Name: Carolyn Brandy: Groundbreaking Woman Drummer by Chana Wilson
Duration: 10 min 38 s
Description: This is a portrait of drummer Carolyn Brandy and her journey to become a master drummer of Cuban rhythms in spite of the worldwide taboos against women drummers. It tells the joy of creating a women's drumming community and playing in the streets for political causes.

I wrote this script for Katrina Schwartz (KQED Bay Curious) based on a 15 minute interview that she’d done with Stephanie Scott. 

After I received the raw tape, I visited the shop to meet Steph and take photos _of the photos_ of people Katrina and Steph had talked about, as well as photos I found interesting. 

Then I wrote the script, and recorded and edited a full audio draft with myself doing Katrina’s voice over and the host’s lede and outro in order to give an idea of voicing and length.

You can find my script and photos, as well as the raw interview mp3 and transcript, in this Google folder: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1_kz2yPLftKV8tKHsyerehWMw5R55qujO

Who's Fishing in San Francisco? (KQED Bay Curious sample)

While reporting on bishop pines and wildfires in Tomales Bay, I was given a handful of bishop pine cones. These cones are held shut with pitch so that the seeds won't spread until a wildfire clears the way. Nonetheless, there are some who say that on a very hot day, when the fog is gone and the sun presses down heavy and creepy, you can still hear the bishop pine cones cracking open....

This is a recording of the bishop pine cones unfurling in the heat of a not-so-wild-fire. The petals scritching open is most noticeable around :30, followed shortly by me dumping out the newly freed seeds (the seeds look like black lentils attached to a helicopter wing, ready to twirl away in the lovingly blown kiss of a raging inferno).

For best experience, listen with headphones.

Bishop pine cones popping open in a wildfire

I created this short aural explainer as a scene in a larger longform piece on padel: the fastest growing international sport that most of us in the US have never heard of. 

While reporting the history of padel, and the 2032 Olympic-sport ambitions of the piece's primary character, everyone I spoke with explained padel in terms of "it's in the middle between tennis and pickleball." I decided to make a fun and informative explainer that _showed_ us the differences in game speed and court size by how it sounds to actually be a player.

Radio Lab-style aural comparison of tennis and pickleball

In Kasaan Alaska, two generations of an Alaskan Native family are reviving their Haida Nation's cultural practices. Members of the Hamar family are carving oceangoing canoes, totem poles, and masks, weaving ceremonial regalia, practicing traditional harvesting of foods, curating a family museum of artifacts, and taking part in language revitalization.

People Of The Water: A Haida Family Revitalizing Their Culture

MIC: Zoom H4e stereo XY mics
LOCATION: Giant, untreated indoor space (museum)
SOURCE: ~20-person orchestra, four indigenous performers on either side, two speakers in front of stage
CAPTURE: Center of audience

Selected cuts from performance of John Wineglass’ "Big Sur: The Night Sun," performed by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Brad Hogarth conducting, and soloists Jayson Fann, world percussion performed on the redwood drum he built from a fallen tree; Kanyon Sayers-Roods (Costanoan Ohlone-Mutsun, Chumash), vocals; Emiliano Campobello (Yaqui, Huichol) flute; and Marcie Chapa, world percussion.

Field recording: giant redwood drum

MIC: Rode VideoMic Pro+ (supercardioid condenser)
LOCATION: Large, untreated office
SOURCE: Interview
CAPTURE: ~3 feet, mounted on tripod between us

Field recording: interview

Aural album I made from my field recordings at SoundScene 2024 at the Hirshhorn.

Outside, in a concrete enclosed plaza, a band performs "Talk"

Inside a small auditorium, a sparse forest of pipes dot a stage. The pipes breathe sounds as visitors reach out with their hands to close the distance.

In a large circular hallway, visitors sit quietly, wearing headbands that turn their collective heart rates and brainwaves into music.

Around the curve, someone plays with a microphone in the middle of a ring of speakers.

Back in the auditorium, a solo violinist performs her own compositions with herself using loop pedals.

Outside in the plaza, the positive feedback of a bell rings out.

--
https://www.soundscene.org/artworks
-Clear Channel performance by Awad Bilal, Don Godwin, Mary Jane Regalado
-Heike Kaltenbrunner's close|  distant https://kaltenbrunner.klingt.org/close_distant
-Jason Snell's Pulses https://www.primary-assembly.com/
-David Greenfieldboyce's What Goes Around, Comes Around
-Luminous Being performance by Audrey Wright, Geoff Robertson https://audreywrightviolin.com/luminousbeing
-radiance & resonance performance by Claire Alrich, Andrew Toy

SoundScene 2024 Aural Album

New York Philharmonic violinist performance and interview at SoundScene 2024

Audrey Wright on composing

I reported this story for KQED's The California Report Magazine radio show. Audio and digital piece publish here: https://www.kqed.org/news/12001437/meet-the-pesky-but-lovable-bishop-pine-native-to-the-northern-california-coast

Positive reframing with a pesky but lovable pine tree

I produced this story for KQED's The California Report Magazine radio show

Last California Grizzly Kicker

This is a portrait of drummer Carolyn Brandy and her journey to become a master drummer of Cuban rhythms in spite of the worldwide taboos against women drummers. It tells the joy of creating a women's drumming community and playing in the streets for political causes.

Carolyn Brandy: Groundbreaking Woman Drummer

Chana Wilson

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