Word had spread that Ray Lema was returning to Ouagadougou to teach another master class and prospective students were certainly not lacking. Small groups huddled excitedly at the refreshment counter in the Salle Reemdoogo, a fifteen-minute scooter ride from the Rond Point des Nations-Unies, the city’s vibrant hub. One earnest soul cradled a balafon in his arms, another a guitar, while a third had begged, borrowed and practically stolen his brother’s bass to attend Lema’s “African Music University” (a sort of summer - or more exactly winter -school for musicians).

Lema himself soon arrived with Etienne Mbappé and Francis Lassus, hot off the plane from Paris, and the three musicians strode around the room, dispensing handshakes, hugs and other greetings amidst gales of laughter. The trio are well-known in Ouagadougou, the “African Music University” having already attracted a big turn-out when they organised two training sessions in Reemdoogo’s Music Garden in 2005. Reemdoogo is absolutely unique in West Africa, housing as it does a rehearsal room, recording studios and a live performance space, as well as lending instruments to musicians, making it the ideal place for Lema’s project.

Workshops

After greeting students, Lema called everyone to attention and announced how this season’s master classes were to be organised. "Etienne will be doing a guitar and bass workshop, Francis will be taking the drums and percussion workshop and I’ll be working with bands. So we’ll be splitting up into three different rooms." Cameroonian bass-player Etienne Mbappé launched into his workshop outlining the main objectives of the class. Then, after judging students’ technical levels divided the class into two work groups. The guitarists, bassists and a traditional ngoni-player would work together in the morning while the less advanced pupils would be taught the basics in the afternoon. Although those attending the master classes are all either professional or semi-professional musicians, many of them do not actually own their own instruments. Getting hold of an instrument to rehearse or perform live in concert involves an entire network of solidarity, the musicians asking around to borrow basses and guitars from brothers, cousins or friends. Drummers draw the short straw, full drumkits obviously being harder to find.

When the workshop stopped for a break, Mbappé explained that "the African Music University sessions were set up by Ray Lema with the idea of training young musicians in Africa. The classes are often taught by African musicians who are already working in Paris or the United States. The project is about musicians like us returning to our roots and giving back to Africa what the place has given us. It’s about passing on basic skills and knowledge to the up-and-coming generation of musicians that they haven’t been able to acquire otherwise due to the lack of infrastructure here."

Reconciling old and new

Given the fact that music schools in Africa are few and far between, the majority of the continent’s young musicians are self-taught, picking techniques up as they go along. And, according to Lema, those lucky enough to attend music institutes and conservatories are not necessarily being taught the right things. "Pupils are taught with books from the West. They learn to play classical pieces by Beethoven and Bach. And basically when they leave the Conservatory, they’re not equipped to play with our major stars."

Lema - who says his longterm dream is to publish an entirely new teaching method based on traditional instruments - sees transmitting his music knowledge and sharing his skills as an essential part of his artistic career. And not a moment of the ten-day “University sessions” in Ouagadougou was wasted. "The idea is to bring real top-notch instrumentalists out here to meet musicians who are playing popular music from here,” he says, “We really tried to make traditional music the focus. We got the modern guys up in front of the class swinging and then threw traditional musicians into the mix. What I’m trying to do is improve the students’ technique via modern instruments. But at the same time I’m trying to reconcile modern sounds with the traditional music they already know."

In the classes, traditional African instruments such as the ngoni (a plucked lute) the djembe (skin-covered hand drum) and the balafon (wooden xylophone) – and African vocals – were fused with the typical western line-up of bass, drums and guitar. But rhythms were also freely mixed and matched, pupils mastering the art of playing traditional Mande "loops" on guitar and bass. And, like acrobats performing without a safety net, the results of the improvised sessions were often astounding. 

Given the quality of the teaching distilled by Lema and his associates, pupils flock to Ouagadougou’s “African Music University” from all over Burkina Faso and the surrounding region, coming from Benin, Niger and Ivory Coast. The majority of young musicians in Mande country place tradition at the heart of their musical approach. But Ernest, a young guitarist in Etienne Mbappé’s class, claims he "hates playing Mande music." Later, listening to him accompany an expert in the pure traditional style, it became clear that Ernest had not naturally mastered the Mande style and appears to have evolved away from it out of pride.

After ten days’ intensive training at Lema’s “African Music University”, it is hoped Ernest will not only have mastered the techniques, but that he will be reconciled with the traditional music of his homeland as well.

Eglantine Chabasseur