![]() Volta Records may be best remembered as the former Greenfield location of the Exclusive Company. Jayasuirya thought the two Milwaukee shops were the perfect fit for a series designed to directly support its scene. ![]() This Saturday brings yet another step forward: a half-Milwaukee, half-Madison lineup of Disq, Graysea, Okay Omen and Sex, Fear (plus sets by Volta Records DJs.) What it’s brought to the table so far is a step in the direction of solidifying a more vibrant local music scene for all ages, utilizing a grassroots, community ethos. Technically in its infancy, the showcase has notched a couple of events thus far but wants to keep building. Major support is provided by The Artworkers Retirement Society.Īdditional funding is contributed by Kenneth and Christine Tanaka and Ralph and Nancy Segall.Music Go Round and Volta Records have very two cool things in common: They’re both metro Milwaukee music mainstays, and they’re both presenters of a newer, scene-centric concert series held at Cactus Club in Bay View.Ĭreated in 2022 by Milwaukee-based musician, DJ and writer Sahan Jayasuriya, the series aims to showcase newer and lesser-known acts looking to “bridge the gap and foster relationships between the music scenes in Milwaukee and other cities in the Midwest.” Lead support for this exhibition is generously provided by Helen and Sam Zell. This immersive installation brings the complex culture of Upper Volta to life through more than 100 of Sory’s photographs from the 1960s objects from Volta Photo such as its signature backdrop, studio lights, and several props digitized music from the era and 45-rpm records. Sory also mounted his own music parties in the villages. Sory photographed many of them, including Volta Jazz and other stars of the Bobo scene, as well as music fans and partygoers, especially in the villages around Bobo. These popular orchestras, combinations of up to a dozen or more musicians, melded instruments and rhythms rooted in West African musical formations-including Cuban salsa, James Brown–style funk, and early rock’n’roll-with regional musical and narrative traditions of the Mande and other cultures. Mutual appreciation brought Sory together with the music ensembles that flourished in Upper Volta from the 1950s through 1980s. A clever, youthful studio operator, Sory appealed to his sitters’ desires for signs of modernity and leisure, offering a few choice props such as a telephone and a motorbike and using painted backdrops of scenes associated with travel including a beach and an airplane. He specialized in portraits-of Fula villagers, elaborately dressed Malians, and other inhabitants of that vibrant cultural crossroads. In 1960, photographer Sanlé Sory (born 1943) opened his studio, Volta Photo, at the center of Bobo-Dioulasso, the cultural capital of what was then Upper Volta. Through this dynamic conjunction of image and sound, Volta Photo examines the postcolonial culture of an economically challenged but recently liberated country negotiating its local, regional, and international identities. Designed to resemble a cross between a photography studio and a record store, this multisensory exhibition brings together commercial studio photography and popular music from the former West African country of Upper Volta.
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