Lavilliers touring the Americas, episode 2

From Kingston to Miami.

Paris 

28/03/2003 - 

After an epic concert in Nicaragua, Bernard Lavilliers' tour of the Americas (in partnership with the Alliances Françaises and RFI) continues, taking him to the animated streets of Kingston, where his songs Jamaica, Stand The Ghetto and Mélodie Tempo Harmonie were born. After a Jamaican jam session, the French musical ambassador took off for the United States, starting with Miami where he was made an honorary citizen.

Kingston, Jamaica

Barely out of bed, and after his obligatory workout: "on stage, you need to be fit", Bernard Lavilliers pulls on his trainers and a pair of jeans to "go out and get a breath of fresh air". A bit tousled, he leaves the business district of New Kingston and the chic hotel where he's scheduled to play that night. Lavilliers heads off into town, leaving the forest of cement and sky-scrapers for another jungle: downtown. Bernard loves being jostled by the muffled cries and sudden commotions of downtown Kingston. Bordered by the sea, it was once the heart of the Jamaican capital but tourists now avoid it. Downtown: the roaring of the peanut seller's steamer, the shouts of the fruit vendors, the monstrous ghetto-blasters of young raggamuffin fans, sub-basses pounding out of mini-buses or record shops on the celebrated Orange Street... Downtown, with its window cleaners and wealth of vendors selling rags, trinkets, coconuts or fruit juice. All this has at one time or another inspired songs written by Lavilliers almost in the form of travel diaries: "Kingston kill some, quand le soleil descend à Downtown" he sings, "Cadenas sur les grilles, des familles d'en haut/La brume qui scintille au-dessus du ghetto/A Trench Town ça bouge, t'arrête pas aux feux rouges/A Tivoli Garden, no good man/La lumière qui saute, Kingston est dans le noir/Les gun-men qui rôdent transformés en passoires/Et la mort qui s'en va, affamée comme moi..." (Kingston kill some, when the sun sets on downtown. Padlocks on the gates of the families uptown/A foggy haze shines over the ghetto/ Trench Town is waking up, don't stop at the red lights/ In Tivoli Garden, no good man/ Fuses blown, lights gone off, Kingston's in the dark/Prowling gun-men full of holes/Death is heading off, starving like me...)

Dressed in canvas trousers and a faded t-shirt, the youthful broad-shouldered Bernard is "on the road again". He strolls around, pushing through to the market along the port where he buys a walking cane in twisted wood with a shining insignia, dream of many a reggae fan: "Jamaica". "I'm getting on a bit, I need something to give me a bit of support in my old age" laughs the musician in his fifties.

Tuff Gong Studios

After a detour to check that the famous Gun Court prison hasn't fallen down, France's Bernard shores up on Marcus Garvey Drive, in the mythical Tuff Gong studios where Bob Marley made three recordings. "Kingston is evolving, changing, but somehow manages to stay the same, although the violence does seem to have died down a bit." says Bernard, before he's drowned in shouts of welcome and blessing and a chorus of "Jah! Rastafari!" from the Rastas in the studio. Bernard takes the opportunity to learn the new hand shakes and gestures... "I showed them some Brazilian signs and some of the musicians adapted them Jamaican fashion" explains Bernard over the shouts, standing outside the mixing booth door. "I don't want to go in in case I disturb them." His attention is grabbed by a passing Rasta, Ras Dumisani, a South African over from Paris to record at Tuff Gong, who greets him with a "Yeah man, Bernard, I've seen you on the TV, I like your music, come on, come in!", Lavilliers continues "There's always about 50 people mulling about when we're recording and sometimes I'm forced to put on a pair of earphones or say "Oi! Can we make some music around here?", because everyone's talking during the takes, there's often people who pass by to see what the white French guy is up to".

Lavilliers first visited Kingston back in 1979. "I stayed six weeks, because it takes a bit of time to understand how it works here. In Jamaica you can't force peoples hand, you can't b

From Marley to the Gipsy Kings

After the concert, the night continues, as always, into the early hours of the morning in a nightclub in the heart of town where Bernard is a hit with his Jamaican friends from Trenchtown, Tuff Gong and the Waterhouse ghetto. "He dances great, yeah, man!" puffs Dean, a reformed delinquent, as he drags on a spliff. But as in Kingston "Fait trop chaud pour chanter/Fait trop soif pour noter/Trop beau pour t'expliquerCe qui s'passe dans l'reggae" ("Its too hot to sing/Too thirsty to write/Too beautiful to explain What happens in reggae"), Lavilliers sets sail a few hours later for Miami.... Suddenly thrown onto the smart asphalt roads which cross and fly-over Miami for miles, Bernard finds time to stop and have a beer in a bar where by chance he bumps into cousins of the Gipsy Kings. A rendezvous is made for a jam session later on.

The war in Iraq has just been declared and French-American relations are a little tense. But Bernard sings to visibly enthusiastic audience. Youssou N’Dour has just cancelled his tour dates in the United States, but Lavilliers insisted on not cancelling. "I don't think that all Americans are hostile to the French position, and I think the same goes for other countries who can't say out loud that they agree with the position France has taken because they are economically dependant on the USA. For once in my life I agree with Jacques Chirac. I agree that Saddam Hussein is a dictator, but I don't think we need to kill women and children to get rid of him. We are living through very complicated times and its not easy for anyone, even George Bush, but I'm delighted to be able to play here because Bush's government does not represent every American and in any case, they can't put me in prison".

Showing that America does not take offence at the singer's nationality, Emeline Alexis, deputy to the mayor of Miami, Alex Penelas, made Bernard Lavilliers an honorary citizen of the town after the concert. But it remains to be seen if the gesture will be copied in other American towns.

Elodie Maillot

Next dates :
29 march : Montreal (Quebec)
31 mach : Panama
2 april : San Salavador
4 april : Caracas (Venezuela)
5 april : Maracaibo (Venezuela)
7 april : Port of Spain (Trinidad)
10 april : New York

Elodie  Maillot

Translation : Michele  Brady