Alpha Blondy lifts his music embargo

New album: Jah Victory

Paris 

12/11/2007 - 

Ivorian reggae star Alpha Blondy vowed he would not make a new album until war in his homeland came to an end. Now, just a few months after the peace deal signed in Ouagadougou, Alpha Blondy has put an end to his five-year silence with a new opus entitled Jah Victory. This vibrant new album proves that the African reggae veteran has lost none of his legendary dub touch - or his ability to pen controversial lyrics!

RFI Musique: Is the title of your new album, Jah Victory, intended to be a reference to your debut album, Jah Glory, released in 1983?
Alpha Blondy: In this case, as in the first case, the album title is a reference to God. God is omnipresent in everything I do. I vowed that I’d never make another album until the war in Ivory Coast came to an end. In my eyes, the peace we’re experiencing in our country today - even if it is a relative kind of peace - is God’s doing. I believe God heard the tears and suffering of the Ivorian people begging him to help us stop this fratricidal war. For me, the end of this war marks God’s victory. It’s the victory of peace over war, love over hate, light over darkness.

Did your vow not to make another album during this period mean that music played less of a role in your life?
No, it was just the opposite, in fact. I’ve never toured as intensively as I did during those five years. I went off and played in all these far-flung places where I didn’t think people would even know who Alpha Blondy was! I did concerts everywhere from Uruguay, Costa Rica and Peru to New Zealand and Australia. I certainly didn’t waste my time! On the contrary, touring like that meant I reached out and touched fans really far away. People on the other side of the world got to see what Alpha Blondy looks like, you know, we got to communicate with one another, have a drink together, have a laugh. Anyway, my music embargo was only against Ivory Coast. Now the war’s over we’re planning to do a really big concert, the Festarrr, with three “R”s - it’s going to be a festival of Reconciliation, Reunification and Reconstruction. It’s going to be staged in the Espace Jérusalem, in Bassam, in Ivory Coast on December 30th and we’re planning things on a really big scale. We’re hoping to get an audience of between 200,000 and 300,000 people!

What did ex-Wailer Tyrone Downie, who was in charge of production on your new album, bring to things?
You know, when I produced Serge Kassi, it was Tyrone who worked on the album with me. And even at that stage I was impressed by his "reggaematic" touch. I knew I wanted to do a whole album of my own with him one day. Tyrone’s really open to all kinds of music. I’m a bit paranoid when it comes to trusting other people but I really had a lot of confidence in his musical sensibility and he didn’t disappoint me at all. Tyrone was the musical architect, the cosmetic surgeon behind this entire album. I’m not into the idea of playing a sort of stagnant reggae. I want my sound to evolve and Tyrone really understood that. He managed to incorporate all these different instruments that aren’t usually present in reggae, like the kora, the accordion and the bagpipes into the music, making them swing to a reggae beat. But at the same time he managed to make the whole thing sound totally Alpha Blondy. That was always my dream and I thank him from the bottom of my heart for all the hard, perfectionist, obsessive work he put into the album.

Did you have anyone in particular in mind when you wrote the lyrics “Do me a favour and shut up” on Mister Grande Gueule (Mr Big Mouth)?
I don’t want to name any names! What I was trying to do with that song was take all the old wounds, the insults and the frustrations that have affected me over the years and transform them into poetry. Instead of getting my own back in a violent way, I preferred to translate my feelings into music. We’ve all got a "Mister Grande Gueule" somewhere in our lives - and I suggest that instead of turning round and punching him in the face people might like to send him the new Alpha Blondy album and tell him to listen to this song! That would be a gentler way of settling disputes.

There’s another track on your new album, a song about Thomas Sankara who came to power in Haute Volta as a result of a political coup, that has proved to be very controversial. Some people have even accused you of denigrating one of Africa’s great heroes…
The thing I love about "débillétrés" (literally “the stupid illiterate”) is the hasty way they have of jumping to conclusions when they’ve only seen the preface and skipped the rest! I’d advise people to listen to the lyrics of Sankara very attentively before making any kind of judgement. For me, this song’s primarily about taking a stand against political coups. Personally, I’ve always hated coups. In my eyes, they’re violent crimes of the most serious kind. The guys who seize power with guns are no different from robbers holding up a bank. At the end of the day they’re all thieves. Africa has to put a stop to this practice now. And I have to say I bear a big grudge against France for having approved these crimes, these political “hold-ups”, in French-speaking countries. It’s no wonder that our countries are politically unstable if coups are allowed to happen. For me, the army is there as a guarantor of the republic. The army should not seek to impose itself as a political force and try and run the country because that’s not its role. People can’t just go round inventing themselves as singers - or politicians! There are people who have been trained to run things politically so we have to let them get on with the job. I’m sick and tired of saying that one coup always leads to another and reminding everyone that sooner or later brothers in arms can become your enemies.

Talking of violent crimes, the South African reggae star Lucky Dube was gunned down in Johannesburg in October. Did you know him?
I met Lucky Dube in Abidjan in 1998 and then we hooked up again in Italy when we both performed at a reggae festival in San Siro. We got on really well together. I love Lucky Dube’s music. He managed to put his own special spin on African reggae with his totally unique voice and those wailing keyboards. His music is really beautiful. You know, one of my greatest dreams was to perfect a style of African reggae modelled on the best Jamaican sound where you’d have a bit of Bob Marley, a bit of U Roy,  and a bit of Ijahman… I think Lucky Dube’s work totally tapped into that diversity… You know, as musicians we really put our soul into our work so I like to think that Lucky’s soul lives on in his music. In that way, he’s still here with us today.

Alpha Blondy Jah Victory (Mediacom/Nocturne) 2007
Alpha Blondy will play at Le Zénith, in Paris, on 16 November

Bertrand  Lavaine

Translation : Julie  Street