European vs. American relationship to today's Africa

[mke]

Since arriving in Belgium, I’ve been struck by the amount of musical mixing with contemporary Africa that happens here. I’ve been thinking about whether (in a broad sense) European jazz musicians are closer to today’s Africa than their American counter-parts.

In the general social context, it seems to me that the old European colonial centers have more prominent African communities than those in the US (North- and West-African in France, Congolese in Belgium, Nigerian in the UK, Angolese in Portugal). These communities have been important in mixing local and contemporary African musical cultures and getting that mix into the musical mainstream (especially in France). In Brussels I see a lot of posters advertising Congolese gospel choirs.

In Belgium, you can find a few African jazz musicians (Inno de Sadjo, Manou Gallo), musicians who have had significant African experiences or influences (the excellent and very original guitarist Pierre Van Dormael was a teacher in Senegal for 3 years, AKA Moon was founded after a trip to visit the AKA Pygmies, singer David Linx has a lot of Arabic influences, soprano saxophonist Pierre Vaiana’s Foofango explores improvisation within an African context, with African musicians, though I haven’t had the chance to see it for myself yet), collaborations with African musicians (trumpeter Laurent Blondiau is setting up a project with his own group, 6 Gnawa musicians and a Malian musician) and musicians composing specific African-influenced songs (not just in terms of rhythm, but also melody).

If I remember correctly, Richard Bona was “discovered” in Paris. Maybe the Parisians can fill us in with more.

I post this because I am a bit surprised not to be seeing similar activity from the US, especially from black Americans. I may simply not be looking in the right places.


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I’ll take this opportunity to recommend some top-notch recent Belgian jazz:

Pierre Van Dormael – Vivaces (2001, Igloo): medium-sized group, both melodic, joyous and complex composition and improvisation. Much rhythmic and harmonic research, as well as orchestral colours.

Brussels Jazz Orchestra – The Music of Bert Joris (2002, De Werf): some of you already know this big-band. I love the varied compositions and arrangements they play here, and I love trumpeter Bert Joris (clear, singing, Miles/Chet style).

AKA Moon – many albums (Carbon 7): I don’t have them all, but their self-titled debut nicely sums them up. Incredible band to see live. Stéphane Galland is without a doubt an absolutely incredible drummer, for a pretty unique group.

Octurn – Dimensions (2002, De Werf): Challenging avant-jazz (could be described as contemporary music in an improvisational setting), but not of the “screaming” variety, lots of compositional and rhythmic research, maybe overly cerebral.

Greetings From Mercury – Heiwa (2002, De Werf): hip-hop/fusion side of things, excellent rapper/singer. Stéphane Galland on drums (note that a lot of the same musicians appear on these albums, yet all these albums sound very different).

Rêve d’Eléphant Orchestra – Racines du Ciel (2001, De Werf): Great atypical band, mixing in everything from free jazz to techno to “ethnic music” in a very nice ensemble and compositional framework.

[Vince Kargatis]

Originally posted by mke
I post this because I am a bit surprised not to be seeing similar activity from the US, especially from black Americans. I may simply not be looking in the right places.

This doesn't surprise me. Doesn't it follow rather simply from immigration patterns alone, and how much more prominent recent African immigration activity/populations are in Europe vs the US? Most black Americans descend from older, slavery-based populations present in the US for centuries, and have little direct association with contemporary African cultures.

[Tom Storer]

Interesting comments, Mwanji. Perhaps it's simply the fact that there are more African musicians in the European countries that colonized them than there are in the US that explains the greater musical mixing.

"I post this because I am a bit surprised not to be seeing similar activity from the US, especially from black Americans."

Not sure why this should surprise you. America is relatively insular. American musicians may feel that jazz is *already* a mix of Africa and Europe and whatever, from its inception, and that's enough. Recall Art Blakey's famous statement, "Jazz doesn't have a damn thing to do with Africa." That said, David Murray has done some African and Antillais projects, Hank Jones recorded African music with Cheik Tidiane Seck, Steve Coleman studies the entire African diaspora. It's a recurring theme. What's lacking, again, is a "scene."