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Touré Kunda make a comeback in France
New album : Santhiaba
Paris
01/04/2008 -
On their extraordinary new album Santhiaba, which mixes the full cultural diversity of Senegal with classical music and French 'chanson', Touré Kunda prove they have reached full musical maturity almost three decades after their debut. RFI Musique hooks up with Ismaïla and Sixu.
RFI Musique: Carlos Santana did a cover of the Touré Kunda classic Africa Bamba back in 1999, but you’ve kept a bit of a low profile on the international music scene since then…
Ismaïla: It was basically thanks to Carlos Santana that we got our career up and running again - and Touré Kunda played a role in Santana’s comeback, too! Santana had been out of the spotlight for around twenty years or so. But he’d always kept thirteen songs carefully to one side (with the idea of making an album one day). The thirteen songs included one of ours, Africa Bamba, and Santana later told us that it was listening to those thirteen tracks that motivated him to make a comeback. He went on to make his album Supernatural - and in 2000 he walked off with eight Grammy Awards for it! We ended up nominated in the Best Songwriter/Composer category on that occasion. Anyway, we went on to do an international tour with Santana. Then, just after that, we brought out Terra Saabi. In 2003, following the Joola ferry disaster, we recorded Un bateau pour la Casamance, a cassette released in Senegal where all proceeds went to the victims’ families.
Your new album is called Santhiaba, which means "the new place" in Wolof. Does the title have any special significance for you?
Ismaïla: Santhiaba is the name of this working-class neighbourhood in Ziguinchor where the Soninké, the Mandinkas, the Diolas, Portuguese Creoles, Peuls and Wolofs all lived together side by side… That’s the neighbourhood where we grew up and it’s still a great source of inspiration for us. Back in those days we used to tune into Radio Congo a lot. The station played Congolese rumba (with artists like Les Bantous de la Capitale and Franklin Boukaka) and we also listened to Radio Sit, a Gambian radio station set up by an English woman which broadcast from a ship off the coast of Bathurst (Banjul). It used to play artists from Guinea and Ghana and Liberian maringa. And then of course there was Radio Senegal! We used to take songs we heard on those stations and rework them our own way.
Santhiaba is a very polished album in terms of the production and arrangements. And there are some totally unexpected fusions on it such as Ah Diatta which kicks off with Mozart’s "Turkish March" and segues into samba percussion, violin, piano and brass…
Ismaïla: We owe that to Samba Laobé NDiaye who co-produced the album. He really managed to bring out the essence of our music. In fact, all our young musicians contributed a lot. They’re all so amazingly versatile and musically open-minded. On the kora there’s Noumou Cissokho and Ouza Diallo’s son, Cheikh Lô, who also sings and plays piano. Then there’s a young Brazilian guitarist called Toninho and Eric Gauthier, who introduces Peul modulations on his flute. And that’s not forgetting the guitarists, Laye Kane and Hervé Samb, and drummer Jeff Ludovic who fitted himself around the percussionist whereas usually it’s the other way round.
Listening to Touré Kunda’s previous albums, I don’t think anyone ever imagined your voice had such range, that it could sound so typically Mandinka…
Ismaïla: Well, that’s because this time round I worked in my own studio at home and I didn’t have people from record labels breathing down my neck and putting pressure on me. For the first time in my career, I was able to work on my voice the way I wanted to.
There are quite a few covers on your new album: Amonafi, originally Mandaly, by The Super Eagles (a song Youssou N'Dour also did a cover of), Nianthio by Lalo Kéba Dramé - and La Tantina de Burgos by Henri Genès!
Ismaïla: We wanted to pay our respects to the artists who have been role models for us in one way or another. We also wanted to pay tribute to President Senghor, who proved his great majesty setting up his enemies with crowns on their heads. We compare him to a type of lion, the Wandialan. As for La Tantina de Burgos, we always considered this to be an African song. We first heard it at the "Festival des Arts Nègres", in 1966, performed by Jean Serge Essous from Les Bantous de la Capitale!!
Sixu: What happened was last year we were hanging around on the platform waiting for a TGV train at Avignon and I picked up my guitar and did this improvisation of La Tantina de Burgos. When I finished everyone started clapping and Ismaïla turned round and said, "OK, why don’t we put that on the album?" I always thought the family in the song was just like a typical African family. (Laughs).
Musically speaking, your new album runs through an impressive range of different styles, touching on everything from reggae, morna and Mandinka music to Afro-Cuban sounds on Te quiero. Is this a nod to your early days with Esperanza Jazz?
Ismaïla: Yes, it’s true, we started out playing Afro-Cuban music and that’s something that has always existed in Senegal even though mbalax tried to colonise us and snuff out all other forms of musical expression. One of the things we’re trying to do on our new album is show the full cultural diversity of our homeland. We sing in a lot of different languages, too (such as Soninke, Socé, Wolof, Dioula and Portuguese Creole).
And there’s a certain Halpulaar* influence, too…
Ismaïla: We wanted to emphasise the fact that the Fula (Peuls) are part of Casamance, too. The Fula were persecuted by those fighting for independence, but what they failed to understand was that we’re all children of Senegal.
You also sound a major environmental wake-up call on your new album on a song called Urgent Appeal …
Ismaïla: Yes, it’s a sort of techno/dance track sung in several different languages - and it can be downloaded from the Wagram website. The song’s an attempt to alert public opinion to the dangers of global warming. We’ve also tried to take direct action on the issue. Our album covers are cardboard and all our posters are made from recycled paper.
Where do you see yourself on the African music scene today?
Ismaïla: I think Touré Kunda have shown young people that music can be a real profession. Back in 1985, we performed at Demba Diop stadium, and we invited a young singer called Youssou N'Dour up on stage and handed him a wireless microphone. He spent ages looking around for the cord! (Laughs).
You took part in a special Lamine Konté tribute concert organised in January this year. What does Lamine Konté represent for you?
Ismaïla: Laminé really put the kora on the international music map. He once told me something that I’ve come to meditate on a lot over the years. He said, "Mark the path your way and push on towards the centre. When we meet up, then we’ll know we’ve succeeded!" Lamine Konté was truly ahead of his time.
The group kick off a new tour on 4 April 2008 and play at Le Cabaret Sauvage, in Paris, on 5 June 2008. Touré Kunda will guest on RFI’s Couleurs Tropicales (8 May 2008).*a sub-group of the Fula people
Sylvie Clerfeuille
Translation : Julie Street
27/06/2005 -
