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Cheickh Tidiane Seck solo
MandinGroove
Paris
14/11/2003 -
RFI Musique: You’ve spent thirty years of your career accompanying other artists. Why wait so long before bringing out your first solo album?Cheick Tidiane Seck: Well, I’ve never really imagined myself as the kind of artist who steps up front and asserts his personality. I’ve devoted my career to others, trying to give them the best of myself as an arranger or instrumentalist and creating mixes that have given me my own personal thrills. All the musicians I’ve worked with over the years have encouraged me to make a solo album. At the end of the day this album is a sort of summing-up of all the encounters I’ve made in my career. It’s really a reflection of my identity and my musical influences, which range from The Super Rail Band and jazz - via Hank Jones and Ornette Coleman – to my collaboration with the Gnawas or the ‘avant-garde’ scenes in New York and London.
You describe your sound as "MandinGroove" …
That’s because I’ve tried to add a 70s touch to my compositions while remaining as modern as I can. I tried to transpose the "doom-doom"style of percussion to the drums and that’s what creates the kind of funk-groove feel I call MandinGroove. For a Malinke (Mandingo) like me who’s spent so much of my life travelling this is really a coming-together of all the different lives I’ve led as a musician.
I spent four years recording the album, travelling back and forth between Paris, New York and Los Angeles and working with different friends. I wanted to show the sheer diversity of all the musical movements I’ve been involved with, including everything from Asian, Arab and Afro-American sounds… I’ve played the whole musical spectrum, you know. In the 70s I even played in a piano-bar on the Champs-Elysées!Your album kicks off with a cover of M’Baoudi, a song you used to perform with Bamako’s Super Rail Band. Does this mark some sort of return to your roots?
Well, a lot of people think M’Baoudi was an original song by the Rail Band, but it isn’t. It’s actually a traditional song, a song about spirituality and witchcraft. It’s my way of paying tribute to all the leading figures of West Africa. In fact what happened was I completely re-arranged the track and added Calcutta-style vocals to it. When I was over in Calcutta I was struck by the fact that many aspects of the Hindu lifestyle reminded me of Africa and the way life revolves around the family and the local village there. I’ve got this friend who’s a Baul* singer and I translated the essential meaning of M’Baoudi for him and got him to sing it in Hindi.
In the course of your career you also branched out into university teaching, lecturing at UCLA in Los Angeles. What did you teach your students?
I tried to put across my own concept of music based on what I imagined went on around the time of Tellem and Soundiata Keïta. I attempted to build some kind of bridge between Africa and America, showing what the slaves from Africa brought with them in terms of plantation rhythms and the work songs they’d sing building the railways. What I tried to explain in my course was how musicians played back then. People attending the course included ethno-musicologists and students who’d taken jazz classes and they were all really interested in the lessons I gave about the cross-over between West African music and jazz. I based a lot of my lessons on my own personal experience as I’ve worked in a lot of different fields, playing Ghanaian high-life and Nigerian Afro-beat with Fela and Ivorian ziglibiti with Ernesto Djédjé as well as Jimi Hendrix-style rock and gospel and rhythm’n’ blues.
You’ve also written film music, of course. Is this a form of escapism for you?
I’d say writing film music reconciles me with my past as a painter. When I compose a soundtrack for a film it’s a bit like a voyage where music fuses with colour and space. I must admit I allow myself a lot more freedom composing film music than I do writing songs. I’ve written the music for quite a few feature films now, including one which won first prize at the Fespaco Pan-African Film Festival in Ouagadougou. I’ve done music for shorts and ads too. I’ve recorded the music for quite a few adverts, actually, like Uncle Ben's, Hollywood Chewing-gum and, more recently, SOS Sahel.
Do you think there’s any chance of the Super Rail Band or Les Ambassadeurs ever getting back together?
It would be such a huge dream come true if the others were willing to get back together and do an album or a tour. I’m ready. Believe me, I know all the songs by heart!
*Bengali folk music
Pierre René-Worms
Translation : Julie Street
02/10/2008 -
30/05/2003 -
08/08/2003 -
