McGibbon at IU for the translation)
Popular in the South African freedom movement Sample
(mp3)
STEP BACK, BABY/CHICKA HANKA Playground song/Railroad song
Arr. Cairril Adaire View & rate the video at YouTube!
We found these songs in a songbook recommended by a Kaia mom. Our versions
are a little more funky than what's written! Step Back, Baby
is a call-and-response song collected by Keith Knighton from some kids
at a Boston playground (learn
more). It segues nicely into Chicka Hanka, an old railroading
song. Our version adds percussive elements and hand slaps.
THE SUN WILL NEVER GO DOWN African-American hymn
Arr. Bernice Johnson Reagon and Kaia Sample
(mp3)
Travelers Prayer Trad/Renbourn
As sung by Suzannah and Georgia Brown with additional arrangement and
lyrics by Cairril Adaire
This lovely, lilting song is written in shape-note style but we've been
unable to find the original source. If you have information about this
song, please contact us! The lyrics draw on
ancient Irish themes of blessing and praise, asking the Moon to bring
health and end all suffering.
VAHINE TAIHARA Trad. Mahoi (Polynesia)
Arr. Tubuai Choir
This song is about a fisherwoman who has returned from Havaiki to learn of this world and take the teachings back to the ancestors again when she departs (i.e. she is a shaman). "Haviki" is the Mahoi word for the afterworld where their ancestors' spirits reside. Repeated mention is made of Te Vahine, a warrior woman who used the power of the sky to dispute a high warrior on his declaration of war. She challenged him by taking his spear from him (wink wink). The Mahoi are a Polynesian people living on Tubai, 500 mi SE of Tahiti. Fletcher Christian & crew stayed 3 months there after they mutinied on the Bounty. They were kicked out after they
caused too much violence. They went on to Pitcairn, where most died.
VANGELINE Trad. Greek
Lyrics by Eleanor Graham Vance
Arr. Cairril Adaire
Cairril swears she came across this lovely, lilting folk song in the children's
songbook Songs of Many Lands (1943), but it appears to have vanished. However, thanks to Tony Patriarche, who alerted us to a thread regarding the piece, we now know that the melody comes from Kyra-Vaggelio, a Greek tune that George Papavgeris thinks might be a few hundred years old and which is still very popular in Greece today. George supposes the lyrics of the original piece may refer to a village woman (Vaggelio) who gave water to a stranger, which was misconstrued as unfaithfulness by her husband, and resulted in Vaggelio throwing herself off a cliff. (So much for "pay it forward." ;-))
Our version, with "Olde Englishe" lyrics concocted by Eleanor Graham Vance, is a love song sung during a drought to the
goddess of rain, enticing her to bring the cool waters which will "quench
the thirst" of the trees and vines, bringing them back to fruitfulness. Many thanks to Tony for helping us with this info! Sample (mp3)
WE ARE GOING Cairril Adaire (?) We are going/Through the valley/We are going/On the road
We are wand'ring/And so weary/We are searching/For our home
We are going/Through the valley/We are going/On the road
We are searching/For our children/Who will lead us/Over home
We are going/Through the valley/We are going/On the road
We will find our/True relations/We will find/Our way home
This song literally came to Cairril in a dream. In the dream, Jane was
singing the song and Allison joined in. Perhaps creative credits should
go to the collective unconscious?? In the dream, Kaia was sharing its
collective grief over the devastation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
In our minds was the story Cairril heard in the waking world the night
before, told by Cameron Diaz during a national fund-raising telethon.
In The Exodus from New Orleans post-Katrina, reporters came across a six-year-old
boy with a baby in his arms. Behind him were five children, the youngest
hardly old enough to walk. They all were holding hands, walking down the
road together. The kids were relatives and friends of each other and had
no idea where their parents were. But they were walking out of New Orleans,
heading away from apocalypse and towards the unknown. The good news is
all the children were reunited with their parents. That haunting image
of what it took for those children to do that was very much present in
our minds in the dream as we sang.
WOOD STREET Shape-note song
Tate & Brady, 1696
Judy Hauff, 1986
A haunting song of spiritual desolation and loss. The lyrics draw on Christian,
Jewish, and ancient Irish themes. Sample
(mp3)
WOYAYA Written in 1970s by T. Osei, Sol Amarifio, L. Amao, M. Tonton,
W. Richardson, R. Bailey, and R. Bedeau
Arr. Ysaye M. Barnwell
This song speaks to the trust that, while we don't know where we're headed
in life, we're going to keep going and "get there." And that
it's all going to be all right. This is one of our favorite pieces. Woyaya. Sample
(mp3)
YONDA COME DAY Trad. Georgia Sea Islands spiritual
Arr. Lara Weaver
One of the strongest bastions of African culture in the U.S. is the Georgia
Sea Islands off the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas. Due to a variety
of unique conditions in both the slave and post-slavery era, the African-American
residents were able to preserve much more of their indigenous cultures
than those on the mainland. This song was chanted/sung for hours on New
Year's Eve while the congregation waited for the sun to rise on a new
year.
