The explosive growth in the popularity of world music during the past several
decades has broadened the boundaries of our world, reminding listeners of the
vast cultural wealth and diversity in this wired age. The music of African-born
songstress Ang�lique Kidjo offers another perspective: that the world is
also much smaller than we think, and that no matter how far flung its peoples
may be, subtle lines of interconnection span the globe, uniting its people. This
is reflected with her latest release, Oyaya!(which is the word for "joy"
in Yoruba, Kidjo's native language.)
Angelique Kidjo, whose work has garnered her three Grammy nominations, has
cross-pollinated the West African traditions of her childhood in Benin with
elements of American R&B, funk and jazz, as well as influences from Europe
and Latin America. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with a diverse
group of international artists like Santana and Gilberto Gil. Her duet with
Dave Matthews on the song Iwoya,, which appeared on her last record Black Ivory
Soul, was a critical success that helped diversify her fan base. The third part
in a trilogy that previously explored African roots in music from the United
States (Oremi) and Brazil (Black Ivory Soul), Oyaya! fuses African and French
lyrics to music that draws upon musical traditions of the Caribbean Diaspora.
With her husband, Jean Hebrail, Kidjo penned 13 original songs in a variety
of indigenous Caribbean styles, including salsa, calypso, meringue and ska.
Kidjo sings the numbers in English, French and African languages Yoruba and
Fon.
Oyaya! was produced by Steve Berlin, best known for his work with Los Lobos
and Los Super Seven, and the String Cheese Incident. Recording primarily in
Los Angeles, Berlin and co-producer/arranger Alberto Salas assembled a group
of talented Latin and African musicians. The album is dedicated to the memory
of the late writer and Billboard magazine editor-in-chief Timothy White, Kidjo's
dear friend and a steadfast supporter of her career.
The birth of Oyaya! can be traced back to Kidjo's own travels and performances
in a number of Caribbean nation, but it was her experiences in Cuba that had
the most profound effect on the album's concept and spirit.
"I went to Cuba two years ago and met some old musicians there,"
Kidjo says. "It gave me strength and inspiration, because you realize that
music is really the thread of the memory of humankind. You saw old people that,
once they picked up their instruments and started singing, were transformed
into something else. You have the example of the Buena Vista Social Club, but
actually going to Cuba, you understand why the Buena Vista Social Club worked:
It's not something fake. It's their life."
Music's ability to cross borders, transcend boundaries and unite people
is one of the key inspirations behind Oyaya! The search for joy is the subject
of the album's opening track, "Seyin Djro," which takes the form
of a boisterous Puerto Rican bomba. According to Kidjo, the song title translates
as "the wish of my soul" in Mina, a language native to the African
nations of Togo and Ghana. "My soul is searching for joy and laughter,"
Kidjo explains of the song.
The scintillating calypso style native to Trinidad supplies the catchy beat
of "Congoleo," sung in Fon. The track offers a perfect example of
Kidjo's trademark fusion of ancient and modern sounds, pairing a contemporary
organ with the balafon, a traditional xylophone-like instrument from Guinea.
"The balafon is the first 'piano' I ever heard, before I ever
heard a piano from the western world," says Kidjo. She points out that
"Congoleo" moves to rhythms originally brought to the Caribbean by
African slaves, but forbidden by their masters. "They played them in their
convents and ceremonies� in Haiti during the voodoo ceremonies, in Cuba
for Santeria, in Brazil for candomble," she says, "From those African
rhythms, you get all the music that people are dancing to today!"
In "Bala Bala," based on the Cuban cha-cha-cha rhythm, Kidjo reflects
on need to accept life as it is. "'Bala Bala' means 'the
essence of things' in Fon," she explains. "The lines on our hands�can
we change them? No. We are born with them, and that's the way it is. There
are certain things in this lifetime of ours that we just have to accept, and
we shouldn't be judgmental."
Acceptance of life's ups and downs is the subject of "Oulala,"
set to a Dominican meringue beat and featuring steel-drum superstar, Andy Narrell.
Sung in Fon, the song tells the story of Aminata, a girl who smiles in the face
of adversity. "I tried in that song to explain the capacity of the human
being to rebound, despite whatever happens. Aminata can fall, and she will stand
up, smiling.
The beautiful "N'Yin Wan Nou We," sung in Fon, is based on the
sultry Cuban bolero. "It means 'I love you,'" Kidjo explains,
"but if you want to translate it literally, it means, 'I love your
smell.' It makes sense: If you don't like somebody's smell, how
are you going to spend your life with them?" she adds with a laugh.
"Conga Habanera," a sizzling Cuban salsa tune sung in Fon, percolates
to the beat of the bata drums, which were brought to the Caribbean by slaves
from Nigeria. "Those drums are important for the Yoruba, and for the Santeria
religion," Kidjo says. "You see bata drums in Cuba, in Brazil and
other places, but the way they play the rhythm is different. What I'm saying
is, 'Let me tell you about the tales, the rhythms, that my ancestors brought
to Cuba.'"
"Le Monde Comme un B�b�" (recorded by renowned French
producer Renaud Letang) is set to the much-traveled mazurka rhythm, which developed
on the slave routes between England, France, Haiti and Martinique. Kidjo performs
the dreamy ballad as a duet with the legendary French-Caribbean Jazz singer
Henri Salvador, who was born in French Guiana in 1917. "Henri came into
the studio to do the song, and it was an amazing experience," Kidjo says
admiringly. "There was a love story between him and the microphone; when
he put his voice on that microphone, I had goose bumps!"
Kidjo was moved to write "Mutoto Kwanza," a Jamaican ska tune song
in Mina, while serving as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. "That song
was inspired by the children of Tanzania," Kidjo explains. "HIV and
AIDS are devastating their villages. They have nothing except for the help that
UNICEF is bringing to their villages. And their motto was 'Mutoto kwanza,
oye, oye,' which means, 'Children first.'
The sonorous sounds of the kora, a many-stringed Malian lute, sing out in "Adje
Dada," sung in Mina, the language of Togo. "It means 'lying,'"
Kidjo says simply. "What I'm saying here is that you are the only
one that knows if you are telling a lie or the truth�knowing that lies
never give you joy and peace."
Kidjo dedicated "Djovamin Yi," another Cuban salsa tune sung in Mina,
to the late queen of salsa, Celia Cruz. "We played together in Paris,"
Kidjo recalls, "and every time she would see me afterward, she would say,
'My black sister!' I've known Celia ever since Africa, because
she came to Benin with Johnny Pacheco when I was growing up.
Jacob Desvarieux of the renowned Guadeloupian zouk band Kassav lends his voice
and guitar to "Dje Dje L'Aye," a Haitian kompa sung in both Yoruba
and Fon. In "Macumba," sung in Fon,, Kidjo explores the subtleties
of Changui rhythm from Guantanamo.
Kidjo closes Oyaya! with a timely message in "Bissimilai," composed
in the Puerto Rican plena form and sung in Fon. "I don't believe in
anyone who tells me, 'You've got to kill yourself in the name of God,'"
Kidjo adamantly states. "Every time you take a life, you're taking
God's life." The track features a chorus of Muslim women, which Kidjo
recorded on a trip home to Benin. "The traditional music in that village
is very close to gospel music," she says.
Ultimately, that theme of interconnection and universalism is the glue that
binds the disparate threads of Oyaya! "There's only own humankind�I
believe that to my gut," Kidjo confirms. "The reason I believe this
so strongly is because I was raised in Africa, and if you are raised in nature,
you understand and respect every life. That's something that some people
try to keep away from one another, because once you understand that, there's
no need to hate anybody anymore. There's no need to say 'they'
and 'we'...we are all one."
