The Perlich Post: Buena Vista Songhai Club

Monday, October 18, 2010

Buena Vista Songhai Club

Although it wasn't widely reported at the time of Buena Vista Social Club's phenomenal success, the original concept that Ry Cooder and World Circuit founder Nick Gold had for the Havana recording was supposed to be an Africa-meets-Cuba cultural collision putting Malian guitar shaman Ali Farka Toure in the company of old-school Cuban son musicians.
However, a funny thing happened on the way to the famed Egrem Studio – Ali Farka Toure missed his flight from Bamako for reasons which remain unclear to this day. Some say that as spiritual leader of his Niafunke village, he had to remain at home because of the looming threat of civil war spilling over into the region while others claim that Toure simply decided instead to accept a lucrative request to perform at a ceremonial function for one of his wealthy patrons. There's also a completely different narrative involving some mysterious visa mix-up but in any case, Toure was a no-show in Cuba.
With studio time already booked at Egrem, Cooder and Gold needed to come up with a back-up plan on the double which meant rooting around Havana for surviving stars of Cuba's pre-Castro golden era who still had their chops. Fortunately the flame keeper of Cuban son, Eliades Ochoa, had already tracked down the great Compay Segundo 10 years earlier and was regularly showcasing the cigar-puffing octogenarian in his Cuarteto Patria shows where his crowd-pleasing tune Chan Chan was a surefire showstopper. Right there, in Chan Chan's gently rolling Afro-Caribbean syncopation, you've got Buena Vista Social Club's sonic blueprint. While Cooder happily accepted the Buena Vista glory, the bit about the scrapped initial plan involving Toure was largely overlooked by the media much like the crucial role played by Ochoa in salvaging the project.

Now 13 years after the release of the Grammy winning Buena Vista Social Club album, it's payback time for Ocho and his Cuarteto Patria crew in the form of AfroCubism. Revisiting the Africa-meets-Cuba concept that had to be ditched earlier, Gold built the AfroCubism project upon the solid son foundation of Ochoa's group Cuarteto Patria with Malian superstars Toumani Diabaté, Bassekou Kouyate and Rail Band guitar dazzler Djelimady Tounkara trading licks with the tres slinging Ochoa who shares vocal duties with veteran Las Maravillas de Mali singer Kassy Mady. It's a world music dream team like none other ever assembled. Imagine if LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade and Kevin Garnett all joined Kobe Bryant on the Los Angeles Lakers and you'll get some idea of the dimensions of this thing.
Considering the serious string-bending talent involved, the decision to downplay the role of percussion makes perfect sense but as a consequence of having Cuarteto Patria's Jose Martinez, Jorge Maturell and Eglis Ochoa laying down the rhythms (bolstered by balafon boss Lassana Diabaté and Baba Sissoko on talking drums), the resulting self-titled AfroCubism (World CIrcuit) album is naturally going to sound more like a rootsy Cuban son recording than anything associated with Toumani Diabate or Bassekou Kouyate. Of course, if someone hears a familiar echo of the multi-million selling Buena Vista Social Club album in the new 14-track AfroCubism release, that isn't really such a bad thing, particularly from a marketing standpoint.
The typical challenge with these all-star sessions – particularly when the musicians involved have never seen each other before, much less played together – is creating a band-like vibe with a group of stellar soloists. No such problem here. Listening to the way everything on the AfroCubism album seems to seamlessly fit in place while effortlessly swinging so hard, you'd think these guys have been knocking around together in clubs for years. Luckily everyone participating in AfroCubism has been a dependable sideman during their career and well understands the value of working as a sympathetic accompanist when called upon. So the fact that the the sessions were cut live with the whole cast getting down together in one big room didn't pose a problem.

“It was as though the musicians had been holding back their ideas and energy for that moment,” says Gold, who produced the album with Buena Vista engineer Jerry Boys. “After we’d waited so long, it all came together remarkably easily and spontaneously. The group had never played together before but the music just poured out and it continued to flow over the next few days.”
That they were able to record 17 songs complete in just five days at that first session in Madrid back in 2008, with another nine finished at a second session, is a good indication of just how well they connected. You'll have a rare chance to see AfroCubism in action when they make their Canadian debut at Montreal's Métropolis (59 Ste. Catherine East) on Friday, November 5 at 8 pm. Advance tickets are $34.50 and will likely sell out quickly since it's AfroCubism's only scheduled date in Canada.

AfroCubism (World Circuit)

Mali Cuba
Al vaivén de mi carreta
Karamo
Djelimady Rumba
La Culebra
Jarabi
Eliades Tumbao 27
Dakan
Nima Diyala
A la luna yo me voy
Mariama
Para los Pinares se va Montoro
Benséma
Guantanamera

An introduction to AfroCubism