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Vincent Segal
From Bumcello to Cello and co.
Paris
07/05/2003 -
They say travel broadens the mind and forges character - and it appears that in Vincent Segal’s case travel has changed his personal destiny! With the world evolving into a global village, Segal launched his globe-trotting life at an early age, beginning with a trip to Canada after he won a scholarship fund from the Banif School of Fine Arts. The young cellist’s musical adventures soon led him further afield and, in the course of his career, Segal has journeyed from Europe to Africa via the Americas, playing with different contemporary ensembles, enjoying creative residencies and pursuing a pretty much non-stop schedule of live and recording work.
Segal’s ‘cello has been an essential ingredient in all kinds of African musical mixes cooked up by the likes of Doudou N’diaye Rose Jr, Lokua Kanza, Ray Lema and Pierre Akendegue. Californian band Papa’s Culture also enlisted the skills of the young French cellist, enticing him out to the U.S. to record an album with them. Nana Vasconcelos was the next to fall under Segal’s spell. Impressed by the dexterity of his fingering and the incredible sound he coaxed from his instrument, the Brazilian genius immediately enrolled him in his backing group. Young Segal has also been much sought after on the live scene, touring with everyone from alternative French pop star Mathieu Chédid (aka M.) to Zairean rumba king Papa Wemba, Cameroonian star Ohandja and Cape Verdean diva Cesaria Evora. Segal then entered his ‘experimental’ period, playing with Olympic Gramophon, a group which also nurtured budding young French talents such as sax-man Julien Loureau and drummer Cyril Atef. Teaming up with the latter Segal eventually went on to form postmodernist duo Bumcello whose ‘electro-world’ mix has proved a hit on both sides of the Channel.
Alternating his ‘cello with electric bass, Segal has buzzed from one musical project to the next, cross-pollinating the various collaborators he has met on his path. Over the years the young ‘cellist has built up an enviable reputation, to the point where critics and composers actually refer to the "Segal sound" now. When questioned about his virtuoso reputation, Segal laughs modestly and shrugs his shoulders, laying the credit at his parents’ door. Had it not been for his parents, he says, he would probably never have won a place to the Reims ‘Conservatoire’ at the tender age of six. Without their encouragement and support he would never have become the globe-trotting musician he has become today, scouring the four corners of the earth for new sounds.
Inevitably there came a day when, after years of musical collaboration and double acts, Vincent Segal would move on to shine as a star in his own right. Pierre Walfisz, artistic director at Label Bleu, was the man who initiated Segal’s first solo project, ringing the ‘cellist up one day and asking him to start thinking about a debut album. Segal’s response was to come up with a ‘concept’ album which revolved around inviting his musician friends to perform with him. In fact, Segal says the deal he proposed was, "Come along and record your music […] under my conditions. The concept revolves around duets, so I asked singers to lend their voices and musicians to lend their instruments, fusing their sound with my ‘cello. The idea was that they would follow my every musical whim, whether that meant venturing into the realm of acoustic or electric experiments."
Segal’s debut album, T-Bone Guarnerius, certainly excels at one thing and that is giving a number of big-name music stars the chance to show off a totally unexpected side. Take iconic French flautist Malik Mezzadri (aka Magic Malik), for instance. "What I wanted to do," says Segal, "was convey my own perception of Magic Malik, let fans experience what I’ve been hearing for years when I go over to his place and work with him, the sort of stuff we play on holiday together. I wanted people to hear what happens when it’s just him and me in a room, when you’ve just got flute and ‘cello interacting together. There’s a whole other side to Magic Malik when he’s not playing with a 15-strong group or ten electric instruments." Cameroonian star Ohandja was also invited to guest on two tracks on T-Bone Guarnerius. "I consider Mama Ohandja as one of my teachers," says Segal, "Mama Ohandja trained me. He’s the one who taught me to play electric bass, in fact. And for once I thought it would be good to do a piece by him. The result is this traditional ‘bikutsi’, a funeral ‘bikutsi’ which Mama does on the xylophone with me playing acoustic ‘cello."
T-Bone Guarnerius offers a veritable musical kaleidoscope of styles, Segal teaming up with everyone from trombonist Glenn Ferris to accordionist Pallisco or mandolin virtuoso Vic Moan. In a way, T-Bone Guarnerius is not so much a strictly structured album, more a series of musical ‘conversations’ with close friends. "The thing is," says Segal, "you can rework a lot of things using the ‘cello as a medium. But somewhere down the line the medium needs to enter a dialogue. There’s absolutely no doubt about that !" And far from dictating the conversation along fixed musical lines, Segal gaily flits across borders, touching on everything from jazz and bikutsi to experimental pop.
T-Bone Guarnerius has another interesting edge to it and that is that all 17 tracks on the album were recorded in situ, Segal and his musician friends travelling to the most unusual places armed with Nagra or DAT recording equipment. Teaming up under the vaulted arches of the Place des Vosges in Paris or playing together in a forest or in front of a roaring hearth, Segal and co. come up with the most inspirational musical mixes. And T-Bone Guarnerius includes a number of absolute musical gems such as an Afro-beat without drums where the rhythm is dictated by an alarm clock posed on a street corner (with the sound of Parisian traffic swirling around the dialogue between Segal’s ‘cello and Sebastien Martel’s guitar).
At times Segal’s concept album seems to have rocketed in like a UFO from a parallel universe, so intent is the cellist on breaking down borders imposed by the mainstream music industry. Malian star Cheick Tidiane Seck, another musician renowned for crashing through musical roadblocks, describes T-Bone Guarnerius as "enormous, but then that’s exactly the kind of attitude you’d expect from someone like Vincent Segal. I met Vincent in Pigalle in ‘86 and I remember him being so curious about everything. He was into all kinds of sounds like traditional Manding music, for instance… I think he was just starting out in those days but I was immediately struck by his openness to other musical horizons, so this album doesn’t surprise me at all. The future of artistic expression depends on brilliant initiatives like this - and I think this album will only broaden Segal’s expression even more."
As for Segal himself, he has always refused to be pinned down into any given musical category, preferring the freedom of the open road. "I know an enormous amount of musicians of my generation working in different countries around the world today who run up against the same problem of classification," he says "The thing is we grew up surrounded by all these different cultures and we went on to create our own kind of cultural cross-over. Basically, people are a bit of a mix of everything they’ve experienced in their lives. So having played with all these different musicians from different backgrounds and grown up in culturally mixed neighbourhoods is bound to influence you somewhere down the line." In other words, as Segal himself would be the first to say, music is a language that knows no borders !
Vincent Segal T-Bone Guarnerius Label Bleu 2003
Soeuf Elbadawi
Translation : Julie Street
