Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Music Steven Feld will screen his new documentary film “A Por Por Funeral for Ashirifie” at the Outpost Performance Space on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. Por Por music (pronounced “Paw Paw”) is named for the honking sound of antique squeeze-bulb car horns.
The documentary introduces audiences to the funerary music of bus and taxi drivers in the Accra township of La in Ghana. Introduced in the pre-electric horn days of the1930s, the drivers used the squeeze-bulb car horns as a signaling device on large transport vehicles. A big part of their work was moving timber logs over forest roads. The rough roads guaranteed tire problems and drivers who had to change a tire at night would honk their horns and beat wrenches on tire rims to frighten animals who might be lurking in the nearby brush.
Feld says the drivers eventually began to use the tire rims and horns to make music. They played bell and drum parts on the tire rims, and with the car horns they imitated the traditional music for elephant tusk and antelope horn ensemble. Then they substituted pliable enema bulbs for the original heavy rubber ones to play the horns with speed, and developed a form of music that was a cross between Ghanaian wind and percussion traditions and swing jazz.
This music remained unknown to the public because the drivers only performed Por Por at funerals for their own union members. The film follows the honk horn funeral for one of the group’s founding members. It also explores the similarity between the honk horn funerals of Ghana and the New Orleans jazz funerals.
Feld came to UNM in 2003, after holding professorships at Columbia, NYU, University of California at Santa Cruz, University of Pennsylvania and the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently finishing a book about jazz and cosmopolitanism in Accra. This film is one of three that accompanies the book project.
In addition to the film, Feld produced a historical CD book about Por Por for Smithsonian Folkways in 2007, and has now produced a follow-up Por Por CD titled “KLEBO!” In addition to the film he will debut the new CD along with a slide show of photographs and commentary.
Klebo! is available at: Voxlox.
To hear a sample of Por Por music, visit: Por Por.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu