Flashmag October 2018 www.flashmag.net
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let's talk about your new opus. What motivated the release of this project entitled Transcendence?
What is it inspired by?
You know, I just turned 72 and at that age I decided that I had to make a Rey Lema, a summary of my musical career that does not obey the classification of music distributors . You know they like that, put people in categories, and it is often a bit reductive. The imposition of bins dictatorships can be bothering, so we are asked every time this album will go in which category? World, Jazz, Rock and so on. There are so many bins that while you are composing you must absolutely think about which tray your music will be confined to. After 70 years of age I said to myself I'm not going to confess to the bins but simply do some Ray Lema’s category. It's an album inspired by my loves and when you listen to it you will see almost all the scope of my loves.
What kind of loves is it?
Inside, there's Jazz, Congolese Rumba, Pygmy music, Rock, Reggae sensations ... it's all about my musical experiences. I never made a Reggae album but for two years in London with Lion Robbie I worked on the reggae bands that came from Jamaica in the London studio, we had to bring our touch to the recordings that had been made in Jamaica. I've done miles of reggae music, so today I was to do a reggae album some will be amazed. But no, I like reggae and it made sense for me to make a piece of it in this album ...
How long did it take you to compose the 9 tracks of this album that will be released on October 19, 2018?
The composition takes a lot of time it took me about two years to finalize this project.
Each musical work normally has a goal. what is the goal of Transcendance?
I think the main goal of any musical creation should be excellence. Show excellence to the public, that will inspire peoples through their life experience.
The contribution of all the great classical jazz musicians was to make a type of music that pulls the people up. To understand some of Jazz's works you have to listen to a lot of music. And open your mind to a lot of influences. Same thing with the great composers of classical music.
A question that puzzles me and still comes back to our readers the Jazz seems not to regenerate, and emeritus musicians as you, have put Jazz on a pedestal that commercial music, the main focus of the majority of young musicians nowadays seems not reach. I know you are busy in the creation of your art, but have you thought to spread the virus of this music, to the new generation? Because in my opinion it remains a benchmark, a guard against some excesses?
It's a very good question that's why in this album, I wanted to illustrate all my experiences you know based on this quote of Miles Davis that makes me feel Jazzman, I composed a music which Jazz because of its liberal attitude. I have been a director of national ballet in my career and I have traveled a lot through the traditional music of Africa, and even if the music of this album seems sophisticated because of its jazz aspect, it uses the African cultural heritage so that youths can somehow benefit by enjoying it, and for music professionals by trying to apply some of its principles in their future creation.
Although it is said that the problem of Africa is economic, from my point of view, the real problem of Africans is cultural. We must place our dreams a bit higher. And especially take care of actors of culture. For African leaders, musicians are not important enough and culture is unfortunately still understood as something optional. On our side as African Jazzmen it is important that we make our work even more accessible to a wider audience. We must put the attitude of jazz in the things that the audience understands more easily.
Your Album is produced by One drop after a long collaboration with Island record why did you leave a major for a label that seems more known in the reggae style?