namibia

Reddy wrote namibia for his band, Channel 18, which was based in Johannesburg in the late 1980s and early 1990s and comprised Reddy on keyboard(s), Denny Lalouette on bass, Rob Watson on drums, and Bruce Cassidy on EVI. All that has survived of the score of namibia, which most likely dates from 1991, is a rather feint photocopy of the bass part (of which the first page is shown on the right) with the left-hand margin truncated in some places. In his notes at the top of the score, however Reddy gives an indication of the structure of the piece: ‘slow piano intro – with discreet effects from bass + drums – atmospheric/suggestive of desert – there are 4 phrases on the piano each longer than the preceding one + then a rapid scalic descent – when I reach the bottom of the scale I turn on the sequencer’.

He also gives the (impossibly fast) metronome mark of crotchet=300 as well as all the chord symbols and some rhythmic indications, and so this score, together with an audio and video recording of this piece below, might enable performers to play the piece. He recorded it as a solo piano piece on his second CD, rough ‘n reddy (JNS Musiek, Johannesburg, 1996) on which namibia is track 4. The video is of Channel 18 playing at a Lions Club function in Windhoek in 1991. Reddy worked at the Windhoek Conservatoire of Music during the 1990s and writes in the CD liner notes: ‘The piece was conceived shortly before independence in Namibia when I picked up the exciting expectant vibes in the air and intuited the vast spaciousness and quiet of the desert landscapes which I later grew to know more intimately and love’.

There is no notated score, although ACE may at some point make a transcription of the recording available.