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About Zekkereya:
Zekkereya El-Magharbel is an Egyptian-American educator, animator, graphic designer, illustrator, trombonist, and improviser based in New York. They have performed with a wide range of musicians including Tyshawn Sorey and Solange Knowles, and are a member of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. As an educator, Zekkereya is interested incorporating a variety of multidisciplinary techniques into their approach.
"By 1950, what historian Daniel Belgrad has called an 'aesthetic of
spontaneity,' promulgated among a loose coherence of individually
unique artists, writers, and musicians" (Lewis 29).
I have decided to use Zekkereya's improvisation as a coda that provides puncuation on my reflections on the other three performances. Zekkereya's distinctly unstructured improvisation on the trombone—one of the oldest instruments to be used in military music—shows us how a military instrument can be strategically "indigenized" to communicate to new audiences, and in new ways. Since I have just used the word "communicate," it is important to note that some performances by military may not always be received as just "music," per se, but as rhythmic/melodic codes with distinct linguistic functions. By the 18th century, for example, the British army had developed a “complex code of drum signals” with a “well rehearsed system of rhythms and beatings,” and similarly, the fife, which, as Murray comments, dates back to “antiquity,” was used as an “instrument of command” (Murray 8–9). What, then, does it mean for Zekkereya to perform unplanned sound on an instrument used to convey signals in colonial armies? I would argue that Zekkereya effectively (and intentionally) disrupts a colonial expectation of coded communication.
In their performance, we hear form broken down, boundaries redrawn, social relations re-organized. Spontaneity is used to disrupt, but at the same time, Zekkereya's sound takes on a remarkably fluid, almost rippling quality.
The interesting paradox of occupation is that it simultaneously energizes rupture and continuity. This is the hinge on which instruments are indigenized and traditions are invented.
By now likely comes as no surprise that we can think of the Egyptian military music (and the incorporation of the trombone specifically) in the context of the British military occupation that lasted from 1882-1952. As mentioned on the home page, European imperialism has resulted in compelling formations of the brass band around the world, and as such, a plethora of "musical creoles" (Boonzajer-Flaes 2000, 10–11).
Zekkereya's primary access to the trombone is through the new music scene in New York, a community similarly marked by a creolization of sounds. Zekkereya is interested in pushing the boundaries of what a trombone can sound like, by using extended techniques, experimenting with solo and collaborative improvisation. They are deeply inspired by Anthony Braxton and George Lewis, both of whom are AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) members, and both of whom were awarded Genius Grants from the MacArthur foundation.
Zekkereya pictured with George Lewis
"The criticism of the new music as 'just noise' can be seen as a holdover
from antebellum days, when the music of black slaves, as historian Jon
Cruz notes, 'appears to have been heard by captors and overseers primarily
as noise—that is, as strange, unfathomable, and incomprehensible.'"(Lewis 44)
Watch Zekkereya's Hero, George Lewis, on Trombone
Poem by Zekkereya, taken from their Instagram
What is Zekkereya's region? Tommy's? Alfredo's? Musthapha's?
ARMY STEW
These four performances comprise the ingredients for a massive army stew. Disparate but related fragments have been mixed into one pot, telling stories of diasporic identity creation and decolonial resistance. Indigenized instruments are poured into the pot, as are new foods and new sounds, old foods and old sounds. There are no easy-to-follow steps for this recipe.
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