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few hours before this enchanting concert I spoke to Cissoko and Goetze in an improvised, noisy press room. Goetze explained how the idea for their project started. “We met each other in 2001 at the audition in Paris for the European African Jazz Orchestra, which we were both part of. In that same year we played at the St Louis Jazz Festival in Senegal, opening for Youssou N’Dour. Since then I have always dreamt of creating a project with Ablaye Cissoko.”
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About the very unusual combination of kora and trumpet Goetze explains: “The volume of the kora is half of the volume of a guitar and maybe a quarter of the big harp. It was very difficult to adjust that. I like the fact there is no guitar or piano so we could stay in the original tuning.”
Asked about his background, Ablaye Cissoko becomes quite animated in talking about his roots. “I’m a griot. You must know you can’t become a griot, you are born a griot. From a very early age I’ve learned about music and stories about our culture and tra- ditions, which are transmitted orally from generation to genera- tion. My family has been playing the kora already for many gener- ations. I started playing the kora when was I was about seven or eight years old. My father was my teacher and my father learned the skills from his father. Nothing has been written down, every- thing goes by word of mouth. Little by little you become a master, in my case on the kora.”
Volker Goetze adds that “Ablaye Cissoko is not only a musi- cian, both he and his family have special functions. In former times griots sang the praises of and encouraged fighters and were carri- ers of news. I was fascinated by how the griots shaped African soci- ety and how they taught people who they are, where they came from and how they should behave in the society. I was also fascinat- ed by how everything is changing due to economic and global pres- sure. The family is becoming smaller and smaller. Men used to have a lot of wives and now this is changing. The traditions in West Africa are probably thousands of years old and the oral tradition is still very vibrant compared to the rest of the world.”
Asked about the creation of the songs Goetze explains that “Our songs are created in different ways. For example, I sing a song or a melody and Ablaye reacts. Or I play a fragment on which Ablaye improvises in real time or the other way round. For instance I learned an arrangement from an African flute player and applied this to a song. Each song has its own colour. I basically create counter-melodies as well. It’s actually a dialogue between the voice and the trumpet.”
“It’s challenging to learn those flute melodies and understand how they work. I am fascinated at the prospect of finding other arrangements to use with the kora pieces and fragments and then practise those on my instrument. At the same time I stick to my own tradition, I am a European jazz musician who lives in New York so I am influenced by many great artists like Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Jimi Hendrix, Karl Heinz Stockhausen, Horace Silver etc. I have learned to compose for orchestras and big bands and now I have arrived at the point of being very happy to express myself in a simpler yet more profound way.”
Asked about the meaning of the songs, Cissoko takes over: “I wrote the title track of our new album, Amanké Dionti, which can be translated as ‘She is not your slave’. My intention was to raise awareness for all those thousands of young Senegalese women who serve as maids in remote areas of our country to support their family financially. Many are exploited and treated as a slave. I wrote this song to open the eyes of the Senegalese people. I believe that’s also the task of a modern, global griot, to speak out and sing about controversial issues.”
“The song Togna [heard on our fRoots 42 compilation with fR 355/356] contains a message of tolerance and hope and is about respecting people with another religion or different race. Fleuve is an homage to the Senegal River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean in my hometown Saint Louis,” explains Cissoko, who con- tinues “I wrote Haiti in response to the 2010 earthquake, but it is also about the suffering caused by the political greed and corrup- tion. The last song on the album, Miliamba, relates to the story of a virgin sacrifice to the ancient gods.”
Amanké Dionti was recorded in the beautiful environment of Bon Secours, a mid-19th Century, all-wooden church in Paris. “Acoustically the ideal place for our music because of the wooden rooms that have a natural reverb, which is perfect for our instru- ments,” reckons Volker Goetze.
What was the reaction to their music in Senegal?
“In Senegal and Africa, people in general are not very open to music they don’t know,” reckons Ablaye Cissoko. “Although the reactions to our album were very positive, I was quite surprised
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