World Creole Music Festival 2008

Friday Night Concert

As visitors to the Nature Island we were anxious to hear what the local artists are doing, which was why we showed up early and stayed late each night as unannounced guests open the show and had the honor of keeping the party going until the sun came up. We were suprised to find First Serenade as the opening act of 2008, This band has been recording for 20 years. We remember well a scintillating performance at the 2002 WCMF. They are back with a new CD and a new line up but the enegetic soca boullion mix was still potent onstage. The newer material was interspersed with old favorites such as ‘Just Like Dat’ and ‘Chicken Rhythm’. LLoyde Jno Baptiste still handles lead vocals and bassist Adrien Mitchell remains bandleader, Carlton Winston on Flugelhorn, and Christopher Dangleben on trombone are now joined by Hefner, vocals, Nigel Henry and Colin Butler on keyboards and Reaper Armstrading on drums.

Next was Ophelia Marie, who is known by many as "Dominica's Lady of Song" and is a popular singer of Candence-Lypso since the 1980s. The band played with a driving beat and tight horn section, and Ophelia thrilled to locals in the crowd. She is very well known on the island and besides for being a musician and bandleader, she runs a local bed and breakfast called "Chez Ophelia" which is located in the Copt Hall Estate in the Roseay Valley, close to major tourist attractions including the Trafalgar waterfalls and nestled in the pictoresque Roseau Valley. Ophelia followed opening with a new song ‘Move Your Body’ and she did joined by youthful dancers and backed by Grammacks, and moved into the title track of her new CD ‘Celebration’, the 15th from Dominica’s first lady of song. She noted that she was the only female headliner at this year’s festival and made a plea that next year’s festival feature more female artists. With Grammacks already onstage her set merged seamlessly into Jeff Josephs.

Ophelia

Next came the wonderful Waitukubuli Dance Theater Company, directed by Raymond Lawrence, who presented a suite of creative Folk Dances celebrating Reunion and Independence Day.

Traditional dance group Waitukubuli

The first headline act of Friday evening was the legendary Dominican band Gramacks International featuring singer Jeff Joseph, and what a charged set it was! We caught the band firing on all cylanders, lead by the strong stage presence and emotional delivery of Jeff Joseph, who drove the band through a diverse set of music that included elements of Zouk, Cadence-Lypso, hard driving Soca, Swing, and Reggae. He reminded us of a blues man for his gravely, emotion laden voice and delivery. He included standards in his selection that got the audience reacting enthusiastically to his choices. The big band included a crack horn section (saxophone & trumpet), lead guitar, bassist, two keyboardists, percussionist, drumkit and backing singer. Besides for his afore mentioned vocals, drums and bass lead the music, and at several points the keyboardist added accordian riffs which accentuated the swing. The band was allowed to improvise and musicians took turns soloing at various points during the set - horns, keys, drums, bass were encouraged to open up and jam. Jeff Joseph utilized a unique yodeling vocal technique that road the rhythm.

Jeff Joseph of Gramacks

The band delved into its love of Reggae roots with a medley that included Marley's 'Rat Race', 'Jammin' and 'I Shot The Sherrif'. We felt the Reggae was solid in its own right, but not nearly as interesting as the Cadence and Zouk based songs that rounded out the set. A guest singer form Martinique joined Joseph on stage but was somewhat anti-climatic, given Joseph's dominant stage presence and the guest singers somewhat offkey singing and jerky dance moves. An original, 'Reggae Is Nice' took the audience on a trip around the world, naming the people and places participating in World Creole Fest. For the finale, Gramacks performed a fast, driving Zouk dance number with its catchy chorus. Joseph had the crowd singing and groving out of the palm of his hand.

Jeff Joseph was originally born in the village of Saint-Joseph in Dominica, but in speaking to Jeff we learned that for his professional music career he has primarily resided outside of Dominica in Guadeloupe, beginning in 1972. From that base, he has toured the world with a focus on the Antilles, New York, Paris and of course his homeland of Dominica. He made many of his classic recordings in the legendary Debs Studio in Martinique, and along the way has added a myriad of Caribbean styles to his musical identity. Not only was Jeff a lead member of the original Gramacks, the follow up Gramacks International, but he was also a founding member of the Antillean group Volt Face along with Georges Decimus.

Each year the World Creole Music Festival highlights at least one band from Africa. This year we were treated to the Gabonese legend Oliver Ngoma, who is renowned as one of the leaders of the Afro-Zouk movement (up there with Monique Seka), although his music encompasses far more styles than just Zouk, including: Congolese Rumba, Salsa, Soukous, all spiced with traces of Makossa and local Gabonese music. The result is a crisply produced, smoothly sung potpourie of Central African rhythms.

Oliver Ngoma from Gabon

The big question we had leading up to Oliver Ngoma's performance was how his unique blend of music, which is expertly produced on in the recording studio, would translate live in a stadium setting. Would it sizzle, but still display the tight arrangements and excellent musicianship of his recordings? That question was partially answered while walking into the stadium earlier that night, when we were pleased to bump into the band checking into to the backstage VIP area. I immediately spotted several leading Congolese session musicians in tow with Oliver Ngoma which he had brought with him from Paris. I gave a hearty hello to lead solo guitarist Caen Madoka, who I hadn't seen in several years - as well as bassist veteran Miguel Yamba and volcalist/arranger Balou Canta (who himself has a history of performing and releasing Afro-Zouk albums). These three veterans are top notch Paris based session musicians - who have performed on many dozen - if not hundreds - of Congolese albums recorded over the past two decades. I also recalled from my notes that this trio has been listed as musicians on the past several linear notes of Oliver Ngoma albums - so basically Oliver had brought his own band of musicians to the show. So yes, the band knew how to live - and breath - and add sizzle to the music in a live setting!

Oliver Ngoma

Oliver Ngoma & Balou Canta (vocals & percussion)

Miguel Yamba on bass

Oliver brought with him a full-size band and troupe of female dancers for the concert. Besides for Caen Madoka (lead solo guitar), Miguel Yamba (bass), and Balou Canta (vocals/arrangements), he had 2 keyboardists, 1 drumkit, 1 percussionist on congas, 2 additional female background vocalists, and 3 dancers. The sound was full and crisp - the band stuck to the arrangements of the original recorded versions of songs, but lengthened them by adding full danceable Sebenes featuring driving drums and guitar solos with dancer performing to most numbers. Musicians were also allowed ample time for improvisation. They covered hits from Oliver's 4 previous albums: Bane (1990), Adia (1995), the exquisite Seva (2001), and the most recent release Saga (2006). Songs were lushly orchestrated, with firm intros and big choruses (given the 4 singers) and scintalating solo guitar Sebenes by Caen Madoka.

Caen Madoka on lead guitars

The big band hard driving afro-zouk number "Sal" had the crowd dancing and swaying and singing along to the chorus. "Secret D'Amour" slow zouk number highlighting haunting keyboard songs, lead vocals by one of the female singers, and flamenco style fretwork by Caen Madoka. "Bijou", a latin number, showcased the tight interplay between guitar and pianos as Madoka and the two keyboardists traded riffs back and forth. Balou Canta's warm rumba vocals shone through as he danced to the salsa rhythms and sang with an expressive flair. Next, the band performed "Petit Nicole" which was a slow zouk number with Balou Canta providing depth and soul to Oliver Ngoma's unique, somewhat nasaly front line vocals. Next was a hard driving Congolese Rumba song, in which Oliver Ngoma invited AfricaSounds co-founder Hortense Fuller up on stage, as one of the Central Africans in the crowd, do dance on stage and demonstrate some dance moves to the stadium audience - Oliver Ngoma, as well as Caen Madoka and Balou Canta, took turns dancing in line with her during the sebene.

Throughout the set, we were focused mostly on the tight interplay between musicians on stage - being ardent fans of Central African dance music - but the audience seemed most taken and impressed with Ngoma's 3 female dancers, who were very well choreographed and far more professional than the typical Congolese dance troupes that we get to witness live in the Americas. The entire 2 hour set was well constructed, the band played their heart out, and it was clear that the band played and toured regularly together.

After the show we caught up with a tired but visibly pleased Oliver Ngoma to get his impressions of the performance, his first in Dominica. [Translated from French]: "Its my first time in Dominique. I found a public who are receptive to my music, which pleased me... I didn't know that they already knew some of my songs - but they were singing the choruses! Its a very good public here!" We next asked Oliver about his recent activities musically: "My most recent album, Saga, is already out on the market. The video clips were just filmed this past month and will be released on the market on November 6, 2008. I currently live in Libreville - in Gabon. But I am always traveling abroad! I work in Libreville, but from time to time I am all over to perform music. In December, we are awaiting a contract for tours in Kenya and Zambia for a tour, and next year the Canadians are looking to bring me"

We next talked to him about his band: [Africasounds]: we noticed that you brought many great musicians - such as Caen Madoka and Miguel Yamba - the presentation was very professional and the interplay between musicians was incredibly tight. "Yes, its my group... its the same group that I always work with - some of them such as Miguel Yamba on bass, Balou Canta singing/percussion and Djou Djou who is my drummer, these are the people who worked originally on the first album "Bane" and have continued with me on all the future albums. And as for the others, its been more than 5 years that I am with all the rest of the band members. And when we travel we also bring with us our sound engineer." We next discussed his excellent female dancers, and the fact that they were so well choreographed - "The dancers - I usually have 5 dancers... 2 men and 3 women - and together they choreograph everything themselves" which explains some of the artists and unique moves.

One of the songs that had touched us the most was "Nicole" and we asked Oliver to explain the lyrics to us: "Yes the song 'Nicole', I wrote that while I was in the school in France. I did two years in France from 1988 to 1990, and during studies had to leave our families, our kids. Life was full of solitude - this solitude weighed in on me, so I said I will write a song which discussed the "School", which for us expats takes us away from our friends and family. But it is thanks to this school that one can afterwards have their career and work, and with it can reach a social status that can lift us up - and one can realize a lot of things in life from this schooling. At the same time, in the lyrics I blame the school for taking us away from our homeland / country, and our families. But at the same time I understand that the school is important for us, it makes us "gravir les etapes" (upgrade ourselves). It's just that the solitude weighed in on me... so I wrote the song 'Nicole' to speak about these contradictions of my experience. It was right after that time when I started my professional career as a solo artist in music (1990), but I performed since 1973 in orchestras in Gabon - I played guitar and sang in these orchestras."

Nasio Fontaine

From the moment the white clad artist sang his first note, the crowd was entranced by Nasio's deep roots reggae, and the crowd, whose call-and-response vocals, all message lyrics, and outstretched arms formed an immediate musical and spiritual bond with his audience - one that you could actually feel. Amazingly this was his first Creole Festival performance - but you wouldn't have known it from the crowd. It was a moment, Nasio told africasounds later, that he'd been waiting for all his life.

Nasio Fontaine of Dominica

Nasio's music set at the World Creole Music Festival included a healthy dose of his hits, and several rarities, such that a good portion of his published musical canon was sung throughout the long, charged set. Given the strong drum and bass, as well as Nasio's melodious delivery, the music and vibes got us into one big trance for the set - but I was able to get the bulk of the set list jotted down for the record... the band started the concert off with "Living In the Positive", followed by "Black and Comely", then the stellar "Africa We Love", followed by "Wolf Catcher" which was released as an EP following his first full album release"Reggae Power."

Next was "Under Attack," followed by "African Spirit," and "No Babylon" and a hard hitting live version of "Armed and Dangerous" that has extended call and response refrain at which point the crowd was surging and bubbling the the beat of Nasio's roots reggae. Toning it down a bit, Nasio next sang the reflective ballad "She Lost Track" and then uplifted the crowd with "Herb and Loving" and the "Crucial" and "Reggae Music" followed by "Babylon" and "Black Tuesday". At this point, I began losing track we were so uplifted and in a bubling trance with the music, but I do recall Nasio singing about the "Rainbow Generation."

Now as you will clearly note after reading my last feature on Nasio at link: http://www.africasounds.com/nasio_fontaine.htm] our AfricaSounds crew had previously come all the way to Dominica with the hope of hearing Nasio perform but were unable to catch him on my first trip - and for many years had been hoping to hear Nasio live, so it was a heartfelt reality that I was able to be there live in the audience, after many years of devotion to his music, at Nasio's first big performance at the World Creole Music Festival in the land of his birth Dominica. Following the triumphant performance, we were able to huddle with Nasio (who was surrounded by a large press mob and TV cameras) and make plans to catch up under calmer circumstances a couple days later - the bulk of that meeting will form a follow up in-depth feature on Nasio and his music, forthcoming on AfricaSounds.com.

[Click Here To Continue To Saturday Night Feature:]