Molam Nittaya.
One of my favourite times of the year is when the dry season ends and the countryside is transformed into a sea of green. And nowhere is it more fun to be at this time of year than in Isan. I have happy memories of rainy seasons in Buri Ram, where as soon as the rains arrived the village teenagers would take me out at night with a miner’s light fixed on my forehead to hunt for tiny frogs.
And so it was that World Beat flew into a lush verdant Ubon Ratchathani province last week to join up with the Molam Mobile Bus Project, which was parked in the playing fields in front of Angsila School to celebrate the school’s 40th anniversary.
The Molam Mobile Bus Project is an extension of an exhibition on Molam music, Joyful Khaen, Joyful Dance, held in 2014-2015 at the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok. In order to reach a wider audience the organisers kitted out a bus with a miniaturised version of the exhibition, added a huge balloon with the project’s name and a design based on a pakaoma (man’s sarong), and a flatbed truck which folds out into a stage complete with a jungle-themed backdrop. The idea is that people can see the exhibition, learn about and enjoy the history and musicians from the past and present and then see some of the best players perform on the stage in the evening.
After a trial run at the Wonderfruit festival in December, the bus has been on the road in the heartland of molam music, Isan, visiting schools and towns around the region, including Khon Kaen, Yasothon and Amnat Charoen. Project curator Arthit “Boyfai” Mulsarn said that the response has been terrific so far.
“In Khon Kaen and Yasothon, village elders told us that they really liked seeing the old photos of stars from the past,” he said. “While the kids enjoyed trying out the instruments and dancing.”
At each stop, at around dusk, musicians and bands take to the stage, including well known molam like Pimjai Petchpalangjai, who performed when the bus stopped in Yasothon.
Boyfai said that the connection between the bus and Angsila school came about through his music-school teacher, Acharn Wicharn, who taught him Isan music when he was a boy. We joined the school’s 40th-anniversary celebrations during lunch breaks, visiting some of the stalls and installations set up by teachers and pupils, and joining classes as they visited the exhibition. By early evening, students and teachers had put their mats out in front of the stage.
The evening’s performances began with a short set of molam glawn songs from Molam Jumba Nuatlek, who introduced acts and claims to be the only molam currently performing with a moustache. Several students also performed, and one of them was a mokhaen called Mew, who showed off fine chops on the khaen; I was not surprised to hear that she was a gold medal-winner on her instrument. Boyfai said that during the tour he has come across some very fine young players. “Girls are also learning the phin (Isan lute) and the khaen, so there are a lot of good young players who can keep the molam traditions going.”
But the most anticipated performers of the night were a local pair of molams, Molam Nittaya and Molam Khun Noi, who were backed by Nittaya’s band. They both performed molam glawn, the poetic storytelling style that’s getting harder to find.
The late National Artist Kane Dalao told me that glawn is the most difficult of all the molam styles to perform — it requires prodigious knowledge, vocal skill and a rhythmic delivery that is beyond many modern performers. So it was a treat to just sit back and let these two fine musicians bring to life their (often very funny) musical stories.
One song by Molam Khun Noi really caught my attention: it was a Khmer song with a jariang/kantrum rhythm that was just delightful — it had me dancing away. I asked Khun Noi about the song and he said: “Ah, that’s just a Khmer welcome-to-my-house song.”
The bus headed off back to base at the Jim Thompson Farm in Pak Thong Chai. Boyfai said that the next step was for the molam bus to “go inter”, as they say in these parts, with a trip to Laos in July to a molam summit meeting.
“It seems the right thing to do for us to go to Laos for our first international trip,” he said, “as there are strong links and the same music between communities on both sides of the Mekong River.”
The Molam Bus is set up.
Teachers get into the swing of things at Angsila School in Ubon Ratchathani.
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.