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This website: Copyright © 2006 Dream World Media, LLC. / Urban Mozaik Magazine. All rights reserved. This website/publication, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher or the previous publisher of original republished materials.
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Located in a pastoral neighborhood of the otherwise bustling capital city of Abidjan, the artistic cooperative of Ki-Yi M'Bock was founded in 1985 by Cameroonian Werewere Liking as a place to inspire creativity and collaboration. The village is home to over fifty resident artists of diverse traditions, ages, and origins, including dancers, actors, puppeteers, sculptors, painters, costume designers, and musicians, and has played an important role in the African arts scene. There African artists with a multitude of ethnic backgrounds collaborate freely, united in their commitment to creating uniquely African artistic expressions. Dobet was trained in a multi-faceted approach to music and performance where dance, percussion, song, poetry, and theater are intertwined. Dobet's life changed when a young French guitarist named Colin Laroche de Féline arrived one morning in 1996 with a backpack over one shoulder and a guitar over the other. His expected three day visit stretched to three years, having fallen in love both with the village's artistic lifestyle and with Dobet. Colin mastered a range of African guitar techniques and he and Dobet formed a musical and romantic bond that made them inseparable collaborators. While the artistic colony was a utopian hideaway, the city of Abidjan became embroiled in social and political turmoil. Seeking a more stable and less dangerous environment in which to raise their child, Dobet and Colin moved to France in 1999, where they formed a band made up of a diverse line-up of musicians. Soon, the group was performing at European music festivals, and Dobet's unique talent began grabbing people's attention. She earned a Newcomer of the Year nomination by the BBC World Music Awards in 2006, and her debut album, the 2004 release Ano Neko , received wide accolades. Radio Producer Sean Barlow of Afropop Worldwide raved: “Wow! Dobet Gnahoré is one helluva talented artist. Powerful singing combined with a charismatic stage presence, original choreography, and a theatricality that reminds me of Marie Daulne of Zap Mama.” Major European press has also compared Dobet to some of the great women of African music, such as Angelique Kidjo and Miriam Makeba. Last fall, Dobet joined Malian guitarist
Habib Koité and South African troubadour Vusi Mahlasela on Putumayo's
Acoustic Africa tour, which was presented across Europe and
the United States. Sharing the stage with these two established African
icons, many Western audiences got their first taste of Dobet's exceptional
and dynamic stage presence. In a review of the performance, The
Los Angeles Times raved, “She's a dynamic singer, the airy sound
of her high notes recalling the focused timbre of Salif Keita. Gnahoré
displayed powerful star potential.” A young mother herself, Dobet's songs refer frequently to children. On “Télodé” she provides advice from one mother to another, encouraging a parent to let a son go forth into the world and express himself. On “Khabone-n'Daw” she speaks out with a fearless, fierce tongue against incest. On “Djiguene (Woman),” she pays homage to the “Woman of Africa, woman of Asia, woman of Europe, woman of the world,” who fight for freedom and heal sickness, who cultivate the earth, feed the children, and become mothers. Many of her songs offer personal reflections on her life growing up in an artistic community, and praise for Liking and the others that helped guide her down the path she chose for herself. Dobet composes in a number of languages and incorporates a variety of rhythms and styles into her music. BBC Radio 3 's Jon Lusk says that Dobet's songs in seven African languages are “defiantly diverse, musically and linguistically.” She sings in the indigenous Ivorian languages of Dida and Malinké, and in Wolof (Senegal), Fon (Benin), Lingala (Congo), and Xhosa (South Africa). “This mixture is a way to bring me back home, to the diversity that I held close there” Dobet told Le Monde earlier this year . Wérewére Liking once said that her challenge in working with artists in Ki-Yi is “to convince them that their duty is to become genuine cultural entrepreneurs, fanning out across the globe and yet starting from Africa.” In Dobet, she has undoubtedly succeeded in doing so. The little girl who begged her father to allow her to drop out of school has grown up and come into her own; taking her will and talent and life experiences that started in an uncommon village in Africa and expanded them into a global vision that aims to educate other young people and inspire them to action. Dobet Gnahoré's Na Afriki is the fourth release by Cumbancha, a record label that was founded in 2006 by Jacob Edgar, the long-time head of music research for Putumayo World Music. For more information on this and other Cumbancha releases visit www.cumbancha.com.
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One recent rainy summer evening, at the invitation of the city's mayor, 25,000 people gathered at the Tower's gardens to hear Mariza , Portugal's reigning ambassador of fado , the country's bittersweet musical gift to the world. She performed favorite songs from her young-but-full career with a full orchestra, the Sinfonietta de Lisboa, conducted by Jaques Morelenbaum. The magical night is captured on Concerto em Lisboa , to be released on CD with a bonus DVD documentary by Times Square Records on March 13, 2007. A live DVD of the concert will release on April 10. Though born in Mozambique, as a child Mariza sang in her father's Lisbon fado taverna . She told the BBC, “Half of me is very, very Portuguese and the other half is very, very African.” Her African roots and emerging Brazilian sensibility subtly demonstrate to the outside world Portugal's longstanding ties to other Portuguese-speaking lands. Her new recording of that enchanted evening, an opportunity for the outside world to see just how well-loved the multi-Platinum star is in her hometown, has her literally standing on the edge of Lisbon singing over the ocean for the rest of the world to hear. “Having the river and the Tower, the place where the boats left to make their discoveries in the 16 th Century… going to India and Africa… Being in that place, singing fado was very emblematic that night,” says Mariza. “Even if I didn't want to think about it, the sea was so near, and all these things came to mind that night. I never thought a girl with roots in Africa would have all that!” When Mariza recorded Transparente , her last studio album (also on Times Square Records), she recruited Brazilian Jaques Morelenbaum to help her create the sonority she wanted. “He gave me a more velvet, more intimate, more romantic sound,” Mariza dreamily recalls. When Lisbon's mayor invited Mariza to perform for Lisbon in this way, she brought Morelenbaum in once again for the arrangements and conducting duties. The results—combining songs from all three of her prior albums with the new sonority—show Mariza at a new peak in her career. And her musical development is paralleled by a growing fan base. “I was not expecting so many different ages, from a younger generation, to grandmothers with grandchildren. There were traditional people from my neighborhood and people coming from the north and the south, even from Spain!” exclaims Mariza. “When I saw the images, showing my Lisbon people, and not only people from Lisbon, but a very eclectic audience, all clapping and singing along, I realized what a beautiful night it was. It was not a typical fado audience. I was so surprised. I loved it.” Maybe the audience is responding because
of Mariza's own responsiveness to the world around her. “We recorded
the Transparente album in Brazil,” explains Mariza. “I am
looking for fado from a different perspective, because I now
travel a lot. One month I am at the Sydney Opera House, another month
I am in China or Thailand. I am starting to find that this music that
belongs to Lisbon, to Portuguese people, is starting to feel more and
more universal. It speaks about universal feelings. Each country interprets
it in its own way. We are crossing cultural lines now. And I feel so
proud about it.” Mariza will visit a few select North American cities to perform in March, around the time of the CD /DVD release. She returns for a two-week July tour with orchestras in major North American cities. After having performed at the Hollywood Bowl with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra conducted by John Mauceri last summer, Mariza takes the symphonic show on the road. “Sometimes when you talk about classical music, people have a cold approach and they get a little bit distant,” Mariza says. “But with John Mauceri, it was amazing. He had a very, very special way of treating the music. Always explaining it to the audience and saying funny things. It was unbelievable! I learned from him that even if you have a light approach, it doesn't mean you are not respecting the music.” Mariza has also been getting her feet wet in the film world. The BBC recently released a documentary titled Mariza and the Story of Fado , compellingly profiling both the artist and the genre. There will be a special limited edition version of the Concerto em Lisboa album that includes the full BBC documentary. And this month Mariza has been playing the lead role in a new film called Fado by Carlos Saura, whose past works include the Oscar-nominated Tango and Flamenco , giving fans a chance to see her in an acting role. The year 2007 is set to be a big one
for Mariza. Starting with the release of her live CD and DVD, she will
capture the hearts of more American fans. Like a musical sailor launching
from the shores of Lisbon, surrounded by legions of Portuguese fans,
and buoyed by her country's longstanding tradition of discovery and
exploration, Mariza looks forward while looking back, creating a new
form of fado , while respecting what came before.
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