EDMONTON, CANADA – World beat is a two-way street. So to speak. While countless North American musicians are busy copping the vibrant rhythms and joyful melodies of Africa while wearing natty fezzes in exotically decorated rec rooms, African teenagers are emulating 50 Cent and Kanye West. This is a good example of “coming full circle.”
Heading up the African Guitar Summit at the Winspear Centre tonight, Vancouver’s Alpha Yaya Diallo recently visited his former home in Guinea in West Africa. He reports, “There’s a new generation now that wants to do everything. Some of them are moving in different directions, showbiz, thinking what’s going to make them more popular, and over-producing or using a lot of electronic, computerized music. There’s a lot of things going on in Africa at this point. It’s the same with America. What you listen to today is quite different than what you used to listen to.”
Is this a good thing? Diallo makes it clear he doesn’t care for over-produced and/or computerized music, preferring live humans, and while he stops short of complaining about “kids today,” he’s no different than any classic rock boomer from North America. Alpha’s boyhood heroes included Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and George Benson.
He says, “I was fascinated with their style, but when I play my African styles, I see similarities between them all, and I saw how music can communicate across borders. The idea is not just to learn the music from where I was born. I was so curious about what other people around the world were doing. That was one of the reasons I left Africa.”
People like Peter Gabriel, meanwhile, were discovering and popularizing the traditional music of Africa.
Diallo found the opportunity to travel the world with a band called Fatala, signed to Gabriel’s Real World label. After a tour of North America in 1991, Diallo decided to stick around. He and his assorted projects, including the African Guitar Summit, has since won three Juno Awards - under the headings of “world” and “global.”
Let’s review: A guy from West Africa picks up an electric guitar, invented by a guy from Switzerland, gets into the music of Jimi Hendrix, an American, gets signed to a record label run by Peter Gabriel, a Brit, and ends up in Canada, touring the country with a bill of fellow Africans.
Of course, Africa isn’t a country, whatever George W. Bush might think. It is many countries, each of which has its own distinctive musical tradition, each with its own interpretations of the bombardment of culture from the western hemisphere. The combinations and permutations are dizzying. The African Guitar Summit also features Madagascar Slim, who dabbles in the blues, and Mighty Popo, a guitarist from Central Africa who favours R&B. Still, to hear any of them play for even a few moments leaves no doubt where their roots lie. It’s those unmistakable vibrant rhythms and joyful melodies.
Diallo says, “There’s eight guitar players here. It’s quite interesting. All of us come from all over Africa, and everyone is playing a different style. African culture is a kind of a mixture.”
Asked if he’s been influenced by his 15 years living in Vancouver, he replies that you should try living in Africa for 15 years and see if it influences you. He says he’s still getting surprised by what he comes across in Canada.
“My objective is to get surprised,” he says. “The point is to learn to give, to take and to give. I am very happy that God gave me that possibility to travel, to settle here and play my music in a free sense and communicate to people through music. That was my dream.”
Source: Mike, Ross, Edmonton Sun