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Album review
Sally Nyolo
A cool blend of bikutsi and reggae.
Paris
11/10/2002 -
RFI:You've called your new album Zaïone. Does that mean you've become a Rastafarian?Sally Nyolo: Zaïone is the Rastafarian promised land, but "Zai Maïone" in Eton also means "Who will cry for me, who will resurrect me?" Zaïone is an abbreviation of Zai Maïone, the Rastafarian paradise. But it's also my personal heaven, since Zaïone is the name I called my son who was born last year. And it's certainly not him who's going to resurrect me! RFI: Is this fourth album almost a second birth, after that of your son?
Sally Nyolo: Every time a new record comes out, it's a little like giving birth. You present a new sound, a new book to the world, and you wish it the best of luck. It's a new being, into which I've poured a lot of love. I've shared a lot of my passion with friends – that's what I like to call the artists who I work with and who I adore. I knew them before as artists. One day our paths crossed and together we were able to put a lot of our feelings into Zaïone. So many people worked with me on this album: Princess Erika, Nicoletta, Jean-Jacques Milteau, Nathalie Cardone and Nina Moratto, to name just a few. RFI: Nicoletta sings in Eton, your native language?
Sally Nyolo: Yes, she sings a prayer, a song I dedicated to the great spirit Zambé, because I have faith in life and I could easily imagine Nicoletta singing a prayer like that. Fate allowed us to meet just as I was recording, and she came and sang in Eton. Zambé is a prayer and a sigh, and I'm proud to have sung with a World Music legend like her. When I was small, back in Cameroon, I used to listen to Mamy Blue and all the girls dreamed of that voice and tried to copy it. Nicoletta was considered a real woman of Africa, and we've always loved her back home. It means a lot to me to have sung with her on that track. RFI: How did you meet Princess Erika?
Sally Nyolo: She's been a friend for a long time, long before we started working together. I met her as a teenager, and we've both followed a similar career path. I sang on her first records, simply as a friend and because I wanted to. Today, years later, I was very happy to sing with her again. RFI: Is she the person who introduced you to reggae?
Sally Nyolo: (laughs) I let my friends take the lead. The bikutsi rhythm can take a lot of different directions, and for Jah Know, we decided on a reggae flavour because that's what she really likes.
RFI: But it's not just an album recorded with your friends, because you also sing with Nina Moratto on A Lion In the Jungle .
Sally Nyolo: Yes, I recorded with artists I hadn't met before as well. Through Princess Erika, I met a lot of artists who belong to an association which helps African children, called "Voices Of Hope". I also wanted to get involved in this cause. And when I came to record, these artists wanted to support me in this new adventure.
Nina Moratto is a woman I really love, and she came to give a slightly different twist to the bikutsi rhythm. These kinds of exchanges are important. Working with new artists like Nicoletta, Nina Moratto, Nathalie Cardone or Muriel Moreno takes the rhythm to new places. RFI: Did the French artists adapt as well to the bikutsi rhythm as Paul Simon did with his album The Rhythm of the Saints?
Sally Nyolo: I think a musical rhythm offers a lot of possibilities. This rhythm is a binary one, based on hand-clapping. Hand-clapping is a universal phenomenon: when people are happy, they clap. Behind, the women put the rhythms and feelings to 3, 4, 6, 8 or 12 beats. All variations are possible, so it wasn't difficult to adapt to the musical sensibilities of the singer, or indeed to stay with my own sensibilities.
Jean Jacques Milteau, Nicoletta and Nathalie Cardone decided to stay with the original rhythm and add their voices over it, so that the songs kept their essential meanings. The more of a challenge it was, the happier they were. RFI: On this album you also worked with a non-Francophone artist, Tyrone Downie, formerly of the Wailers. What did it mean to you to work with him?
Sally Nyolo: It was a dream come true, because he was one of the Wailers. When I first discovered reggae, it was the Wailers I listened to and who played that beat. And I've known that beat since I was thirteen years old, from listening to Bob Marley. His sound is something I've always known and it was hard to believe that this same musician who I've loved for so many years, that has given me such pleasure, could come and say to me: " Sally, I'm going to play a reggae beat on that song you wrote, 'J'attends Abeba' ".
RFI: You are the patron of the "World Music Cities" event which is taking place this month in Seine-Saint-Denis, in the Paris suburbs. How do you feel about the growing recognition of World Music?
Sally Nyolo: The phrase "World Music" makes me laugh. But it's great that all these different types of music can be heard in France, Europe and across the world. They exist, they are exported, the musicians tour, they find an audience who come to hear them and buy their records. As patron, I'm flattered because I'm one of those artists who have tried to avoid creating all sorts of mixes of different types of music for whatever reasons. I've tried to stay simple and put the music first. And I think the bikutsi rhythm has a lot to offer the world of music.
I'll be happy if more young kids from the suburbs get interested in different rhythms, not just the ones they hear every day. I think we need new experiences to widen our horizons, to have new dreams and to create high-quality music. And I think we can get that quality through the kids from the suburbs. They need to get in touch with their roots and their cultural values. It really depends on them. If young people don't get involved with their culture, World Music can't really continue. It'll only be remixes and songs covered by other artists who haven't really understood their essence.
It's important for me to be in touch with the young people of today. And I also want to work with kids to encourage an interest in playing a musical instrument and give them a taste for creativity.
The joy of playing an instrument can come from listening to non-recorded music, and not just CDs where you can't recognise the different sounds any more because of the production or the mix. It's important to give kids from the suburbs this desire to play and hear music.
Pierre René-Worms
Translation : Julie Street
22/12/2006 -
21/01/2000 -
