Pa Sorie Kondi: Without Money, No Family
The Xaverian Missionaries are working in Sierra Leone, West Africa since the early fifties, witnessing the courage and ingenuity of the people of “Salone”, as well as the richness of their small but diverse culture. The story of Pa Sorie is one of those stories of courage and creativity that could only come from the Lord.
This album was recorded in April 2007 at Hot Plate Studio in Tintafor, almost a year after Pa Sorie’s live performance there which became “The Music of Sierra Leone, Vol. 3.” The idea for recording an album in the studio was proposed by Pa Sorie himself even though he had virtually no experience in a true “recording studio” environment.
After some reluctance, Luke Wassermann agreed to build a temporary studio and produce the album for Pa Sorie. There were considerable challenges in the making of the album. For starters, Tintafor has no public electricity supply, so a 3000 watt generator had to be set up and continually refueled with gasoline, which cost US$4.50 per gallon. Noiseproofing in Sierra Leone is virtually impossible because of a lack of proper materials, so recording times had to be worked around everything from the flight schedule at the international airport, only 1 mile away, to the squawking of chickens.
Because Pa Sorie is blind, and can’t read or write, it wasn’t possible to draw out a diagram of song structures, which in Pa Sorie’s music are often assymetrical and not so easily grasped by the recording engineer who must organize all of the tracks on the computer. Everything had to be communicated verbally, and this too was a challenge because Pa Sorie does not speak English, which left Mr. Wassermann with the task of trying to communicate music concepts and technical terms like “overdub” in Krio, a language he only began to speak a few months earlier. But the two men learned to be patient, and laugh when the language barrier caused delays or misunderstandings. By the end of the sessions, each had developed massive respect and admiration for the other’s abilities.
The result was an album that stands to become the all-time favorite cassette of any poda-poda driver, and make a huge impact at the annual CSA Music Awards held at the National Stadium in Freetown.
Check out some samples of his other music
Me Mama no de, Nor kill me
Die nor afraid we
Wetin yu go du fo we
We no go die
Lo we come together
