Music with an African environmental message

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LEXI LANDSMAN

JUDY Campbell knows well that where there is water, there is life. But it is contemplating the reverse —- life without water -— that has driven the musician’s latest release, Waters of Kenya.

The new album by her band, Mosaic, is a fusion of traditional east-Kenyan rhythms with contemporary jazz that grew out of her collaboration with Kenyan percussionist Bandika Ngao.

“This whole collection of music is very much along the lines of tikkun olam,” 52-year-old Campbell enthuses. “It’s furthering the message about the importance of clean water in areas of the world that don’t have it.”

The album developed through the band’s association with the Tweed Shire Council of NSW, which runs a Kenya mentoring program to improve community and environmental health for Kenyan families by increasing access to safe water and sanitation.

After seeing the work of the program, which has provided two water-treatment facilities in the troubled areas, Mosaic released its previous album, Colours of Kenya.

“I hope this new collection of original music will continue to expand awareness of [the council’s] work, which, in a very different way, addresses a deep need in Africa,” Campbell says.

The group has recently returned from an Australia-wide tour, which included headlining the Tweed River Festival, performing at the opening of the Australian Water Association conference in Port Macquarie and delivering music workshops to primary and high-school children during National Water Week.

The music director at North Shore Temple Emanuel, Campbell formed Mosaic in 2002 to celebrate musical diversity through the lens of contemporary Australian jazz.

Having grown up in Cape Town, South Africa, in a privileged home, Campbell says since moving to Australia in 1982, she has felt compelled to use music to bridge boundaries.

Revisiting her birthplace in 2004 re-affirmed that desire.

“It’s sad to say that was my first real exposure to that kind of poverty,” Campbell admits.

“That experience fed into this whole interest in the tikkun olum aspect of music, which resonates hugely with me as a Jewish person.

“It is a particular pleasure for me to be able to direct my music in this way. It adds a whole extra dimension to the process of creating and performing music.”

Enquiries: www.jcmosaic.com.au.