An early April evening, and I’m lost somewhere in the backstreets off 24th and 15th. It doesn’t look like the sort of area that might give birth to a musical breakthrough, but, then, Liverpool’s Cavern was famously difficult for Beatles fans to find back in the day. Somewhere among these lofty buildings something’s going on.
In the end, it’s nothing at all like the Cavern (thankfully). Far from it. The many and varied faces of Abu Dhabi’s vocal community gather in comfort in a secluded and lush villa, also the home of the driving force – a passionate ball of energy that goes by the name of Laura Roberts. An American living here for more years than it’d be polite to say, Laura is a one-woman PR machine, organiser, instigator and (I’m pleased to report) a talented bass singer. On my first visit she’s rehearsing with an all-female barbershop quartet called Voices of Harmony. Taking time away from the other girls, she explains, ‘I fell in love with barbershop, so I bought some music, brought it back to Abu Dhabi and made some highly musical friends. We sat in my living room and passed it around. That was 2005; we had about 12 members. Now we have 21.’
It’s not a full company at tonight’s rehearsal and, while it’s a far more impressive sound than I’d imagined (their take on ‘Java Jive’ is genuinely infectious), they tell me they’re missing members. As is so often the
way here, theirs is a problem of transience. Merve Hoven explains: ‘I joined about three years ago and, from that group, there’s nobody else here apart from Laura.’
‘I think it’s a team sport,’ says Brendi Chenery, the most experienced barbershop singer in attendance this evening and a big-sisterly presence that plays voice of reason to Laura’s boundless enthusiasm. ‘If any of the parts drop out, don’t show up, don’t decide to play, everybody else is out of luck. Everyone has to show up and do their job.’
For Carolyn Baek, a stay-at-home mum in the capital, it goes beyond the physical act of singing: ‘I just needed some kind of stress relief and something that was different from my day to day, and it’s such a joyful experience. When you come here, everything that you’re thinking about just goes away because you really have to be here in the moment. So it’s very Zen; it’s very yogic. It’s euphoric, actually.’
I return to Laura’s stately villa the following week to catch up with Blue Fever, essentially a jazz chorus group, but with one key difference. Whereas Voices of Harmony is exclusively for women – notably defiant in the male-dominated barbershop world – this group welcomes both sexes. You can hear the difference instantly. When I arrive they’re tackling The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’, and the blend of male and female vocal colours is striking. Chris Lamar, their musical director, explains that their genre is possibly more involved than barbershop, due to the number of parts they’re singing. ‘Barbershop has a lot of challenges,’ he explains diplomatically. ‘It’s not easy music. [With acappella jazz] the rhythms can be more difficult, because it’s more syncopated. Quite often it’s just sounds you’re making, so you’ve got to hit the notes and the rhythm – the sound has got to be bang on.’
Perhaps the most experienced member of this group is Sean Lee. He became involved with acappella singing during his college days in South Korea, performing semi-professionally and even releasing a couple of CDs. I ask him what makes a successful acappella group. ‘Really, how well you sing in terms of harmony and rhythm,’ he says. ‘Members individually sing well, but they blend incredibly well together – one combined sound that just sounds great.’
I wonder how that combination is possible among amateurs rehearsing once, maybe twice a week. Carolyn spells it out for me. ‘In larger cities, people who teach music tend to congregate with people who are extremely musically experienced. There’s a lot of pride, competitiveness and pressure. For someone like me, for whom music was never the core of my identity, it’s really neat to have such a wide spectrum of musical experience [among the women in Voices of Harmony]. It’s a very positive part of the group. There isn’t the pretension or snobbery that comes with other musical groups.’ Certainly, in both groups, support, patience and camaraderie are immediately visible. I’m tempted, in fact, to drop my Dictaphone and swing on in with my hearty tenor. Coldplay and Rihanna may have the stage at Emirates Palace, but there’s music down in the streets.
Both Voices of Harmony and Blue Fever will perform at the Armed Forces Officers’ Club and Hotel on May 21, 8pm. The concert is free to attend. For more info on the concert or group membership, call Laura Robert on 050 442 0029.
Class act
It’s not all acappella, of course. Meet the Al Khubairat Singers.
The Al Khubairat Singers are a community choir that have been in operation for the last two years, largely dealing in classical music. Jonathan Lyall, the choir director, tells us it’s open to anyone. Look out for a major performance with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Emirates Palace in May – these musos don’t do things by halves!
For more info, contact Jonathan at JLyall@britishschool.sch.a.
