Singing the people rising

Ay‚

By Angelique Kidjo

Distributed by Mango Records

Reviewed by Pip Hinman

It's not surprising that the unfolding of these historic times in South Africa should be reflected in African music. Angelique Kidjo's new album Ay‚ or Life's Beginning, in which she has manages to blend traditional and modern, is no exception.

Kidjo was born into a musical family in the tiny west African country of Benin. Her mother is a choreographer and theatre group director and her brothers are instrumentalists. Growing up in Benin in the '70s, she was influenced not only by its traditional folk styles and love songs, but also by the new urban African music from the south, including James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix and Miriam Makeba.

Paris in the 1980s, where Angelique was based, was a breeding ground for new African music. African artists freed from the constraints of tradition yet incorporating their roots in Western styles, were generating, with the help of guitars, drums, soukous and mbalax, a new type of music.

As in her other albums, Angelique sings in her mother tongue, Fon, apart from two songs sung in one of Nigeria's languages. Ay‚ is about the world's diverseness and inconsistencies. With scenes of the carnage in Rwanda (and before that Somalia) being flashed across TV screens every night, it doesn't seem coincidental that Ay‚ includes a number of songs depicting people's pain and suffering.

"Djan Djan" (Sound of a Rhythm) is a strong plea against racial hatred.

We may be black or white

but our blood is red

Why promote hatred and take it to the extreme

of selling your children

The cat eats the mouse but humans

destroy each other

Don't bury your head in the sand like an ostrich

But Angelique Kidjo isn't pessimistic. In "Azan Nan Kp‚" (A Day Will Come) for instance, she sings about revolution and people's ability to change their circumstances.

The day begins

The sun clothes the earth with its radiance

Look up and you'll see the birds flying

Humans are enjoying the day

but life is not the same everywhere ...

A day will come

And nothing and nobody will stop

the people rising up

It will be such a shock

that the earth will tremble

While her lyrics canvass the hard issues, her music is designed to energise. Ay‚ is a smooth combination of traditional drums, horns and electronic backing. This album has less of the traditional and distinct African drum beats than her previous Logozo, perhaps because it's produced by David Z, known for his engineering and production work with Prince.

Compared to Logozo, released in 1991, which includes a moving rendition of the African lullaby "Malaika" popularised by Miriam Makeba, I found Ay‚ less interesting musically. Still, that's not a serious complaint about a performer who has a beautiful voice range and who isn't shy about putting out a strong message.

From GLW issue 144