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Tiken Jah Fakoly & Manjul
Reggae ‘made in Bamako’
Paris
06/07/2007 -
The formal introductions were made last year at the African Reggae Festival, staged first in the Malian capital, Bamako, then recreated for audiences in Paris. The Ivorian reggae star Tiken Jah Fakoly, acting as “big brother” rather than official sponsor on this occasion, came up with the idea of the African Reggae Festival as a means of showcasing three artists he had chosen to help with his own recently-formed production company, Fakoly Production.
Beta Simon, whose live performance at the African Reggae Festival proved he was definitely no newcomer to the scene, has received close support and encouragement from his compatriot Tiken Jah Fakoly (a former winner of RFI’s “Découvertes” award). And this precious aid has now resulted in the arrival of Kraity Payan Guez, the first album released on Tiken’s new label, Fakoly Production. Beta Simon’s album also breaks a long silence on the recording front since the Ivorian reggaeman moved to France in 1999. “I originally came to France to perform a concert, but my real ambition was to discover Europe,” says the singer who lived in several different west African countries before finally settling here.
After spending two years in Paris, Beta Simon headed up north to Brittany where he put his music career on hold for a while - and reinvented himself as a farmer! When the farm owner he was staying with had to go away for a year, he left his land and animals in Beta’s capable hands and the reggaeman made a new life for himself in the Morbihan "bush", a stone’s throw from the famous forest of Brocéliande. “I spent most of that time out in the fields looking after the cows or tending flowers in the greenhouse!” explains Beta, accounting for his long absence from the music scene.
In fact, Beta had not set foot in the studio again since making Ramde, the third album he released before leaving Africa. He had been toying with the idea of making some sort of comeback, however, and it was at this point that he got an opportune phone call from Tiken, asking to work with him. The two men have actually known each other for more than fifteen years now. After rising to fame with his album La Paix in 1991, Beta was one of the leading lights on the Ivorian reggae scene and a performer that Tiken, several years his junior, regularly went along to see in concert.
Besides marking a personal reunion between the two, the collaboration between Tiken Jah Fakoly and Beta Simon is also intended as a sign that musicians from the north and south of Ivory Coast are capable of forming an ‘entente cordiale.’ Beta’s album, Kraity Payan Guez, recorded in the H.
Manjul as a facilitating tool
Manjul’s appearance on Beta’s album comes as little surprise. The multi-talented French instrumentalist, composer, sound engineer and inspired producer, based in Bamako like Tiken, appears to be fighting on all fronts at once. And the enthusiastic reception the first volume of his Dub To Mali series got on its release at the end of 2005 has encouraged him to pursue his original fusion sound, exploring the point at which Rasta music melds with its African roots.
Manjul has wasted no time in recording Dub to Mali vol 2, subtitled Jahtiguiya (a Rasta adaptation of "djatiguiya", a Bambara term referring to the principle of hospitality) and he has remained true to the working method he used on Dub to Mali vol 1. “I’ve always wanted to express something of my own personal experience,” he says, “That’s been the motivation behind all my albums. I think everything’s a matter of alchemy between certain times, certain places, certain things and certain people. And with this album everything just fell into place. I often describe myself as a sort of facilitating ‘tool.’ I just try to open my eyes and ears and perform that function. I feel this energy within me that I want to share with others and music is the only way I’ve found of doing that. This isn’t just my way of telling people to go to Africa - or, indeed, leave Africa. This is my way of saying sit up and start thinking for yourself!”
Manjul’s line-up in the studio and on stage has remained relatively unchanged from Dub to Mali vol. 1. Mamadou Fofana (a member of Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra) brings his expert knowledge of traditional instruments such as the balafon, Peul flutes and the kamele n’goni. And, making a radical departure from her usual repertoire, Assetou Kanouté puts her own distinctive vocal touch on the three songs she contributes to. “As a ‘griote’ and a singer,” Manjul says in clear admiration, “Assetou expresses so much with her voice that I want people to feel about Africa that she has become just about as important as all the other instruments on stage.”
Manjul is now keen to take his collaboration with Assetou Kanouté further, just as he did with the hot new Guinean talent Takana Zion, who came into the studio to record I Am A Freeman (featured on Dub To Mali vol. 2 as well as on his own debut album, Zion Prophet, recorded during the same period). Takana, who is not yet 21, has the same capacity as Jamaican ‘singjays’ for singing and toasting with the intensity of those who have nothing but their voice to express their suffering. When Chid and Zaz from the French group Sinsémilia saw Takana perform in Bamako last year they were blown away by his performance.
After two attempts in Tiken’s studio, Takana and Manjul finally came up with Zion Prophet, an album co-produced, arranged and partly played by Manjul. In Jamaican terms, Zion Prophet might perhaps best be described as the (chronologically impossible) encounter between ‘singjay’ Sizzla and dub master King Tubby. It thrills with consistently solid but inventive reggae which is as vibrant and uplifting musically as it is vocally. Manjul’s qualities as a musician shine, in a slightly different register than they have to date, but Takana Zion ‘s performance is really quite extraordinary, his vocals touched with pure moments of grace. “Takana’s one of those people you can’t help but notice,” says Manjul. “He manages to express something through his voice that’s actually much older than himself.” A point, it appears, he shares with Manjul, Tiken and the rest of the ‘made in Bamako’ crew.
Takana Zion Zion Prophet (Makasound/Discograph) 2007
Beta Simon Kraity Payan Guez (Fakoly Prod/Nocturne) 2007
Bertrand Lavaine
Translation : Julie Street
08/10/2004 -
