TWO GREAT AFRICAN DIVAS
As a collector of music with vast quantities of CD’s, LP’s, 45’s and cassettes, I realize that I cannot possibly listen to most of the music that I possess. Nonetheless it is a pleasure going through the stacks, through numberless CD’s that I haven’t listened to in years—if ever. I almost always stumble upon forgotten gems and sometimes items that I never realized were gems. Browsing a shelf of CD’s by African artists recently, I came upon recordings by two female artists—Setona and Manou Gallo. I could recall nothing about their music. So I pulled them out and took them with me to listen to on my long commutes. To my surprise and delight I found both to be really special, compelling and impressive. In short, in a world where many worthy artists work within formulated genres, these two artists are not only very good but also unique.
Setona grew up in Kartoum, Sudan but was born in Kordofan, the locale of an ancient African kingdom on the trade routes from West Africa, which means that the local music was influenced by West African musicians and vice-versa. She comes from a family of musicians so it is no surprise that she became a singer. Yet, based in Cairo since 1989 after fleeing government repression in Sudan, her greater fame stems from her mastery of several traditional Sudanese arts—henna body painting and some female body care practices. As an entrepreneur, Setona has provided these services—as well as traditional song and dance-- to women preparing for marriage in Egypt for many years. As such she became known as “The Queen Of Henna” and reputedly Prince sought her out apply her henna decorating skills to his body. Her music, much of it rooted in Sudanese traditional music, is nonetheless wide-ranging. She incorporates West African elements as well as popular Arabic elements. So even though her vocal style is recognizably Sudanese, her music is fresh, with many surprising twists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di-HUbPcycI
Her album “Queen Of Henna” issued by Blue Flame Records is truly wonderful.
Manou Gallo’s story is equally fascinating. In reading about her life I suddenly realize that I have seen her perform with Zap Mama in the mid 1990’s at Festival Internationale in Lafayette, Louisiana. I remember wondering who the strikingly pretty, petite woman with the big electric bass was; she was playing exuberantly, radiating joy. Born in the town of Dida, in the Ivory Coast, Manou had little schooling, running wild and free in the dusty streets and woods of her home but was a musical prodigy from an early age. Obsessed with rhythm, she was one of those children constantly beating on things and singing, steeped in the traditional music surrounding her. At the age of eight at a funeral ceremony she spontaneously jumped up to the platform where the musicians were and began playing drums—doubly shocking not only because at such a young age she was playing them well but because females were forbidden to even touch the drums, traditionally. As a teenage she was invited to join the popular group Woya and Marcelin Yace’ the leader of Woya became her mentor, giving her an electric bass and teaching her musical techniques and recording techniques. She went on to become a part of theatrical performing groups and was part of a recording by Ray Lema. Eventually she made her way to Brussels and became part of the pan-African musical and cultural scene there, eventually joining Zap Mama. Her first solo recording, “Dida” came in 2004. Since then she has recorded another solo CD, toured around the world in a wide variety of projects and recently produced the hot new Zimbabwean group Mookoomba’s first international recording. Manou Gallo is one of those rare artists who truly transcends musical genres and boundaries. Her ear is wide-ranging and it comes naturally to her to combine elements of traditional music, Afrobeat, Caribbean music, South African music, funk, Latin styles and more. Like Chieck Lo of Senegal, her talent makes it work. Her music is so wide-ranging it is impossible to give a fair representation of it in just a couple of clips.
But here are two from different ends of Manou’s musical spectrum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDRLYu1RyhI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtPr_eiHeRE
It has been an amazing journey for the little girl who grew up poor and wild (‘like a little savage” she has said) but is now bringing her music to the entire world.
Finding these two wonderful CD’s inspires me to keep on digging through my collection!.