I just saw a fine film, "Genghis Blues," about the remarkable
experiences of blues singer and musician, Paul Pena. A native of the
Cape Verde Islands (formerly a Portuguese colony and now part of
Guinea-Bissau), Pena played with many jazz and blues greats and composed
many songs. He is blind and at the film's beginning he is living in San
Francisco and not doing particularly well. His wife has died and he has
just come out of a long period of depression. He has bought a short
wave radio and listens to broadcasts from around the world. One day he
hears on Radio Moscow some unbelievable singing. It is the harmonic or
throatsinging of singers from Tuva, a land north of Mongolia. ( I
remember the beautiful diamond-shaped stamps of the republic of Tannu
Tuva I lusted after when I was a boy). Tuva became part of the USSR
during WW2. One of Genghis Khan's greatest generals was a Tuvan. Under
the Soviets, the Tuvans were not allowed to use their language, and many
Russians settled there. It is the size of North Dakota, and many people
there are nomadic sheepherders and horsemen. The land is
extraordinarily varied and has temperatures ranging from 100 degrees F
to many degrees below zero. Tuvan singers have learned to sing in their
throats in such a way as to produce more than one note at the same time.
You have to hear it to believe it.
Remarkably, Pena is so taken with the singing that he tracks a tape
down in a record store, and he learns to do it himself. Using a braille
device he also begins to learn Tuvan, translating letter by letter from
Tuvan to Russian to English. Through a fantasitc set of circumstances,
involving the Nobel physicist, Richard Feynman (who decided to go to
Tuva as his last adventure and helped to establish a Tuvan-US friendship
association), Tuvan singers come to San Francisco. Pena goes and
astonishes the Tuvans by throatsinging for them. They insist that he
come to Tuva for a great throatsinging contest. Others get involved and
it is decided that a crew will go to make a film about his visit.
The trip to Tuva is an adventure, but Pena's relationship with the
Tuvans is the main theme of the movie. I don't want to give it away, but
I was moved to tears. What was so awful was the horror of his life in
the USA compared to the beauty of his life in Tuva. To the Tuvans he was
not some poor blind black man, making his way down some shaby street to
the corner store, but a hero, a truly wonderful human being, talented
beyond words and beautiful to see and to hear.
The Tuvans' embrace of Pena and his love of them make you see what we
as humans are capable of, just as his tribulations here in the land of
the free do the same though from a different angle. If you get the
chance, don't miss this film.
Michael Yates
