Flashmag February 2018 www.flashmag.net
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The guitar strings were often brake cables of motorcycles ...
After having honed your skills in Africa for logical reasons of expansion, you will showcase your talent in the West and especially in France, however if you had to say a word about your period of learning in Cameroon what does it represent for you in your career?
My first years of music in Cameroon resemble what is commonly called galley, it was not obvious, to go to concerts in cities near the capital like Akonoliga with some of the most prominent artist of the time in the country, such as K. Tino, or Essama Elyse, And go home without a penny when you are a man with duties it was not very pleasant but the passion was stronger the proof the music we are still on it ...
But it was a kind of military service that seasoned me to the trials of life
When you arrive in France in 1998, how was your integration into the arts? And classic course like some before you, you go back to school why did you think it was necessary to go back to school, what it brought to your art?
There are no schools of music by the ear ...or in the street ... In France I go to school to understand what it is .... So, I did a school of jazz and world music. In France the problem remains the same when you are black choices can be challenging. I do not know why they call my music Afro jazz ... I would just say that I make music ...
In France you form a group of Music Zaki Groove, what is the history of this band?
This group is made of the musicians I met at the jazz school. And in some jazz clubs in Paris the Jawad KF. Which no longer exists alas.
Your first Album Enfants du village children of the Village comes out in 2003 if you had to say a word about its quintessence, and its emotional value, what is it for you?
Children of the village is an album with a preventive aim ... Gentrification… The death of villages ... The death of our cultures .... In favor of Western modernity
4 years later in 2007 you will release Reflex an album of 10 tracks that confirms your trends Jazz Afro Groove, this album represents what for you?
The reflection on the real ... This transition between what we have and that we do not exploit, and what others give us and that we consume without thinking too much ... I evoke for example electricity and solar energy. Our lifestyle ... is palm wine, lesser than Scottish whiskey? The contrast between natural tobacco and the Marlboro pack.
When creating your work what inspires you the most? Do you have a message to pass with your art?
The future of Cameroon and Africa, worries me, When I see in what direction the continent is going. It is important to ask the right questions to get right answers…
Younger you were known more as a musician accompanying others on stage and studio, how was your transition to the stage and 15 years later after the release of your first solo effort, how do you like this evolution that your career follows?