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Ousmane Touré
The elegant Senegalese artist makes his comeback
Paris
27/06/2005 -
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Ousmane Touré: I talk a lot about love, respect and fraternity on this record. About relationships between people, and between men and women. I express this flame in our hears that gives us warmth and symbolises humanity. On the track Dimba, for example, I talk about the Olympic flame that everyone holds dear, which travels from continent to continent, country to country, athlete to athlete. On Beng, I pay homage to Casamance, a region colonised by the Portuguese, the English and then the French. There's also a song called Leer, which you could translate as "aura", the light which a person gives off, whether he's friendly or not. You know, I listen a lot to the griots because they're musicians who are timeless, because their words never disappear. This caste of storytellers don't write in the way Westerners understand the term. They capture a moment, a place, a story, like a cameraman. As for myself, I try to work like the griots, so that my lyrics have depth.
Musically, where do you situate yourself? You're African neo-pop, aren't you?
I don't categorise my music as specifically African, because only the vocals are African! For me, this album represents a coming together of musicians from diverse traditions. Each one composes and plays this music. The Western sound blends with griot singing, building a bridge between these two cultures. It's world music album in the literal sense of the term. That's why I called it Avenue du monde (world avenue).
This album marks your return to France from Senegal. Why did you decide to come back to Paris?
It was my children who asked me to return. After Touré Kunda, which ended in the early nineties, I was tired. We would sometimes go off on tour for three to six months and we didn't see our family. I'd totally lost the notion of the family! I first went back to Dakar to recover and stayed there almost ten years. In 2000, I recorded Lolo, a very personal, acoustic work in the pure Senegalese tradition, which sold well there. Then I decided to return to Paris. There, my children explained what they were going through at school. They told me: "Dad, we have friends who tell us you're one of the singers of Touré Kunda, but they've never heard your voice!" That made me feel bad, because I understood that I was an absent father for my children and also for that whole younger generation. So I gave them this record that is available only in West Africa. It was a gift just for them and their friends. That set something off inside me. And it was then that I thought about doing this current CD.
What's the best memory you have of Touré Kunda ?
Despite the pressures of success, there were a lot of great times. But the strongest memory for me is the concert we gave in Dakar, at the Théâtre Daniel Sorano. There I sang the song Sidi Yella and I closed my eyes Suddenly I opened them again and I saw my mother sitting in front of me! I cried. Personally, it was the most beautiful moment I had with the Touré Kunda.
There aren't any. Or maybe there are, the dark side of success ...
You've been in the music business for over twenty years, from your early days with the national orchestra of Mauritania through to your current solo career. What are your impressions looking back over your career?
Today, I'm older and wiser, whereas before, I lived everything with a passion. I was too high-spirited but now, I can take my distance and I'm calmer. You have to learn how to appreciate life, appreciate what we're given and be patient. That's how you make your daily existence more pleasant. Over the years, I've got a lot of things out of life but I've also listened and learned. Now I move forward in terms of what I've achieved in the past, I advance calmly along the path I've chosen. The important thing is to smile. After all, God gave us our white teeth so that we could show them! (laughs)
A last word about the Paris gig that kicks off your European tour?
I'm keen to get back to the New Morning, where it all started for me. I disappeared for years but now I'm back in front of the same audience. I don't think my public has got older, they've just matured, like me!
Ousmane Touré Avenue du monde (Together Production/Night&Day)
In concert : 20 June, Chartres (France), 23 June, Berlin (Germany), 25 June, Dortmund (Germany), 29 June, Montpellier (France)
