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A
few months before its 2011 edition to be held in Madrid in late
October, the Red Bull Music Academy launches its World Tour: from
August to October, a series of unique artistic events illuminate
10 cities of the world (Sao Paulo, New York, Rome ...) between
live art installations and creations. In Paris, Sept. 11, Red Bull
Music Academy World Tour and Jazz à La Villette will
present Questlove's Afro-Picks.
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Questlove’s
Afro-Picks is the world premiere of a unique show created by musical
visionary Questlove, The Roots’ drummer and hip-hop producer. A
long time partner of the Red Bull Music Academy, this outspoken
tastemaker offers a contemporary tribute to African musical history
through a selection of tracks played by the Afro-Picks big band,
featuring Macy Gray, Black Thought, Tony Allen, Mamani Keita and Amp
Fiddler, as well as members of Antibalas, of the David Murray Big Band,
of The Roots, of the Tony Allen Band and Fela!, the Broadway musical.
Questlove's Afropicks is a unique show straddling tradition and
modernity, struggle andliberation, music and politics.
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Africa, 1970. Ten years after the first waves of decolonization, the
voice of the black American brothers rises above oceans. The Black
Panthers’ speeches of self-determination then echo and levitate
over the African youth, as a gift from the deported brothers returning
to the promise land in sailors’ bags, whereas jazz refines itself
through the ports of Africa, from Ghana, to Nigeria, to Congo. In
Lagos, under the crossfire of the Black Panthers that denounces
neo-colonialism and segregation, and the “I’m black and
I’m proud” of the funk superhero James Brown, a wind of
change flows though the air. This free and original flavour grasps the
one who will become the maestro of afrobeat, Fela. His first group will
be a Jazz
quintet inspired by melodies heard in the bars of Lagos, from its
saxophones, trombones and trumpets. Fela will add to this a rhythm of
his own and the afrobeat was born. This is this unique moment of truth
that is captured in the music of the African superhero who lives though
Questlove's Afro-Picks.
His music reflects Africa like no other : inspired by American jazz and
funk rhythms as clearly as it is by the local music (African jazz,
highlife, Yoruba music…), Afrobeat improvises the reflections of
a shattered memory reconstructed within the beauty of music. As a
committed music that denounces the oppressive regimes of
post-colonialism, that advocates the pride of Africa and the beauty of
its women, afrobeat rumbles as the soundtrack of its challengers. |
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As
a live act revisiting African musical history, Questlove’s
Afro-Picks is deeply rooted in this era of liberation and music.
Through an interpolation of famous tracks ranging from Fela to Oumou
Sangaré, Letta Mbulu ou Bongi Makeba, Questlove's Afro-Picks
tells the story of this Africa emerging from the decolonization, a
proud and conscious Africa chanting the beauty of its land, but also a
suffering, denouncing and fighting Africa. An history rootedmusical. |
As the musical director of the event, Questlove carefully selected the
song collection. Playlist reminds the harsh days of Apartheid when the
tears of Bongi Makeba resonates between an ode to Africa
(“Africa”) and bitter realism (“Peace”). Her
mother, Miriam Makeba, then tells us about the terrible events that
took place on june 16th 1976, during which the police killed the
children of Soweto merely because they wanted to continue studying in
Xhosa, Sotho, or Zulu and not in Afrikaner (“Soweto
Blues”). Afro-Picks has also selected 3 tracks from the virtuoso
of Afrobeat’s repertoire, reflecting the diversity of
Fela’s preoccupations such as "Gentlemen", an hymn to the African
man, "Colonial Mentality", a denunciation of a Africa under the yoke of
the West, and "Sorrow, Tears and Blood", the cry of a continent
that suffers. “No Discrimination”, from his drummer and
long time partner Tony Allen supplements the picture of this rising
Africa, inspiring American poet and essayist Ishmael Reed (Mumbo
Jumbo), who composed three unreleased poems that will be chanted live
by rapper Black Thought and souldiva Macy Gray. |
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But
Afro Picks is also about love, joy, celebration and dancing, with Tony
Allen and his "African Message" and "Love is a natural feeling", two
Afrobeat tracks from the drums doyen of this genre. And it will finally
include "Yala" by Oumou Sangaré, a distinctive Bambara vocal of
this soundtrack along with "What's Wrong With Grooving", the global hit
from SouthAfrican singer Letta Mbulu.
To
perform on this collection of African tracks that he imagines as a DJ
set, Questlove has hence selected the finest musicians of the moment
including Tony Allen, the drum genius of rhythm, originator of the
Afrobeat rhythm. Along with Tony, there will be Amp Fiddler, an amazing
keyboard player hailing from Detroit where he used to share the stage
with the likes of Funkadelic or Prince, and also Oghene Kologbo, the
guitarist who played in Fela’s Africa70.
The
brass section, created as an atypical big band, includes various
ensembles, from Jazz to Afrobeat to acoustic hip-hop and musical : 7
brass carefully selected by Martin Perna, the music director of
Antibalas, and 3 singers from the musical Fela! Questlove then
entrusted his playlist arrangements to a contemporary jazz maestro,
saxophonist David Murray to whomhorn arrangements have no secrets.
A
lead vocalist was needed to enhance this soundtrack. It was a necessity
to include vocals in order to rehear emotions, cries and joys without
altering or copying them. Questlove has chosen Macy Gray to reintroduce
not only Letta Mbulu’s "What's Wrong With Grooving", but also
Miriam Makeba’s poignant "Soweto Blues" and Bongi Makeba’s
rebel tracks with
an almost hip-hop energy. Mamani Keita will be performing opposite Macy
in an African language, Bambara. She solely embodies traditional Africa
; the Africa of villages, baptisms and weddings. The Roots’
drummer has also called up his alter ego to revive the voice of Fela :
he has convened Black Though to "the MIC" to rap with supreme verve
Fela’s texts. Once more hip-hop finds its primary role, its
language-game that disclosures a message, and denounces a situation.
With Fela we will be in the heart of the matter.
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This
is Questlove's Afro Picks : 90 minutes of music which will be
identified to as a resolutely contemporary vision, where the battle of
yesterday propels the one of today. A musical journey though funk,
jazz, afrobeat and soul that gives a modern vision of the African
fight, a yesterday’s classic tunes celebration by the advocates
of today’s afrocentrism.
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PR Contacts
Laurence Kleinknecht +33 6 26 64 40 33
Céline Kleinknecht +33 6 21 10 47 29
office@laurencekleinknecht.com
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