More Oumou
Posted on | May 22, 2009 | 2 Comments
Just came across this lovely video I had to share with you. A stylish declaration of love…this time from Oumou Sangaré.
Also, this Swedish SVDarticle on the African music scene in Paris is a good read for those interested. It´s in Swedish, so I took the liberty of pasting a Google translated version of Lars Lovén´s article below:
African tones spread from Paris
Published: May 22, 2009, 10.14, Lars Lovén
Music. Amadou et Mariam, Tony Allen and Manu Dibango – all are African världsstjärnor, and they all live in Paris. SvD is traveling to the French capital and finds a thriving music scene.
33 Rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine. An anonymous but busy office near the Bastille.
-This is where all will. As the African artist, you need to succeed here, then you can be great in other places, “says Robert Brazz, program leader of the radio station Africa no.1.
With me think Robert Brazz not the office where we currently find ourselves. That would in itself not have been entirely misleading. The first time I am visiting makes Mali greatest singer, Oumou Beds, majestic entrance into the studio, a week later, the Congolese soukousstjärnan Koffi Olomide turn. With up to 30 one million listeners every day, and coverage in most African countries, the channel does not completely irrelevant from a marketing perspective. But he says Paris. To Africa no.1 has its headquarters here is neither surprising nor any chance, on the contrary. It is here, at least as much as in the Malian capital of Bamako, which you can find it malin’s musical miracle, this surreptitious introduces Tony Allen afrobeat through collaborations with artists like Sebastien Tellier, and here comes a steady stream of musicians from the French-speaking countries to come in Europe.
In Africa no.1 has also one of African music biggest stars, Manu Dibango, its own program where every Sunday he plays discs and talking memories from his long career.
-When I came to Paris, there were in general no African scene here, there was Latin music and jazz, but not African, “says Manu Dibango.
It was 60 and Dibango, who previously played jazz, came to be groundbreaking with its mix of Western and African music.
- But everything was so different then. We came here to study and when we studied clearly returning home Monday. I stayed true to go, but all my friends went home. Later, after independence, people began to emigrate here and when you emigrate takes with him his family and his children and left. Voilà, that’s how it started, it’s actually very simple.
Rue Joseph Gaillard. A few kilometers east, in a sparsely decorated apartment. Recent largest African stars, the blind couple Amadou et Mariam, of course, the living in Paris, specifically in the suburbs Montreuil, where many other immigrants from Mali have chosen to live.
-That there was so many compatriots and friends this was a major reason, but it focused on the better recording possibilities here and more to work with, “says Amadou Bagayoko, where he sits closely with Mariam on a sofa in black leather .
Career-wise the move was extremely successful. Dimanche à Bamako, which came in 2005, should have sold nearly one million copies.
-Paris has meant a lot for our music, especially because it is such a cosmopolitan city. Here is played such that you never hear in Mali, American music and music from other places in Africa, I heard gnawa for the first time here.
Are people in Paris to hear African music has been both grateful and difficult task, simply because the abundance is so large. Missed Monday Amadou et Mariam at Olympia, it is sufficient with a quick glance at any concert calendar (Lylo and Radio Nova Bon plan is recommended.) Saturday ensuing play Mulatu Astatke at the Nouveau Casino, Tuesday, Balaké Sissoko Café de la Danse, Friday Youssou N’dour at Salle Pleyel and Saturday Salif Keita at the same place. At the same time an Algerian festival at Theater 13 in Montparnasse. It is an authentic weeks, not even an exceptional one. Neither La Cigalle, Le couch du Monde or La Bellevilloise have any African band on the program, one of the exceptions.
11 Rue la Reynie. The upper floor of a cheap bar near Châtelet.
The young Apkass from the Congo has not taken up in earnest yet, although his so far only album, A Marchant vers la soleil, been well received by critics. He did not come to Paris to deal with the music but to go to school.
-It was not my choice to come here, but it has been crucial to my music. Paradoxically, I meet more people from different parts of Africa here than I would have done in Kinshasa. By living here, I have also been another way of looking at Africa, I see the light, as a unit, and it allows me to sing about things I never would have been able to see if I had lived remain in Congo, says Apkass.
2 Rue Versigny. A small restaurant in the temporary calm between lunch and dinner.
Emigration from Africa to Europe, often colonial and linguistic borders. Immigrants from former British colonies ports in the UK, French in France. So should the Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, who after two and a half decade in Paris still does not speak fluent French, actually live in London. It was also where he first came after leaving Nigeria in the early 80’s.
-But all the time while I was in London came the African band from Paris and played and I felt that it was there that I should have been, really, “says Tony Allen.
Moving to Paris, were initially due fuss UK immigration authorities, but came to be permanent.
-The musicians I wanted to work with here, African as well as French. Fixed now, many African artists lived here so long that they started to let the French, they play not African anymore. That is why I have started playing more and more with musicians from Nigeria.
Back in Africa no.1. It is Wednesday and Manu Dibango prepares weekly schedule. While a disc with something for me unknown Caribbean band spins he says that he had seen the same trend as Tony Allen.
-It is a western and an African approach to the music. In Africa, the music to be experienced physically, concerts begin only at midnight and goes on until four, five.
-In the western system begins to 20.30 and the music is in the first place to to listen to. Many African artists have adapted to it. Man dancing sometimes but it is not the main objective. My music? It is both. I grew up in Europe and in Africa so I have both systems within me, “said Manu Dibango, just before the red light starts to shine and he is turning against the microphone.
Tags: Africa > African music > Choco Canel > Fashion > Lars Lovén > music video > Oumou Sangaré > Paris > Senegal > Seya > Svenska dagbladet > textile
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October 6th, 2009 @ 11:40 pm
your bolg is not correctly displayed in the opera
October 6th, 2009 @ 11:40 pm
Hi. Your site displays incorrectly in Firefox, but content excellent! Thanks for your wise words:)