Special report

Aboulaye Koné at Nuits d’Afrique

Montreal goes African

Montreal 

22/07/2010 - 

From 13 to 25 July, the Nuits d’Afrique festival returns to enchant the city of Montreal for its 24^th edition. Starring the Senegalese singer Omar Pene, the festival features artists from Quebec and elsewhere, and a wide musical palette. We take a look at its eclectic programme, with a particular focus on Ivoirian-born musician, Aboulaye Koné.

In the space of a dozen evenings of African, West Indian and Latin-American music, thousands of festival-goers will be celebrating Africa in the heat of Montreal this month. They will have a chance to discover the local “world” scene as well as guests from afar serving up reggae, zouk, compas, Malian blues, soul, hip-hop, ska, séga, maloya, Afro-Cuban rhythms, Mandinka guitar, afrobeat, soukous, etc. As well as evening indoor concerts, four days of free activities are scheduled outdoors for the whole family.

The aim of the event is to present the best of African music each year with a balance of tradition and modernity. Among the hundred-odd artists, musicians, singers and dancers performing, there will be a few new faces (Hindi Zahra, Kinobe, Agana, Nomfusi & The Lucky Charms), some major shows (Kassav’, Omar Pene, Konono n^o 1 and Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars) and a selection of talented local bands.

Since 2008, Nuits d’Afrique has also found success with its selection of only female music. As well as Dobet Gnahoré (Côte d’Ivoire), who will open the series, the festival also features Chiwoniso (Zimbabwe) and Marianne Aya Omac (France).

Nuits d’Afrique Productions, which runs the event, also organises the Syli d’or world music competition each spring, which discerns three winners who play in front of a live audience. The festival provides an opportunity to see the winners of the year perform, in this case Kabakuwo (gold), Mayé (silver) and Dji Dji (bronze). There will be discoveries to be made.

Aboulaye Koné, an African Montrealer

The son of a griot, Aboulaye Koné was born in Côte d’Ivoire and grew up in Burkina Faso, before settling in Quebec in 2000. This natural performer who masters the guitar, djembé and almost every other instrument, discovered the African musical scene in Montreal and quickly became one of its key figures. “When I saw the town dancing and making African music like that – families, friends and neighbours together – I said to myself: ‘It’s impossible!’ It feels like all the different countries and the African continent are doing thing together.”

This spirit of coming-together, which is at the root of the Nuits d’Afrique event, encouraged him to pursue his musical career in Quebec: “It gave me an opening. I grew up in music, I have spent my whole life with music, but when I got to Montreal, I wanted to take things even further and share my compositions.” Since that time, the man whom the festival considers to be “The only musician on the local scene who can accompany any African artist passing through Montreal” juggles several projects, all of which promote African culture.

Among them is his group, Bolo Kan, founded in 2004. “In the group, there are Mexicans, Guineans, Ivoirians, a Burkinabe, a Quebecois…. We do percussion, dance, jazz, rock, African blues, Mandinka music from West Africa. Bolo Kan is really versatile.”

The group’s three distinct styles are: “Percussion or the Village” (group with a dance troupe, winner of the 2009 Syli d’or (gold)), “Modern or urban mix” (Afro-Quebecois big band, 2008 Syli d’argent (silver)) and “Acoustic or under the baobab” (Mandinka guitar). The different approaches are a way to help people discover the many aspects of African music.  As well as directing Bolo Kan, Koné is a member of two groups: the François Bourassa Ensemble jazz band, in which he plays percussion, and Buntalo, led by the kora player Zal Idrissa Sissokho, where he plays guitar.

The other way he chooses to promote African culture is called S’temps d’art africain, “A work cooperative that seeks to tell Quebecois about Africa.” Centred on dance and percussion, the school primarily focuses on discovery through experience and is open to anyone interested. “To know what it is, you have to come and see. This knowledge isn’t written on paper. The school talks directly to you, it pulls you in naturally because that’s how we learned it all. I want to make people understand that there’s something for everyone in African music and dance. Everyone’s African in their own way!” 

Nuits d’Afrique stars

Koné takes part in Nuits d’Afrique every year, with Bolo Kan or other groups of friends. This year the event has given him carte blanche, with a series of late-night concerts shared with special guests. All of these exploratory evenings take place at the Club Balattou, which, in the space of 25 years, has become the world music venue in Montreal. “If I could, I would have invited the whole Montreal music scene along!” he exclaimed. “But I was only allowed 5 guests, who are all friends. There’s David Mobio from Côte d’Ivoire who plays keyboards, Lasso from Burkina Faso who plays the Mandinka flute and the Fula flute, Nazir Bouchareb from Morocco, and Lévy [Bourbonnais], a Montrealer harmonica player I started playing with 4 years ago.” He has also invited his long-standing accomplice, Zal Idrissa Sissokho.

Koné explained the spirit of these unique evenings that he is very proud of presenting: “We want to show how we work back home and how we improvise things in Africa. Our improvisation is the composition and everyone’s allowed to take part, in the Mandinka way.” The musician insists on how important spontaneity is in their work: “Music is alive. You mustn’t strangle it. If you strangle it, it can’t breath anymore!”

Aboulaye Koné and Bolo Kan, until 25 July at the Balattou Club (Montreal), as part of the Nuits d’Afrique International Festival.

Marie-Hélène  Mello

Translation : Anne-Marie  Harper