(slow music) - Good evening and welcome to the "Expressions" Directors Cut Digital Event with Samite.

I'm Andy Pioch, a senior producer and director at WSKG.

And I am sitting in our television production control.

I'm usually sitting in the chair right behind me talking to our camera operators when we record our Expression's episodes here on location.

So I figured this is a fitting location for tonight's broadcast as we are giving you a behind the scenes look at our recent episode featuring Samite.

We will be bringing him into the show shortly, but just want to thank everyone for checking out this program.

Please use the chat box to introduce yourself and let us know where you are watching from.

Feel free to ask a question about the "Expressions" program or to Samite, and we will do our best to answer as many questions as possible in the hour.

Special thanks to Alyssa, Nancy and Patrick, who are handling all the behind the scenes wizardry tonight, and they will provide a link to the full "Expressions" episode featuring Samite at the end of the program in case you missed it or would just like to watch it again.

Well, I think it's time to bring in our special guest for tonight, world renowned musician and humanitarian, Samite.

Samite, welcome to the "Expressions" Directors Cut Digital Event.

- Thank you, Andrew.

- Man, we had a great time recording this episode.

I think we recorded it last October.

It finally premiered last Friday on WSKG TV.

And man, it was just so much fun to work with you.

We worked with you in the past, but this concert was a little bit special to you and to Nate, your musical compatriot, who will be bringing in later in the hour.

But just tell us a little bit about why this concert was special for you.

- Well, it was the first time we performed since COVID.

So it was, I mean, with a live audience.

So it was very exciting to hear people breathing and people going, ah, and we ate it up.

We were just like, oh, bring it, bring it.

It was so exciting and also was very exciting for the two of us to play together like that.

So it was very special.

- Yeah, the chemistry between you and Nate was evident throughout the program.

I mean, so many times at the end of the songs, like you both almost had to contain laughter almost as you were getting through the song.

And I don't know if that was just because it was just such a joyous occasion to actually be back playing music in front of an audience.

We did have a limited audience back in October for this event, but man, it was just such a fantastic show.

And of course.

- Yeah, it felt like we were in our own studio.

When we get together, we love to just play without anybody around and we just perform and just for ourselves and it felt like that.

It felt like we were in our own studios.

- Well, yeah, the broadcast episode was of course only a half hour and it also had a very nice biography section, we visited your studio and did an interview with you in that, that's also in the episode.

But I wanna say you probably performed overall for probably out an hour and 15 minutes or so.

So it just goes to show you like how much more music was actually available and all the extra songs that didn't make the broadcast will be available for viewing on our website.

We'll give you more information about that later, if the audience would like to check those out.

Now, Samite of course, one of the unique parts about your music are the instruments you play.

I mean, you don't usually see the types of instruments that you play, obviously, in the traditional American music scene.

So I'm kind of hoping you can give a little bit of a tutorial to our viewers about the instruments.

So how many different instruments did you play?

Can you remember, during the performance?

- I was afraid you're gonna ask that.

But I know, I was playing a bunch of kalimbas, thumb piano, things like this.

- [Andy] How far back do these instruments, like these traditional instruments, how far back do they go in African culture?

- Well, way, way back.

I don't even...

I've never actually...

These are things that are passed on from generation to generation.

So they've been played forever.

This one is not too old.

It's only about 100 years old.

- [Andy] Oh, that's it.

- And it's from Tanzania.

(Kalimba playing) It's one of my favorite one.

And I have, also we played this tiny little one.

I just love this one.

- How long have you had all these instruments?

Have you had them for a long time or do you play them and then replace them?

- No, I don't replace them.

(both laughing) I keep collecting them.

The places we go, like there was a place where I went in Eastern part of Uganda called Soroti, and there the musicians after performing, I said, can I have one of those instruments?

Like, where can I get one of those?

And at the end of the evening they were like, take my instrument, take my instrument.

And I ended up coming back with maybe like 20 of them.

And I felt so bad for the village because I was like, I'm taking music away.

But they were like, we are all going to drink tonight.

We'll make new instruments.

So, I was buying them really cheap.

Maybe like $50.

Yeah.

- Do you have a personal favorite of the traditional instruments that you play?

- I think, actually this little one is one of my very...

I love this little instrument.

The sound is so soothing.

And when I first came here, I was invited by Paul Simon to record.

He was working on some music and I used this one.

So he wrote on good luck Samite, so it's one of my good luck instruments.

- That's great.

That's fantastic.

Paul Simon.

- But we also played Adungu, which is like a beautiful, like hap.

This is from Northern Uganda.

And I think we played Litungu, which I got when I was in...

This one I got when I was in Kenya.

(Litungu playing) When I was there as a political refugee.

So we played a bunch of beautiful old instruments there.

- Yeah, I mean, soothing is such a good term for your music.

It's just so soulful and peaceful and the rhythms and your vocals, it was really nice to go through all the music and listen to it over and over again as I was editing the program.

How did you decide on the set list?

How did you and Nate decide on the set list for the performance?

- We actually didn't.

We worked out a bunch of songs.

We're gonna play all from this list, but we didn't set up, okay, let's start this.

We were just going with the flow, because when you have an audience in front of you, when you hear them going, oh, then you take it more in that direction.

And so we were like reading what the audience was feeling.

So we actually didn't really, really have number one, number two, number three, no.

We were just improvising as we went.

- I wonder if that might have helped with the performance and like just how natural it was.

And that there wasn't like a pressure to play like a set list that that was pre-planned.

- You know what, Andrew, this is what we always do when we have an audience.

And maybe it's a lot of pressure on the band because they're like, what is he gonna play next?

What is he gonna play next?

But it is very difficult for me to stick to a set list.

So I always kind of react to the audience and how they're breathing and how...

If I can feel like they really need to be taken into a deep place, then I stay with that.

And so some songs can even go up to 20 minutes if I feel the audience still can enjoy it.

- Yeah, a lot of the songs were probably in the five to eight minute range.

But you didn't really notice them.

They all went by so fast just with the beautiful rhythms.

I know a lot of the songs, they'd come from your most recent album.

I don't know if you want to talk about that at all.

I believe it was music for a movie soundtrack.

- Yes.

The album is called "We Can Care Again".

And the soundtrack was, it's about two doctors who are working in Uganda, doing palliative care, working with Ugandan doctors.

And so the album was called "Oriotia".

I mean, the film was called "Oriotia".

The album is called "We Can Care Again".

And it was actually nominated on Hollywood music in the media awards.

So that was really nice.

- When will you find out, if you win the awards?

- [Samite] I didn't win.

- Oh, you didn't.

Well, you know what?

- It's already come and gone.

- You know what, you probably can't see it, but I was just nominated for an Emmy and I didn't win either.

- Oh, you were?

- It's fine.

It's fine just to be nominated, Samite.

Let me say that.

- I've been actually twice nominated.

Even my last album was also nominated.

Yes.

"Resilience".

- "Resilience".

Yeah.

That was another song that you performed.

That one did not make the edited broadcast, but once again, that will be available for people to see on our WSKG video page.

And we'll be providing a link for that down the line.

Can you talk a little bit more about how you got involved with the soundtrack album and working with these doctors?

- So, when they were shooting in Uganda, the director of the film noticed that they were listening to my music the whole time.

And so she contacted me and said, these two guys love your music, would you be interested in writing a soundtrack?

And it so happens that they were listening to certain songs.

So we took some of those songs that they loved to listen to, and we turned them into instrumentals.

And so it was very special because you know what, watching the film, these guys were working with people in the villages, people who were like really poor, who didn't have much but generous at the same time, 'cause they would share their chicken or like roosters, give it to the doctors.

And I could see the doctors were struggling, thinking, what am I gonna do with this rooster?

But Ugandans are very generous.

So anyway, watching the film, it inspired me a lot, especially the new songs that I wrote.

And even the older ones, we really made them go with the film.

- It looks like we have a question in the chat.

Just wondering if you have any plans to tour or play live in the near future.

- We definitely want to tour.

We are missing it quite a bit.

We don't have any bookings yet because things are just beginning to open up.

But we are talking to different presenters and hopefully things will happen.

We can't wait to start touring and seeing people.

- For sure.

Would your website probably be the best place for people to- - [Samite] Yes.

- To check on future tour dates, and I believe that's just Samite.com.

- [Samite] Samite.com.

Yes.

- That's an easy one.

That an easy one to remember.

I think what we're gonna do now is we are going to play one of the songs that did not make the television broadcast.

And maybe you can intro, I really enjoyed the story that you told before this piece.

And maybe before we play it for our digital event audience here, maybe you can tell it.

This is your original song, "Muzinge".

- So "Muzinge", it's an instrumental of course, because we played it for the soundtrack.

When I was a little kid, my mom would get ready to go out.

And I would say, mama, where are you going?

(speaks foreign language) And so she would bring in this traditional songs, (sings in foreign language) which is I'm going to see the peacock.

And she knew, I didn't wanna see the peacock.

'Cause I was always afraid when it would open up really big.

So she would be like, (speaks foreign language) And so in this song, that's what I'm singing, but playing with the flute, telling that story.

But I would overdo it and say, (sings in foreign language) My back is hurting.

(sings in foreign language) My knees are hurting.

And so she knew I wasn't sick, 'cause I would say all these things that are really hurting and she would be like, think he's gonna be okay.

- I'll have to take some notes because right before I came back to work for this event, my two year old daughter was not too pleased about me leaving.

So I'm gonna have to come up with my own Muzinge story, I think, so I won't be bothered if I'm heading out to go back to work.

But without further ado, let's check out "Muzinge" from Samite's WSKG "Expressions" performance.

(bright upbeat music) (sings in foreign language) (audience clapping) - And that was Samite performing his original song, "Muzinge".

And of course you were watching the "Expressions" Directors Cut Digital Event, streaming on the WSKG Facebook and YouTube channels.

If you have a question for Samite, please ask it in the chat and we'll do our best to answer them.

But I think it's high time we bring in Samite's partner in crime during this "Expressions" performance.

You just saw them.

These two have worked together for years and they've even traveled across the world together.

And he's an old friend of WSKG, as he has been an audio engineer for some past "Expressions" episodes himself.

Welcome Nate Richardson.

- Hey.

- Nate, coming to us from a studio in Ithaca.

Thanks for joining us tonight.

And thanks for playing with Samite on our "Expressions" episode, it was truly a pleasure to work with you two.

And we actually had an interesting question come in during that performance.

And the question is how easy is it to blend sounds from the traditional African music and of course, Nate, you play in many kind of like folk rock bands.

So how easy is it to blend that sound?

Because obviously what we just heard was beautiful.

- Well, Samite, I think just raised his hand.

I think he wants to answer.

Go ahead.

Oh, oh, we lost you bro.

I'll answer then.

It's so easy.

It's so, so easy.

Although I will say it did take me kind of a lot of years to, I think, fully gain Samite's trust.

But once I did that, there's really no holding back and no effort, we just play.

- Well, your guys' chemistry was definitely evident.

I mean, as I mentioned, you guys were having a great time during that evening.

- Yeah, I don't know if he already mentioned that it was our first time playing since COVID came.

We did some recording during that time I think, but no live shows.

So it was really just cathartic to finally get in front of an audience and just let it fly.

- Wait, was that your first live performance as well since the start of the pandemic?

- No, I did a bunch of stuff last summer at the Finger Lake Cider House.

And I've done a handful of shows with Sim Redmond band, played at a wedding with another one of my bands.

But yeah, that was the first time with Samite since COVID.

And yeah, it just comes out effortlessly.

We have done so much traveling together and we just enjoy what each other does with the music and it just kinda meshes and becomes very easy once we get started.

- We did have a comment, and I apologize if I mispronounced this, but it takes me back to the people we met in Naga Lama.

And just a thank you.

I think I heard Samite humming.

Maybe we have Samite back.

Oh, I hear him, there he is.

- I don't know, technology is crazy.

- Gremlin's in the system.

Gremlin's in the system.

Well, you know what, it was a perfect, it's a good thing we brought Nate in.

'cause if it was just me up here trying to fill that time, who knows what I was gonna say.

So thank goodness.

Thank you, Nate.

Samite, how long have you and Nate played together?

- Well, we were just wondering, because I think we met in 2005.

And when did we start playing together both?

- Well, I think regularly, not until probably 2013, 14.

I remember we did a trip down to North Carolina.

Do you remember, Leaf festival?

- Oh yeah.

- That would've been 2013.

And I think that's when we started really playing together a lot.

And then the second win tour and age of disruption tours is when we really just, regular, every day kind of thing.

- And always the magic, always there's magic when we play together.

That's for sure.

- [Nate] Oh yes.

- Well, Nate, you did mention that you felt, it took a while for you to earn Samite's trust.

Samite, can you talk about that at all?

Like did you have to put Nate through like a training regimen before you two played live together?

- I think I used to be really, really picky and I thought people didn't do their homework.

And then when I met him, I found out that he listened to a lot of African music.

He listened to, in fact, when we drive in the car, we're always like, you gotta listen to this.

And he listens to West African music, listened to, he knew songs from East Africa.

He knew even songs from Liberia.

♪ Sweet mother, never forget you ♪ So it just happens like this guy listens to a lot of African music.

So in the beginning I was like, okay, no, no, no, just do this little.

And then eventually I realized he does his homework.

- That's great.

Well, and I know, and maybe we can kind of talk about your charitable organization now, Samite, musiciansforworldharmony.org, because I know you returned to Africa with this organization.

And I believe you and Nate actually took a trip together.

Correct?

- We did.

Yeah.

In fact, that was the last trip I did, I made to Uganda.

We went together, we were performing for kids with nodding syndrome and we performed in Kenya, performed in Uganda for orphans.

And again, I was very pleased and happy to see that the kids really connected with him, connected with Nate.

And we can't wait to do this again.

- Nate, what was that like traveling to Africa?

I mean, I know it's exotic here in festal for our "Expressions" recording, but how was playing in Africa?

- Oh, I mean, that was an experience of a lifetime.

If I never do anything again, it was enough just to be able to see the continent of Africa.

As Samite said, that's been my musical focus since discovering the kora, a former teacher of mine, Wesley Worth, if you're out there, Wes, introduced me to kora music in 1998 and ever since then, it was just more and more and more African music.

When I was touring with other bands, I would go to all the record stores, used record stores and Amoeba music in San Francisco was a great place.

And I would buy CDs, anything, I would open it up and look and see if it was...

If I could see synthesizers, I wouldn't buy it.

If I could see Kora or Goni or, Dun Dun, I would buy those.

And I just built up this collection over the years.

And to be able to witness the culture from which that all came granted, I wasn't necessarily studying Ugandan music specifically.

Although I did have some music from Kenya that I was listening to a lot.

And in fact, I remember, as Samite mentioned, we would ride in the car and I would put some music on and he would say, where did you get this?

(all laughing) This is my music.

I love this music.

- So you were introducing Samite to music from- - No, I was playing music for him that he thought he would never hear again ever.

- Gotcha.

- It was very old recordings, field recordings from Kenya.

- Okay, Andrew, here's the thing.

When you play music for people who are struggling, people who are sick, people who are displaced, it's different from playing to people who are drinking and having a good time.

Because sometimes they don't even, can't even move really much.

They just move just the shoulder, and you know you've touched them in a different way.

So when you go to bed to sleep that night, you feel a little warmer.

Your heart feels really big.

It's amazing.

I mean, we love big audiences and drunk audiences.

(all laughing) But when you play for kids who are sick, when you play for a kid who'd been a child soldier and he'd been made to kill and you see music is touching him, it's a different story completely.

- I mean, I can't imagine.

And that's amazing that you guys got to experience that.

We did get another question concerning when you two performed together.

And the comment was, it's always magical and fresh, and just wondering, like, how does that happen?

I'm assuming that probably for most of you, like no two shows are alike, just based off of your stylings.

Can you talk about what it's like, how you're gonna like perform, but you really have no idea what's gonna come out.

- Well, first of all, because the audience, because we read the energy from the audience that changes every show.

So there's like a cycling going on.

We take the energy from them and then we give it back.

And so it changes from audience to audience.

- It's a conversation.

You don't know what you're gonna hear, so you don't know what you're gonna play.

And if you're fluent in musical language, you can chat back and forth very quickly.

And yeah.

That's what makes it magic, I think, is that spontaneity?

It's like dancing.

It's like talking.

- I'm assuming that the trip to Africa is probably your favorite location where you played together.

Is that like your favorite concert?

- Oh, I'll tell a quick, my favorite.

I'm not usually a big fan of picking favorites of anything, but we did play a concert, I think you know which one I'm talking about, Samite, for the children at the school with the uniforms.

Braintree.

- Braintree Primary School.

- Martha and her family, those kids.

We have never played for such a quick and precise, the way they picked up on every little musical change we made, the clapping.

Sometimes you play for an American audience and you get them clapping.

And they start here and then it suddenly, it's like, they're clapping there, they're clapping there, and they just go, then it slows way down.

And you're like, come on audience, play, stay with us here.

But these kids were so right on it.

And of course they were all dressed in these beautiful, beautiful.

- School uniform.

- School uniforms.

And they did a big, long performance for us before we even played, I believe.

Or was it after, I can't remember.

- I think it was after.

- After they did a beautiful performance.

They had a musical director that they did a play for us that was all choreographed and sung.

There was no dialogue, it was all a musical thing.

And I remember they were, it was about being drinking.

Avoiding drinking and they all got to pretend to be drunk or a couple of them got to play drunk up there.

It was so cute.

It was so great.

These were like elementary school age kids.

- It's like they were putting on a scared straight demonstration for you two.

(all laughing) - That was great though.

- Do you have a favorite song that you play together?

I remember when we recorded your performance, like you guys were pretty much wrapped up.

I think you performed nine songs and I wanna say the audience, like almost goated you into playing one more song.

So I wonder if.

- My favorite is "Bambacambara".

"Bambacambara", what's the name of that one?

- I'm trying to remember what that one.

- [Nate] Bambacambara (singing in foreign language) "Muno Muno".

I was just like, what if I didn't remember what that song is?

(musical instrument playing) Can you hear a little bit?

- [Andy] Sure can.

(musical instrument playing) (singing in foreign language) (Nate laughing) - So it is actually based on a traditional song, it's called (speaks foreign language) - Of course.

Can you spell that for us?

- Yeah.

It's about a young man who started growing hair on his chest and he became arrogant and he went to his grandfather's house and challenged, any spirits in this house come out, I'll challenge you in a wrestling match.

And the spirit said, "we've been here a long time".

And when he had that big voice, he went and shaved off all the hairs.

So it's a song that teaches you to be humble, even when you grow little hairs on your chest.

(all laughing) - That's fantastic.

I really enjoyed like, yeah, your descriptions of the songs and the stories that went behind them.

You have such a great way of storytelling, and unfortunately, due to the time constraints of the TV broadcast we couldn't include a lot of that, but that's where you can visit our video page and all the songs are gonna be released individually.

And those will include the stories like how Samite told the story of the "Muzinge".

And it was such a peaceful episode.

It was really a great, just fantastic working with you guys.

- Thank you.

- Let's talk a little bit about like the looping effects that you guys use.

I'm assuming that this was not used in traditional African music, like a couple hundred years ago, right Samite?

- In my case, actually, the moment I came here, I didn't have a work permit in the beginning and I was playing by myself.

So I was always looking for a way of recording over and over dub, over dubbing myself.

And actually, it goes even way back, before I came I used to listen to Barry White.

And I would hear him singing in the background and singing another voice in the back and the back.

And so when the technology came, there was an equipment called Echoplex, was a looper, I went for it and I use it all the time.

I use it when I'm playing by myself, midnight, where you don't have musicians who say, hey, I'm tired, you can just keep singing and singing and singing the whole night.

- Well, no wonder, Nate, It took you a while to gain Samite's trust 'cause he just plays.

He just plays all the music himself.

(Nate and Samite laughing) No one else.

- What good is trust if it's given freely, you gotta earn it.

- We both use loopers actually.

We both love looping.

- Was this something you were doing even before you played music with Samite, Nate?

- A little bit.

Sure.

I've been doubling and looping for a while.

I can't say that I've ever quite felt like I've mastered it.

I still struggle to coordinate the foot with the hands.

In fact, I almost, I asked Samite if he would hit the pedal for me so that I could just really focus on the feeling and not worry about when I'm pressing this.

When I press the foot, and you can hear it a couple times in the show where it's just slightly off.

- The weird thing is it's never off when it's just the two of us.

I think when you think about it is when, like, I don't wanna mess up that's when you can.

- Yeah, it's a weird head game you gotta play.

- What's the most amount of sounds you think you've had looping at at one time when you guys have been performing?

- I usually, with Samite, I'll stick to one usually or two at most.

I don't get too thick, because like I said, it's hard to keep track of.

- I was gonna say, I know for me personally, it's harder for me to edit the program because a lot of times I wanna cut to the beat of a song or the strum of the guitar.

And I'm hearing, like when I was editing your episode, I heard the strum of the guitar, but you weren't playing because it was part of the loop.

So, I mean, it definitely made it a little bit more of a challenge, but your music was so peaceful.

I mean, you could tell if you watch the program, I definitely set a lot of long dissolves and the blur to go from one shot to another.

But yeah, it definitely made it a little or I thought maybe, well, like what the heck happened, is the audio out of sync?

'Cause you hear the music and you expect to see the strumming or like you expect to hear a vocal and then you're playing a flute, Samite.

So it's... - When I'm singing, sometimes I can overdub, sometimes even up to 10 times, 10 vocals.

I think it goes back, I used to tour with a group called Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

So there are times when I start making voices and I feel like, okay, I'm just a one Mambazo here, like adding layers and layers and layers.

I need to add that at the end of it, huh?

(Andy and Nate laughing) - We did have a comment from Giovanni, who says, as a growing artist, it's great to watch and hear this journey.

And I know Samite, like right now in the past like year, ever since the pandemic hit, you have been doing a lot of tutoring and teaching younger musicians, if I'm correct.

Do you wanna discuss that a little bit?

- Yeah, actually I'll tell you.

I'll only talk about one young, I've done with many other people, but there's one who's really touched me.

Her name is Amelia and she's from Idaho.

She contacted me and said, can I become your friend?

And I said, put your mother on the phone first.

Cause she was, I think, 17 going to 18.

And I'm telling you, this young woman has really, really touched me a lot in, she's special.

She's very special.

She learned how to cook Ugandan food.

She's learned how to play Kalimba.

And the other thing about her, like if I don't call back, she doesn't say, why didn't you call me back?

Every time we meet we start fresh.

She's an amazing young woman.

And she also she's blind, but she skis downhill.

She's such an inspiration for me.

But the most recent thing that she just did, she started now performing for people in nursing homes.

I just, two days ago I heard one of her performances and she's singing one of my songs and she's getting the audience to sing with her.

I was crying tears.

She's really an inspiration for me.

And I think she's one of the... She's helped me get through COVID.

She's such a good friend.

- Wow, that is a wonderful, wonderful story.

The fact that obviously you made a great impression on her and now the tables have turned almost, that's just wonderful.

- I don't even know where she's...

I think I'm gonna end up going to Uganda with her.

I think when things change, I think she's gonna inspire a lot of people.

Yes.

- That's amazing.

Let's see.

As a reminder, if anyone has any questions for Samite, please throw them in the chat.

We'll do our best to answer them.

- [Nate] There's one, Karen Wax.

We'd love to hear more- - Love to hear more about how Samite touches people with his music for healing.

There we go.

Thank you, Karen.

As I was struggling to come up with a question.

Thank you, Karen.

- Well, I do play every, I perform, from here, from this studio, perform for people with dementia.

I also perform for people who are the frontline, the nurses who work with people with dementia.

And it's very special for them.

It's not just all just about music.

You play music and you're ready to listen to what they have to tell you.

So it's an exchange back and forth.

Karen and I, and actually with Nate, we've gone to and performed in Northern Uganda.

So she's the professor from Berkeley college of music, and she's been part of Musicians For World Harmony and sharing the healing power of music.

She's an amazing lady.

Thank you for asking that question.

But we've found that music is one way of reaching people who are going through a difficult time.

People who are sick.

And people who have been abused, music is so powerful in reaching them and helping them start seeing positive things.

Yeah.

- It really is amazing.

Like how music can change your emotions.

If you're having a bad day and you hear a song that you love, like it's amazing, like how quickly that can just kind of change how you're feeling.

And I mean, definitely, like I said, your music has gotta touch many people and that's great to hear.

We did get one more comment from Sabina in the chat.

And she says she is honored to be your apprentice.

- Oh, yes.

I didn't mention Sabina.

She's another one who's touched me a lot.

She's a story teller, and she's gonna, you'll be hearing about, you're gonna hear from her.

She's an amazing storyteller.

And she and I work weekly, I'm helping her learn to tell her stories.

To figure out how to tell her stories and seeing, and I think she's already there, but we are having a really good time sharing stories.

- Yeah, I think, like I said, the stories and the music just go so well together.

I know you introduced one song song, I believe, stories of the night or night stories, and it was just inspired from you growing up in Uganda, listening to everyone spin yarns around the fire.

So its amazing, like what a great impact that had on early in your life.

- Yes.

- I think you mentioned earlier when we were doing our rehearsal that you were gonna give us a little looping demonstration.

I mean, since we just talked about it, if you're still up for it, why don't we hear a little bit of that?

- Okay.

So I'm gonna sing this song.

It's a traditional song that tells people to be proud.

It's a traditional Ugandan song.

So it's called "Agalilala".

It's on one of my albums.

So I'm gonna add a little rewrap to my voice.

(sings in foreign language) (Andy clapping) - Well done, sir.

That was amazing.

- I was gonna add on what Nate did of Mambazo, at the end.

(all laughing) - I muted my mic, I did that, but I muted my mic.

Not only I do earn trust, I've gotta keep his trust too.

(Samite laughing) - Well, we'll add that in post.

We'll add that in post.

I should remind people that if anyone would like to see a recording of this event, it will be available on the WSKG YouTube channel.

And yeah, we can add that in, Nate.

We'll record that.

I mean, Nate's in his recording studio in Ithaca.

- That's a trademark.

I think we would get a copyright strike against us if we did that.

That's Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

- And of course, Samite appeared in our "Expressions" episode which premiered on WSKG last Friday.

And anyone can watch that episode on our video page and a link will be sent in the chat very shortly.

And the viewers can also learn more about Samite and his great story coming from Uganda in that episode.

And I urge everyone to check that out.

So what's next for you guys?

Do you have any, I know we've already talked about the touring and you guys definitely would like to do that in the future, but Nate, what do you have on your agenda coming up?

- Well, I don't know that it's an announced yet, but a certain band that I'm playing with, that I've been playing with since 1998.

So 24 years now, 10 Foot Ganja Plant, is playing a reggae festival in a town at the Southern end of Kyoga lake.

I'm being cryptic because again, it's not announced and I don't think I'm supposed to say anything.

- Are we breaking news on our first ever "Expressions" Directors Cut?

- You might be breaking news.

In June 18th, Ithaca Reggae Festival's happening.

And yeah, we're gonna be headlining that, and that's pretty exciting because we've never played in Ithaca yet.

And I've been living here since, for over 20 years now.

And it's definitely the home, my home.

So it'll feel really good to bring that band to Ithaca for the first time ever.

- What was the name of the band again?

- 10 Foot Ganja Plant.

- [Andy] Interesting.

Interesting.

- It's a reggae band.

- I would like to see a plant of that size.

- Is that what you have behind you?

(all laughing) - On my side, I was approached by two amazing musicians from New York city.

One of them is a classical violin player from the Met, Metropolitan Orchestra, Shem Gilbery, and Sean Hartness, who is a jazz musician.

This gentlemen approached me a few years ago, said they would like to create a group that has those two elements and then me bringing in world music.

And originally I was wondering like, what am I gonna do with a classical musician just playing violin and Jazz.

But then when we got together in Cazenovia a year ago, towards the end of the year, we found out that it was the most amazing healing experience.

And so our dream of this band is to perform music in all the secret places, sacred places rather, sacred places around the world because the music is so healing.

And the group is called Kumara, Kumara.

I don't know what that means actually, don't ask me.

But Shem came up with that name and it's about the sharing, I think the gods sharing healing, I think so, something like that.

But it's very, very special.

We just had a weekend, a week actually, last week I hung out with this gentlemen and we performed and rehearsed in Cazenovia.

So I think we're gonna do a recording in August and it's gonna be with a live audience.

We're gonna invite people to come and join us to record in this church in Cazenovia.

So look out for that, it will be nice to have you in the audience and it's a new style of music.

'Cause I'm playing all these traditional instruments and these guys are playing, the jazz musician, Sean Hartness is playing guitar and then Shem is playing amazing violin.

So it's something worth seeing, yeah.

- Is there any style of music that you think that your traditional African style could not blend with?

Because I have to say, like I've worked with a lot of Polka musicians through the years.

I'm wondering if the Polka traditional African mashup might be in order.

- I think the bagpipe, I don't know how the Kalimbas would go with the bagpipe.

- I don't know, that that might be able to, we've had some bagpipers in the studio before.

I think you might be able to work that better than an accordion, but I don't know.

- No, no, I've actually played with an accordion player, amazing Tony Sidra on the accordion.

So, whatever you call the music with a bagpipe, what do you call that style of music with a bagpipe?

- Well, Scottish music is usually what I would associate with a bagpipe.

- Yeah.

Okay.

- Well, the challenge has been set.

So if we have any bagpipers tuned in to our performance tonight, please contact Samite and maybe we can get something going.

Well, I think that might wrap up tonight's "Expressions" Director's Cut.

We thank Samite and Nate for joining us and for the amazing performance they gave us for our "Expressions" episode.

- Thanks, Andy.

- Of course, of course, Nate, anytime.

It was really, really a pleasure to work with you too.

And of course, a reminder, actually, you know what?

We had one more question come into the chat.

I'm gonna stop my reading.

And someone did wonder, Samite, going back to your looping performance.

How long did it take you to master getting all those loops to sound so perfectly together?

Five, 10 minutes?

- The thing is, when I dig into something and I'm going to learn it, it takes me, I give myself about six months to become really good at something.

And I think if you put yourself away and say I'm gonna really learn and in six months I'm gonna play for an audience, then I think you'll be okay if you're a musician.

- We are getting some clarification that bagpipes are Celtic music not Scottish music.

- Celtic music.

- So, obviously we need more bagpipers here in the studio.

All right, once again, okay.

Take two on my close.

We thank Samite and Nate for joining us and for the amazing performance.

And a reminder that you can watch that entire episodes at the "Expressions" video page.

And a link to that is being posted in the chat as I speak.

You'll also find the extra songs that weren't able to make the broadcast at this link.

And if podcasts are your jive, then check out the "Expressions" Directors Cut Podcast.

And our debut episode features Samite and Nate's complete performance from start to finish.

And you can find this on many of your favorite podcast platforms or at yourpublicradio.com.

And once again, a link being shared in the chat for that.

And it looks like we made it through this hour smoothly.

So I can once again, thank my amazing tech crew of Alyssa Mecha, Nancy Conington, and Patrick Combs for all their help.

This event will be archived and be available to view on WSKGs YouTube channel.

Thank you so much for watching our initial "Expressions" digital event and be on the lookout for more in the future.

Until then, this is Andy Pioch.

Good night.

(slow music) (audience clapping)