The great and grande Bollywood Brass Band have been pumping it for years mixing and fusing bold brass bollywood big band sounds with the london diaspora.
Ian Brennan
Ian Brenann has had many production projects always involving civilisations from oppressed or persecuted communities. He once won a Grammy Award for production global mega-stars Tinariwen, Tuaregs of the North African desert. This year I spoke to him about Abatwa the Pygmy from Rwanda, and their trip together to WOMAD.
Havana Meets Kingston
I had a rather loud chat with a couple of the crew from the this huge fusion project: the brain child of Mr.Savona, this is a fusion between Cuban musicians and Africa in the taste of dub and reggae. Delicous!
Sebye Ntege
Here I spoke to the lovely Sebye Ntege about his music, his instrumentalism, his inspirations for his new album and playing WOMAD.
Afro Celt Sound System
@WOMAD 2017
London in the 80’s / WOMAD / Whirl-y Gig / West African Music / Multiculturalism
When I was ruffly 16 years old, I listened for the first time to a global fusion album. This album was Release by Afro Celt Sound System. The album boasts multi-culturalism, with Scottish bagpipes, traditional Irish flutes, fiddles, Indian rhythms, West African Kora… to name but a few, all fused with infectious unstoppable electronic dance beats.
This album changed my life. I had never before danced to anything non-western in sound. Nor had I heard fusions from the global North to South. I had also never previously heard the bagpipes sound funky.
Afro Celt Sound-System as the name might suggest fuse traditional Western folk instruments with West African instruments and merge the whole thing into the electronic dance scene. Formed in 1995 the Afro Celt band consists of mystro musicians in their own right.
In this interview I talk to Simon Emmerson, a prevalent figure in the changing musical trends in London since the 70’s, Larla O Lionáird of the Irish influences, and N’Fale Kouyate, the West African griot Kora player. Together in a cosy yurt at WOMAD Festival 2017, we spoke through the changing trends in music, the global Norths relation to African music and the London music scene through the ages….
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WOMAD 2017 Saturday, BBC Radio 3 Charlie Gillett Stage, 8:15 - 9:30pm
Speaking with : Simon Emmerson, Larla O Lionairde, N’Fale Kouyate, (Johnny Kalsi)
I was overwhelmed to be given the opportunity to talk to Afro-Celt Sound System, as a long time lover of their fantastic fusion of traditional folk musics of the global north, with traditional folk musics of the global south, the incredibly versatile fusion dance music has had me dancing for years.
I wanted to try and map out the various influences in Afro-Celts vast discography of music spanning from their first album release ‘Volume 1: Sound Magic’ (1996). Having since spanned a further nine albums, the endless array of incredible sounds from one album to the next is truly worthy of the term musical ‘melting pot’.
I started by asking the guys where the Irish Celtic influences came from within the band….
Larla: well it comes from Simon meeting Davy Spillane from County Clare in Ireland and they met over Baba Mal records, and that was where the initial content was, and ever since then there’s been a array of performers and singers who, also some Scottish musicians, so theres a big heavy influence and I joined the band a few years ago and I have been playing the Irish flutes and bohdrán.
SD: Im studying ethnomusicology in SOAS and I just love it, so can I ask, how did it all come together, with the Scottish the Irish, I know the West African and Indian rhythms too?
Simon: Yeah I mean we use Bhangra grooves, Dub grooves, yeah it's a melting pot.
SD: How are the songs constructed? Is it all the work of one genius conductor?
Larla/N’Fale: Ahh Simon, Simon is the clever guy
Simon: Ok so I never wanted to be a virtuoso musician. I started of as a punk, my primary agenda was probably as an activist, but then over the years, you get a little bit older, and then music has become a big part of my life. But as a record producer, I got very interested the music that I grew up with in London.
So as a kid I grew up in South London, I was surrounded by reggae and ska, I as a punk I was very much on the fringes of all the sound systems that you had in London. In the early 80’s I worked in a jazz specialist shop called ‘Mole Jazz’ and I got very into jazz, but I discovered African music. I discovered the music of West Africa; Fela Kuti, I started trying to play African guitar in the way that Africans do it, but in my own kind of punk way.
So I met a guitarist called Spike, who was in a punk band, and we became part of a band called Weekend and we were playing kind of African licks in a kind of Indie feel. That soon developed to me being in a band called Working Week, through all that I ended up in Africa in the early 90’s and it was Davy Spillaine who set me off on the road to the Afrocelt because he told me that the aboriginal Irish were dark skinned and that there are loads of legends of dark skinned Irish.
He told me lots of stories about how the North Africans having frame drums like the ‘bodhrán’ and having pipes, and I got interested in the Bardic tradition which is the kind of western magical tradition that goes back to the idea that music is a transformative power, that through song and poetry you keep the ancestral legends alive. I met through Baba Mal, I met the griots, and N’Fale is a West African griot, and living breathing proof that the Bardic tradition is a reality, because this is exactly what N’Fale does, it is his culture, and he is a founder of Afro-celt Sound System.
SD: Fantastic, so tell us what is your instrument?
N’Fale: My instrument in the Kora (twenty-one stringed Harp, West Arica), and the Balafon (wooden xylophone, Gambia) and I sing.
SD: Wonderful, as a student at SOAS University (London) we have the opportunity to spend six weeks studying the Kora. It’s such a beautiful instrument.
N’Fale: 21 strings there are to tune… *laughs*
SD: So in the group we have many different origins, I was wondering if there is a place you perform as a group that feels like a home for the band? A base?
Simon: The band was conceived at WOMAD 1995. That was the fist time I helped introduce a kind of post acid house rave Sound System called Whirl-y Gig*.
In 1995 Whirl-Y Gig set up a tent at WOMAD and we played there. Here there was a lot of my friends with bands like Joy, and Transglobal Underground and all the kind of fusion techno bands. Many of which were based in East London. A lot of us were.
The East London Asian community had created the kind of Asian Underground so you had Johnny Kalsi and we were all clustered around the Whirl-y Gig, of which came to WOMAD, and then from that we started working with Real World (Records). So in a way Real World records and the Whirl-y Gig were very much the source, perhaps the origins of the band.
That was because East London was this kind of melting pot at the time of multiculturalism, and we’d all been brought up with music from different cultures. Where as Ireland was much more kind of isolated culturally.
Lara: At that time for sure, actually. My sort of introduction to sounds from around the world; so I lived in New York 2000/2001 for about a year and a half, and I’d have the most amazing experience when I walked home.
Each block I passed would have a completely different musical sound. You had the meringue from Puerto Rico you had the Arabic grooves from Morocco, there was a trance session on in the next block and polish music over the road. This was the sort of scenery I had when I’d finish work and I’d walk home, and so that was something we didn’t have in Ireland. For me going to New York was a similar experience to Simon with WOMAD and such.
Simon: Yes, like I said, when I went to Senegal in ’91 and I walked around Dakar I heard on African radio; there was salsa, there was funk, there was hip-hop, there was a huge amount of latino music there was, bhangra and bollywood, which of corse was huge there. So West Africa was just as much a melting pot. In Baba Mals band there were five languages, so the idea that multiculturalism was invented in the West is not true, there is just a much multiculturalism in Africa I mean reggae…
N’Fale: Latino, the jazz and the pop, the blues all the blues, the pentatonic. In my country there are many natural players, my Uncle is the director of the National Ensemble Traditionál, all these differences come to this National band to build an Orchestral Ensemble, and me I educate in this family, and I discover many different cultures. Polyphonic singing, such as the singing. I am a teacher in Belgium of singing polyphonic, and I do some singing workshops in WOMAD, I use that and I catch some singers too. I am now also in Guinea musical director to coach some people, but this experience Africa gave me many possibilities to hear more different.
Because I learn in the traditional musical family, I have no choice in my musical education, but when I go I go to a different cultures to study, and to mix again the music. The big musicians always like the musician from African.
SD: So it’s safe to say you are all constantly learning…
*ooh yess**
N’fale: Yes I think we are always sharing, I have worked with for example Lady Smith Black Mambazo, and many others. All these experiences gave me endless possibilities. With Africa being a very nice experience for the world music; to be honest the term world music… I don’t think if I perceive very much that… because they choose the jazz out, and the French music out, the pop and rock … and the rest… what do we have to do with this? Ok same bag; world music.
SD: I completely agree, it can be said that it would only seem to be world music from people in the western hemisphere, as it’s only our genres excluded.
Nfale: In Africa they sing in R&B and they come and sing very nice, but if they hear them they say ok, world music, because he’s from Africa. But then there is jazz music in Africa, the base of jazz, and the blues is from Africa as is the pentatonic, but they call them ‘world music’.
SD: You all like to mix it up…
N’Fale: The new thing for me on the music; the ‘afrotronix’ my traditional instrument with electronic, it becomes completely afrotronic
SD: Such as the music of Afriqoui, they have the Kora with electronic music, and African calabash drumming dubbed…?
N’Fale: I use the calabash, completely traditional, and I used completely modern Panasonic electronic, such as my Wah Wah with my Kora, *impression of a wah wah pedal*.
S:D That’s soo cool.
N’Fale: I have one pedal that I like with the sound of the Kora, very very unique to other griots.
SD: I was hoping to know what music you guys are listening too at the moment in your spare time?
N’Fale: Electronic music
Lara: Yeah you know I listen to everything from Rock, to folk music to electronica to classical there so much music I listen to it all.
Theres a great radio station in Ireland I love. I love that it goes from jazz to classical to pop, to rock. There all just sounds from different genres, I hate, I dislike being put into a genre.
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With this, the band and myself were summoned away from the yurt in order to get ready for their performance.
I made my way over to the Charlie Gillet BBC Radio 3 stage where they we to play and awaited. As expected, the crowd grew immensely, an obvious choice on the bill it seemed.
Sure enough out came the band, with Indian drums, Koras, balafons, Irish flutes, Scottish Bagpipes various percussion instruments and of course vocals.
Afro Celt Sound System did not let down. They proceeded to play an electrified performance with grooves that demand dancing, melodies that shake the hips and beats that stomp the feet.
I felt incredibly pleased to see the awesome fusion dance music performed live with such liveliness, passion and energy, all worthy of the 20 year strong band.
Oumou Sangaré
@ WOMAD Festival 2017
Wassoulou / Mali / Feminism / Social Commentary
Having recorded her first album ‘Moussolou’ in 1989 in Bamako Mali, Oumou Sangare has made the music of her homeland: the Wassoulou region in Mali one of the signature sounds to make it globally from West Africa. As well as this, Oumou has globalised the local sound of the Kamale Ngoni.
Having been singing since a young child, and catching the attention of many, including African blues maestro Ali Farka Touré, as a voice of her generation. Oumou even went on tour at the age of 16 with the percussion group Djoliba, and by the age of 21 Oumou was already a star.
Aside being the ambassador for Wassoulou, Oumou has alway used her voice, local and globally for social comment. Specifically commenting on topics such as women status in society, child marriage and genital mutilation. Her first album was an unprecedented hit in West Africa with over 200,000 copies sold locally, consequently in the coming years, Oumou played at every major venue in the world, and toured with global legends.
Using her voice for women across the world, Oumou was named ambassador of the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation - fighting hunger across the world), furthermore she won the UNESCO (promotion of peace and security) prize in 2001 for her work speaking out on social issues.
Of course in the proceeded eight studio albums, Grammy nominations, amongst many other awards have showered Oumou, and she is celebrating her latest album release ‘Mogoya’ (2017) by playing a few gigs around the world.
I find myself here at WOMAD Festival 2017 about to talk to Oumou Sangare before her big show on the main stage. As I wait with her for our translator I am taken aback by her sheer presence. An energy emanated from Oumou has an intensely powerful, righteous woman. A little humbled, I began….
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Sophie Darling (SD) : Firstly, it is such an honour to be sitting here opposite you. I am in love with your music, and also with your activism.
You’re an advocate for women rights, I wanted to talk about the difficulties of your strife? Was being an advocate for women rights and such a conscious decision you made to use your voice to make these political opinions, or was it something that came naturally? Something you felt you had to do?
Omou Sangare (OS) : Very difficult, very. It was a conscious decision, I didn’t have an easy childhood, my mother was sick a lot, I felt I needed to fight to make her happy, to allow her to be happy, I wanted to fight for the injustice, against the injustice of being so sad all of that time
SD:I am aware that one of your albums is entitled ‘Ten Kola Nuts’ which is the going currency for a Malian wife, can you tell us about that concept? Why did you want to talk about it?
OS: It’s like a marriage package, It’s like an engagement, it’s an asking. There’ a lot of different stages in marriage, the engagement stage, then you have the devot-age stage. Basically I wanted to talk and use it as a symbol to talk about marriage, because for me that’s what deprives women of her rights, ok marriage can go well and it’s good for her, but if it goes badly, then the woman will be deprived of her life, she might become a slave, and she doesn’t want that to happen, it’s a symbol… it’s symbolic.
SD: At what age did you start to play with the music Are your family musical? Where you encouraged to play music?
OS: My mother, my mother *laughs* didn’t want me to leave school to follow music, but she did want me to sing, because my own mother was a great singer, my grandmother was a musical star as well, and so my mother encouraged me, as my mum said she would hear her mothers voice in me, but she didn’t want me just to be a singer, she wanted me to follow my studies as well as be a singer.
SD: Has your mother managed to see you perform at all?
OS: Now yes *laughs* oh. No no no, go to school Oumor, she waited until I was a big girl, she waited until I was professional, yes.
SD: I know that in the early days, Nick Gold the record producer of World Circuits took an interest in you after he was handed a tape of your recordings. How did you find things changed for you? Were the social barriers surrounding gender and music easy for you to manoeuvre? Were difficulties enhanced?
OM: No, the story about how he heard the music was that Ali Farke Touré was a huge huge fan of mine . So when the first record came out, he was screaming my name everywhere, and telling everyone about it, and playing the music, this is when Nick heard it for the first time, and then he went to Bamako and he said he heard it everywhere everywhere, he said oh I love that women voice, I would like to meet her.
SD: Wassoulou music, I was wondering if we could ask a little about that, as I don’t know much about it.
OS: So Wassoulou is the music for dancing, for rejoicing, for relaxing, but it always carries a message
SD: Do you have any pre/post gig rituals for good luck?
OS:*laughs* Oh yeah, sometimes, I pour a small amount of water on the ground, sometimes I might forget, but always I try to do it, for the ancestors, for my grandmother.
SD: Were you taught to sing, or where you born this way?
OS: I was born with it
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I left feeling charged up by Oumous very presence. I joined the huge crowd awaiting by the main stage to watch the Songbird of Wassoulou take to the stage. Loved by an adoring audience, Oumour Sangare exploded the stage with her powerful voice that emanated across the festival. Playing old and new tunes, Oumou focused mainly on her album. With dedications to women, wives and mothers, the reaction was of indulgence and love as the audience danced and sung throughout the entire performance.
I was honoured to have spoken to Oumou Sangare, and can confirm that the new album is fabulous.
ÌFÉ (Otura Mun)
WOMAD Festival / Religious expression / Yoruba - Ifá practises / Electronic - London music scene
WOMAD 2017 Sunday, Ecotricity Stage, 5-6pm
Otura Mun and Sophie Darling @ WOMAD Festival 2017
IIII+IIII Album Out now:
Pronounced “Edgy-Og-Beh”
As a student of ethnomusicology, the concept of music as a form of religious or spiritual expression is something we frequently touch upon; be it the use of the African mBira for connection with the ancestral spirits, or the Islamic recital chanting of qawwali music, but Otura Mun’s debut album in his ÌFÉ outfit; IIII+IIII is a unique contemporary exploration of faith and spirituality through electronic music.
ÌFÉ firstly as a title of an album resonates religious connotations as it rings familiar to the ‘ Ifá ’ faith system within which our profound conductor of this musical outfit is himself, a practising priest. Ifá is a branch of the Yoruba religion practiced throughout West Africa (Benin,Togo, Niger ect) I spoke to Otura Mun about these undeniable connections of faith in the album that at times plays as a spiritual experience;
Otura Mun: I initiated in Ifá; which is a part of the Yoruba religions as practiced in the western hemisphere. In which basically I am a priest, we are also called babalawo and our job inside that religious practices (Ifá) is divination.
So my job is basically to find and define, what we understand as the divine destiny that each person is living or expressing at any particular moment in their lives, or looking back in their lives. So if you sit down in front of me, I’m going to define the sign out of the 256 (signs) that talks about the energy that you are manifesting.
Within Ifá, a process involving a wooden ‘divination tray’ named the ‘Opon Ifá' is used along side the sacred palm or kola nuts named ‘Ikin’, together the babalawos (otherwise known as Iyanifas/priests) will use this with the ‘256 signs’ in order to establish someones energy with the divine;
Otura Mun: My job (as a babalawo) is to identify the energies and help you balance yourself with it, with the idea that if you can grab onto your destiny and the life you are supposed to be living, and adhere to it right, and walk that path, then you are going to enjoy the fruits of life, have a long life of health, salvage relationships with people, you know, open roads in life.
But if you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing, if you're not walking the path you're supposed to be walking, then you might experience loss and sickness and conflict. So my job is to help you see that destiny, and help you to give yourself to it.
So some of what you're hearing in the record, is sort of maybe me coming to terms with another way to view the world around me. Because I initiated in this practice maybe around four years ago right; so this is an African religion and an African way of viewing and understanding the world that you live in, right. So maybe seven years ago I would have thought it would be silly to be praying to a stone, right, because of my western up bringing, I couldn’t understand that a stone has life, it is expressing itself, just the way that say this wood *holds table* is still expressing itself you know what I mean. But I couldn’t really wrap my head around that, it was me, meeting a new me, working through this new way of understanding the world, and inside of the songs, theres almost always a theme that I'm dealing with, and they’re general theme, say like loss or forgiveness.
The last song ‘Yari Gemini’ is talking about forgiveness and it’s talking about a friend of mine that helped me get through a ruff moment in my life, you know. And so, Geminis are the two stars that are in the sky, and so I think about living with this best friend of mine forever, we’re going to be together forever you know, and inside of the Yoruba religion, the two twins are ‘Ibeji' and so theres a song at the end of the album, where I'm talking about the Gemini's being these two stars in the sky, but then you flip it and were singing to the Ibeji which are the twins in the Yoruba religions. So there’s sort of several different levels on which you can understand the music
Having presented the album originally on ‘A World In London’ as an exclusive ‘new release’ back in May on SOAS Radio (https://soasradio.org/music/episodes/awil-221-full-swing), I’d relinquished in the opportunity to divulge fully into the album. Each tune sways seamlessly through speaking Yoruban or Spanish to English lyrics; as with faith that transcends languages, it seems this is another way in which the album becomes almost a religious experience. With further reminisce of trip-hop and a Cuban percussive section, I rather became entranced with the album. I asked Otura Mun how the rest of the world have reacted to the release…
Otura Mun: It has been pretty amazing, I am really just overjoyed with the people that have hit me up from so many different parts of the world I think that were somehow able to connect through the music, on so many different levels, whether it was somebody who lets say is initiated in a certain part of the nation that let’s say is part of the religion, and say it touches them there. Or whether it's someone that doesn't speak either Spanish or English or Yoruba, but it is somehow able to connect with the sentiment of the album, in a very clear way. I’m just really grateful to be able communicate with so many different people, and for people to be able to pull something out of the record that’s meaningful, that’s special.
Knowing full well that the chart music of Puerto Rico, where Otura calls home, has for some, time been highly dominated by the reggaeton rhythms since the 1990’s. I ask Otura if this has had an impact on the success of his electro-afro-cuban album at home in the heart of Puerto Rico, and if this effects, as ÌFÉ, where he feels most musical at home…
Otura Mun: Home for me is in Puerto Rico, but actually to be honest, my home for performing is London. I love the UK, this is the third time I’v been here this year, all the shows we play in UK have been amazing. Im also a big fan of UK music, like I like listening to BBC One Extra, Mr.Jam is cool, I love al that stuff and so I mean, home is cool, we actually have played three shows in Puerto Rico in total, that’s it.
It’s totally really well received, it’s just that the music scene in general is really conservative over there you know, it’s sort of over run by like, reggaetone and just a lot of crap music. And so you know, there is a space for what were doing, but it’s soo new, that the people, especially the young kids, haven’t been able to reach out and interact, so yeah we play internationally a lot.
I managed to catch up with Otura Mun after his set at WOMAD Festival UK 2017. Otura was playing on the Ecotricity Stage at a sun setting time of 5-6pm. Having listened to the album extensively before the set I was expecting an immersive performance, however was taken aback by the reaction of the audience, whom much like a religious ceremony seemed completely entranced in his soundscapes, almost as if sacrificing themselves to the music. Playing nearly the whole of ‘IIII+IIII’ I left the set feeling as tho I had received a generous helping of IFE’s music, and with unshakable taste for more. I asked Otura Mun if this was the reception they always receive when they play?
Otura Mun: I tell you we didn’t want to leave the WOMAD stage! I suppose we do receive a similar audience participation wherever we go, but you know once again, the UK crowds are a lot of fun. For some reason I think that you guys know electronic music out here, and so you're used to those sounds and those types of performances, and so yeah, I just think that theres something about it, I don't know what it is, I can't put my finger on it, but this music in a way is built for you guys. I think perhaps you are the party people *laughs*.
I highly recommend listening to IIII+IIII in solitary concentration. The beautiful harmonies of the lyrics resonate such as a choir singing a sacred Yoruba praise song. I feel that the album is a journey through the faith and ÌFÉ is the carriage of our discovery. Perhaps in this new era IIII+IIII marks an age of albums being a medium of faith expression, and in themselves become an artefact of religious meditation. IIII+IIII in this case becoming Otura Muns religious manifesto.
The opening song being perhaps the opening ceremony in our journey; with a call and response typical of it’s African influences, along side the cuban son rhythms, we are welcomed to the melting pot of inspirations to be found in the album through a soft meditative chant. The album then immediately picks up in the second track ‘Bangah' (Pico y Palo) with its foot tapping electronic Jamaican dancehall esc energy, suddenly we are able to revise and absorb the message, but it seems we can also express the album through dancing. The third track ‘YUMAVISION' diverting and taking us to a trip-hop ÌFÉ. As well as taking us through a concoction of traditional and contemporary sounds; IIII+IIII also subtly and seamlessly blends Afro-Cuban rhythms, such as their use of the ‘Son’ rhythm which inspired Salsa and originally was of an Afro-Cuban descent. ÌFÉ helps to shine a new light on these otherwise heavily Afro-Cuban sounds rarely heard outside the boundaries from which they originated.
All in all, ÌFÉ’s IIII+IIII may be a personal spiritual exploration for Otura Mun, but it’s also a unique exploration of music as an expression of religion, blurring the line between preacher and the preached and perhaps adding a medium to how one can express faith.
Check out Songlines October magazine review in which IIII+IIII received a 5 star review;
King Ayisoba
King Ayisoba, recognisable by an incredibly unique voice, and of course the accompaniment of the sacred kologo. King Aysioba was born in a tiny village in Ghana where he played the kologo everywhere he went. At the right time, he took his music to the neighbouring villages, and eventually to the city. Here he started to collaborate with Hi-life musicians, and produced his first tape/cd in 2006 - “Modern Ghanians” - of which ‘I want to se you my father’ became a hit, earning Ayisoba the position of popularising the kologo, and gained him the title of ‘King’ at the Ghana Music Awards Festival as part of Ghanas 50th anniversary celebrations.
Since Ayidoba, deemed King of the music in Ghana, has continued to take his traditional musics to global audiences the world over, and has collaborated with a number of legendary names, including Lee Scratch Perry on ‘1000 Must Die’.
King Ayisoba mixes his traditional styles, the use of the kologo: a two stringed lute used primarily and almost exclusively in areas of West Africa. As well as this the band uses various other traditional instruments, such as for percussion a calabash used like a football, with shakers inside, and is played by throwing rhythmically from hand to hand. A variety of native drums such as the guluku drums and the dundun drums. As well as these sounds, overall King Ayisoba often combines with electronic sounds.
I felt honoured to talk to King Asyioba as firstly a king of music, also the populariser of the sacred kologo music to a global audience, and so authentic in his music, the sounds of King Ayisoba and his band really transport you to West Africa… Ghana. His music also speaks without borders to everyone local to his village, local to Ghana and thus West Africa.
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BBC3 Charlie Gillet Stage @ WOMAD
I had the opportunity to watch King Aysiobas set before talking to the band, they came out in amazing authentic batakari tunics, looking incredible in their West African garments, with their intriguing and magical instruments.
They proceeded to entice an entire audience with their melodic strumming and percussions. King Aysiboa’s unique voice echoing over the crowds as we danced with the band for a beautiful transformative hour.
As they finished playing, I made my way round the back to talk to the band a little…
Members: King Aysioba, Abaadongo Adontanga, Ayuune Sulley, Gemeka Akligilalatanda, Ayamga Francis
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Sophie Darling (SD): Hello I loved the performance, I would love to know a bit more about your instruments, What is this?
King Ayisoba (KA) : It is very difficult to teach, This is the kologo..It is tuned to the voice
SD: How did you start to play the kologo, because it is after all strongly connected to your sound, as the populariser of the kologo globally?
KA: My grandfather used to play , and when he passed away, I was little, I never saw my grandfather before he passed away, but he say I need to play this kologo from my grandfather. And so when he passed, he said wheres this babies father, so they called my father to come, then they told my father that the child will play like my grandfather said, if you make a small kologo for me, so my father made a small kologo for me to play for four years, five years, six, years and I play with at parties, at the market, everywhere.
SD:You are from Northern Ghana,
KA: Yes from northern Ghana,
SD: Do you play any other instruments?
KA: I don’t want to play any instrument apart from the kologo, because if you play many instruments, you can't be professional for one, you get no where, but if you have one, you are very strong.
SD: What's the name of this drum
KA: Lumba - They call me lindisunga some people all these talking drums dumdum
SD: How long have you been playing in this set up?
KA: We started this together a long time ago, but maybe we come back together after I come out of profession with my father. After that, I knew that if you move to our own music you have to get back, so we start the band together in 2004/5
SD: 1000 can die, you wrote it with Lee Perry… What’s he like in person? Is he as crazy as a working partner?
KA: I didn’t know who he was at first, I wonder, yeah, I don’t know him well and we meet him, a year ago through our manager we meet him.
We meet him, how it is here, we had the same music, and we they told me he is a legend, they say, really important, he produced our first album. So they took my watch to give to the man, he like this, he like our record, and then they come back and say he want to work with us, we sit down and composed the song, and we also give the beat, and we have to give him the bat to listen to over there, and he also mixed the beats too we have to give the reggae man. So we give the reggae man, and he say wahh, and he tried to add some voice, and professionality. Was great.
SD: Who do you like to listen to musically?
KA: For me I like a lot, I like good music I like highlife, I like reggae, I guess I love it, I like all good music and all good singers, and some music I like it.
SD: Tell me about your fan base?
KA: Ayyyy we are the number star in Ghana, *laughs* is very good, very nice, everybody listen, there are lots of different styles, they are all different, but they all listen.
SD: Genre is hiplife, is this a creation? A mixture of highlife, dancehall and hip-hop?
KA: That is wrong, those are styles of music from Ghana but what we play is kologo music, hiplife is the Ghanian equivalent of rap music, high life is older music from 60’s and 70’s, they are playing a northern genre of kologo from the north, their region. And they have collaborated and played songs with hip-hop artists but my own style forever is kologo.
