Interviews – Page 26

Pianist Yoav Levanon’s emergence on the international scene, a few years ago, generates high expectation at the Festival de Lanaudière where he plays exclusively this week for the first time. At his early 20’s, he has been by such masters as Daniel Barenboim, Andras Schiff or Sergey Babayanm , ti name a few. They all felt that Yoav Levanon’s technical skill and interpretive musicality were among the best in the new breed of piano soloists on Planet Classical. And this is exactly why Alain Brunet did this interview for PAN M 360 ! A conversation about him and also about the 2 concerts he’s giving at Lanaudière: Recital at St.Barthélémy church ont Wednesday, 8PM, and also a concert in the great outdoor venue Fernand-Lindsay on Saturday, with Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Payare.

INFOS & TICKETS HERE

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For the 1st time in MTL, this excellent band from UK is performing at the Fairmount theatre in the context of Nuits d’Afrique: Ibibio Sound Machine ! Pull the Rope, the 5th studio album of the band, will be featured through som songs in this concert. Just to say that Pull the Rope was recprded with Sheffield-based producer Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, M.I.A.). A few days before her coming in MTL, the great singer Eno Williams accepted to chat generously with PAN M 360. Let’s get ready for Ibibio Sound Machine, a powerful blend of afrobeat, new wave, funk, jazz, afro-electro, reggae/dancehall, dub and more !

TICKETS & INFOS HERE

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Young French-Cameroonian afropop star Valérie Ekoumè (who corrects me on her “youth”, but elegantly accepts my qualifier) is currently in the midst of a Canadian tour. After stopping off in Ottawa and Quebec City, among other places, she continues on her way, which takes her in turn to Val-David, Montreal (Nuits d’Afrique), Sherbrooke, Toronto, Kingsville and many others. She’s an artist (singer as well as dancer) with a sparkling personality, a cross between French and Cameroonian roots, and a jubilant marriage of Rumba, Makossa and traditional rhythms such as Bikutsi and Esséwé. I chatted with this luminous lady, who loves Quebec and Canada dearly (and we love her back), about a number of subjects: her music, her musical studies at the American School in Paris, and even the atmosphere in France these days. A wonderful discussion to discover now.

DETAILS OF VALÉRIE EKOUMÈ’S FREE CONCERT AT THE NUITS D’AFRIQUE FESTIVAL, JULY 18

CONSULT VALÉRIE EKOUMÈ’S TOUR DATES

Pahua, whose real name is Paulina Sotomayor, comes to us from Mexico, where she is part of the movement to renew Latina music, adding electronic influences. But Pahua never loses sight of tradition, and not just in Mexico. On her latest album Natura, released at the end of 2023, she collaborates with numerous musicians from all over Latin America, from Costa Rica to Chile. She’ll be at the Ministère on July 15 at 9pm, as part of the Nuits d’Afrique festival. Her own songs are sure to get you up and dancing. Michel Labrecque spoke to her in English for PAN M 360. She explains her career path, her influences, and her relative optimism about Mexico, or at least its culture.

INFOS AND TICKETS HERE

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One of the world’s most sought-after and celebrated string quartets, the renowned Quatuor Diotima will make its Quebec debut with a concert at the Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez church as part of the 47th edition of the Festival de Lanaudière. With an artistic signature characterized by its ease in both the classical and contemporary repertoires, and by its commitment to creating links between these musical currents, audiences are invited on July 22 to hear the most beautiful pages of quartet music, including Maurice Ravel’s famous Quartet in F major, accompanied by two more contemporary works by Szymanowski and Korngold.

PAN M 360 collaborator Alexandre Villemaire spoke to Léo Marillier, the quartet’s violinist, about the concert program, the quartet’s identity and its relationship with contemporary music in all its nuances and history.

This interview was conducted in French

For infos and tickets click here

photo: Michel Nguyen

Pahua, whose real name is Paulina Sotomayor, comes to us from Mexico, where she is part of the movement to renew Latina music, adding electronic influences. But Pahua never loses sight of tradition, and not just in Mexico. On her latest album Natura, released at the end of 2023, she collaborates with numerous musicians from all over Latin America, from Costa Rica to Chile. She’ll be at the Ministère on July 15 at 9pm, as part of the Nuits d’Afrique festival. Her own songs are sure to get you up and dancing. Michel Labrecque spoke to her in English for PAN M 360. She explains her background, her influences, and her relative optimism about Mexico, or at least its culture.

INFOS AND TICKETS HERE

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From July 17 to August 11, 2024, the Institut Canadien d’Art Vocal (ICAV) presents the Festival d’Art Vocal de Montréal, a training event for its practitioners and their masters, as well as for music lovers who come to discover the rising forces of operatic art on an international scale. At the helm of ICAV, Marc-Antoine d’Aragon explains to PAN M 360’s Alain Brunet the ins and outs of these summit meetings, open to the general public.

FOR MORE INFO AND TICKETS, CLICK HERE

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Luiz Salgado is an explorer of the soul of deepest Brazil. The singer-songwriter makes popular Brazilian music steeped in his home region of Minas Gerais. He will be at Balattou on July 15 as part of the 38th edition of the Festival Nuits d’Afrique. Michel Labrecque interviewed him as he was about to leave his native country for Montreal. Here’s a summary.

Luiz Salgado jokingly tells me that he “doesn’t speak Portuguese, but rather Minas”. He grew up in this large Brazilian state, which has nothing to do with the image most of us have of Brazil. Here, there’s no sea, no Amazon rainforest, but rather mines, agriculture and savannah. This territory has shaped his musical proposition. “I try to embody a deep Brazil and its daily life,” he tells me in his native tongue.

Today, he lives in another part of Minas Gerais, which is part of the Cerrado, that immense eco-region that constitutes a savannah unique in the world, with a unique biodiversity. “There’s a unique folk culture here, influenced by the rhythms of Congo and Mozambique, which has blended with Portugal. “In my own way, I try to represent this culture, while adding the influence of today’s modern Brazil. I mix the ancestral with the contemporary.”

The flora and fauna of the cerrado are also threatened by the inevitable rise of intensive agriculture in the region. “I’m also trying to sound the alarm about the region’s future using poetry,” says Luiz.

Luiz Salgado’s favorite instrument is the “violão caipira”, a Portuguese guitar with five double strings, which has become a favorite in the Brazilian interior. “It’s a Portuguese instrument, but here it’s also used on many indigenous rhythms,” says Luiz.

Brazil is such a blend of the West, Africa and native indigenous culture. But when you listen to Luiz Salgado’s latest album, you also feel the influence of legends like Gilberto Gil, who also draws his inspiration from a more regional Brazil. And we also hear caipira, a style very close to North American country, also known as folia de reis.

Quanto Mais Meus Oito Chora, Mais O Mar Quebra Na Praia, released in 2016, is set with skilful arrangements, featuring numerous instruments, percussion and strings. At the Balattou concert, we’ll be treated to a scaled-down, solo version of Luiz Gonzaga’s songs. “It’ll be intimate, but you’ll understand my emotions and the culture of the Cerrado,” he promises.

Let’s hope the language barrier doesn’t prevent communication. This will be Luiz Salgado’s first visit to Montreal and Canada. He will be bringing his two Caipira guitars with him. He’s looking forward to meeting a new audience.

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Bombino arrives in Quebec for two concerts, one at the Festival d’été de Québec on July 14 and the other at the Festival Nuits d’Afrique in Montreal on July 16. Two free concerts not to be missed at either of these urban events. Bombino was the very first musician from Niger to receive a Grammy nomination in 2019. He has also been produced by Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), named ”The Sultan of Shred” by the New York Times, and was the subject of a Ron Wyman documentary Agadez, the Music and the Rebellion, in 2010. I offer you this encounter with a man of touching humility and sincerity, inhabited by music and the spirit of the desert, with which he conveys a rare human warmth, made up of welcome and openness.

DETAILS OF BOMBINO’S CONCERT (FREE) AT THE QUEBEC CITY SUMMER FESTIVAL, JULY 14 AT 9PM

DETAILS OF BOMBINO’S CONCERT (FREE) AT THE NUITS D’AFRIQUE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL, JULY 16 AT 9:30PM

Among the monarchs of reggae-dancehall, Trinidadian Queen Omega has sung the Rastafarian values of universal love and opposition to all forms of oppression, particularly that of women and colonized peoples, all over the world. The singer and leader made a major comeback in 2023 with the album Freedom Legacy. Her magnetism on stage and the power of her voice keep her at the pinnacle of reggae/dancehall and its riddims so diverse, new roots, new soul, afrobeat and more. As she performs on Saturday July 13 at MTelus with Royal Souls and Entourloup, PAN M 360 invited Queen Omega to hold a warm conversation with our collaborator Sandra Gasana.

TICKETS AND INFOS HERE

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Considered the worthy successor to Césaria Évora, Cape Verdean singer Lucibela takes the repertoire of her native island of São Nicolau to the four corners of the globe. The warm rhythms and deeply human themes that characterize her country’s traditional songs will be heard on the shores of Saint-Irénée (Charlevoix) as part of the Festival international du Domaine Forget. We had the opportunity to correspond with Lucibela a few days before the concert, which takes place on Saturday July 13.

PAN M 360: Hello Lucibela. Thank you for taking some time with us. It’s safe to say that you’ve not been stalling since your arrival in Canada! You recently performed at the FestiVoix in Trois-Rivières, and you have other concerts scheduled in Montreal and Ottawa before your July 13 concert at the Festival international du Domaine Forget in Saint-Irénée. How is your stay so far?

Lucibela: My stay has been very pleasant, and the music of Cape Verde has been very well received by the Canadian public. I love to see how people welcome our tradition with open arms, while others, who already knew our music thanks to our Cise [Césaria Évora], are happy to hear it again. This is my second tour of Canada, and I had missed the good hospitality of the Canadian people. The first took place in 2019 and we were due to return in 2020, with about 22 concerts, which were unfortunately cancelled due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Fortunately, four years later, we were finally able to come back and continue what we started, which is to bring a bit of Cape Verde, our music, to Canadian audiences.

PAN M 360: Can you tell us a little about the program you’ll be performing at the festival?

Lucibela: Certainly. I’ll be presenting excerpts from my second album, Amdjer (Woman), as well as songs from my first album, Laço Umbilical (Umbilical Cord), which the general public loves to hear. A repertoire of mornas and coladeiras that depict the daily life of Cape Verdeans and transport us to Cape Verde. It’s music to listen to, to feel and to dance to, accompanied by musicians who have this tradition in their blood and who carry this love for our music.

Two of them have accompanied our Cise around the world, and I’m lucky enough to have had them with me at the start of my career. Toy Vieira (seven-string guitar) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and music producer. He has produced both my albums and is also my musical director. Then there’s Zé António (cavaquinho), one of Cape Verde’s finest traditional cavaquinho players.

The other musicians haven’t played with Cise, but they too have a strong link with traditional Cape Verdean music, and without them I wouldn’t have this wonderful group that accompanies me and gives me strength. Nir Paris (drums), from a well-known Cape Verdean family of musicians, is a prodigy of our traditional music. Finally, César Lima (guitar) is a highly respected musician who accompanies some of Cape Verde’s greatest artists.

PAN M 360: Among the musical genres you carry and promote abroad are morna and coladeira. What is the history of these genres and what are their stylistic specificities?

Lucibela: Cape Verde is rich in rhythms, but I’ve mostly sung mornas and coladeiras. I’ve also recorded mazurkas, boleros and a few coladeiras with a touch of samba about them. The morna is one of Cape Verde’s oldest genres and is part of humanity’s intangible cultural heritage. In fact, no one knows which came first, morna or fado. It’s a musical genre with a slower tempo that mainly evokes love and stories of everyday life.

Coladeira also depicts these stories, but is a more danceable and joyful genre. It often recounts amusing facts about Cape Verdean life. In fact, it is said that each morna, when played at a faster tempo, becomes a coladeira.

PAN M 360: What influence has Césaria Évora had on your career and your identity as an artist?

Lucibela: Césaria Évora, as everyone knows, opened the doors of the world to our music and was extremely well received. It’s clear that we, as traditional music artists, have benefited from this. When we talk about Cape Verde, we inevitably talk about Césaria Évora. This link is inseparable, and she will always be one of the greatest references of our music and culture. I want to continue to share our tradition with the world, and I want to do it with my heart. Because that’s what I love to do. So, yes, of course, it has also contributed to the expansion of my career.

I started singing Brazilian music at the age of 7 or 8, because Brazilian music was very present on the radio in Cape Verde. But I also used to listen to my mother humming mornas while she cleaned the house. As I grew up, I became interested in traditional music and was already listening to Césaria Évora, as well as Bana and Ildo Lobo. They are excellent references for morna. Little by little, I began to listen to traditional music, and when I started doing Cape Verdean parties in bars, around the age of 18, I started to listen to them even more. Today, they and Césaria are my references when it comes to morna and coladeira.

PAN M 360: The themes found on your two albums deal with attachment to Cape Verde, nostalgia and exile, as well as love and women. Why are these themes important to you, and what messages do you want to convey through them?

Lucibela: I’ve always listened to love songs and they’ve always touched me. I love the idea of “singing” love, a universal theme that everyone understands, and “singing” our stories. When I choose songs for my albums, I like to think that I’m singing the tradition of a people, so I choose songs that reflect that tradition. Women are the pillars of our society and deserve to be treated with more respect. That’s why I pay tribute to them on my second album. I like to tell the story of Cape Verdean mothers, most of whom are forced to raise and support their children alone, as mine was. They fight, and even though they face many difficulties, they manage to give their children a future. I like to think that songs really depict who we are, that they tell it like it is. But it’s not all sad stories, there are also a lot of humorous songs that, in a funny way, always give us a life lesson.

PAN M 360: If you had to choose one song from your repertoire, or from the repertoire of Cape Verdean music, which would you say is the most emblematic and representative of the archipelago, and why?

Lucibela: The best-known song from Cape Verde is undoubtedly “Sodade”, sung by Cise. It’s a song that represents the nostalgic people we are. Cape Verdeans are a people who emigrate a lot, and the word saudade [nostalgia] is always on our lips. We are undoubtedly very attached to our culture, our food and our people.

I have a lot of favorite songs. But if you asked me to sing just one, I think I’d sing “Mi e Dod na Bo Cabo Verde”, which means “I’m crazy about you Cape Verde”.

PAN M 360: What are your next musical projects? Are there any plans for a new album or new songs?

Lucibela: Yes, I have a new album coming out at the end of October, with previously unreleased songs by well-known Cape Verdean composers, and also old songs in a new form, somewhat in line with the previous ones. There will also be a song of my own.

The launch concert for this album is scheduled for November in France.

I’m also part of the Césaria Évora Orchestra project, and we’ll be giving concerts in Morocco, France, Poland and Luxembourg over the coming months.

BRISES DU CAP-VERT

Musiques traditionnelles capverdiennes

Lucibela, voice
Toy Vieira, guitar
Dany Fonseca, bass
Zé Antonio, cavaquinho
Nir, drums and percussions

Saturday, July 13 2024, 4:00 PM

For infos and tickets, click here

photo: Alex Tome

In Wolof Def, Mama Def or Defmaa maadef means “karma”, “give and take”, adding the empowerment of Senegalese women. Def Mama Def is also a pun on the first names of the protagonists: Defa, the singer, and Mamy Victory, the rapper. This hip-hop tandem is the vehicle for a feminist voice that is all the more assertive. For PAN M 360, Sandra Gasana brings you this interview with Def Mama Def!

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