Martin Doyle is visiting Tanzania with Nina Perry of Falling Tree Productions at the moment. Nina is making a radio documentary called The Music Tree for the Irish radio station Newstalk and it features Martin Doyle as an instrument maker visiting the area of East Africa where the famous Mpingo (African Blackwood) trees grows. Since the 19th century African Blackwood has been a timber favoured for woodwind instruments as its density, tonal properties, stability and durability are incomparable.
This trip is in its own way an historical occasion as many of the local people of Tanzania, some of whom are involved in burgeoning Mpingo conservation projects, have never before met a European craftsman who uses their timber to make musical instruments. Martin accomplished the task of making a flute with some of the local Mpingo carvers on the third day of his visit and by all accounts they were enthralled when it was played to them.
Nina Perry is kindly authoring a blog (where internet connection allows no doubt) dedicated to the trip — Music Tree — so that we distant onlookers can keep abreast of events.
No story, small or large, is complete without a picture. Here is one from Nina’s Music Tree blog:
Tanzanian street scene
