Many of our budding musician listeners dream of a career like yours . What qualities do you need to get noticed and attract interest , apart from audacity ?
Obviously , I have a rather atypical background because I never went to music school . So , I ' m selftaught . I learned to play like that by tapping my thighs , which means I play di erently from people who have followed a music school or conservatory curriculum .
You ' re not a technician ? No , I ' m not a technician . Although there are a lot of people today who say I ' m a great , big technician , I just tell them that it ' s from hard work . But technique isn ' t really my thing . So , to answer your question , I ' ve got an atypical game and an atypical language , and I think that has helped me a lot too . Basically , it ' s a lot of that and my personality , perhaps .
I mentioned Jonas Hellborg among your many collaborations at the start of this program . How did this exceptional Swedish bassist come to appreciate your drumming ? Actually , I don ' t know ; I don ' t know because I was at home . The phone rang , and he said , " Come and play . I go . So he called it as simple as that . He called me . Would you like to play ? I said yes , and then we didn ' t even rehearse ; we went to a gig and started playing . The first concert . It was with bass , cello , and drums . After that , we did a tour with Chandler , a great American guitarist who passed away . That ' s how . That ' s when I started playing with Jonas Hellborg , who happens to be one of Billy Cobham ' s bassists , as we were talking about earlier . Do musicians from di erent cultures immediately understand each other ? The Cameroonian is quite atypical , after all . He does a bit of everything when he arrives in the studio or on stage . First of all , he cooks for everyone and does everything . In fact , this versatility means that we use so much di erent music to accompany di erent people . To be able to eat , we have to do several di erent things . So , we play with a jazzman , a bluesman , a rocker — we do just about everything . If you catch a Cameroonian on the street , he knows how to do at least two rhythms of something .
But when we arrive , if I go on stage with a Hindu tabla player , I ' m not at all disoriented because he ' s going to play a rhythm that I recognize from my own culture . And that ' s how we ' ll start our dialogue . I ' m not disoriented by the rhythms ; I ' m not going to understand what he ' s doing , but I ' m going to follow what he ' s doing , and he ' s not going to be uncomfortable . I mean that .
So the language barrier no longer exists after all ?
No . The language barrier is irrelevant . In the beginning , I was going to play in the United States . I didn ' t speak English . But it ' s true that that ' s a bad example , because American jazz is pretty widespread . But I went to several countries like that , where I didn ' t speak the language . I could relate to their musicality and rhythm quite easily .
What do you think you brought to Jonas Hellborg ? Africa . He loves Africa himself , and he loves Ethiopian music . He ' s always talked to me about it , but I brought Africa to him , and for a long time now , I ' ve brought the fact that I love music and that I ' m serious without taking myself too seriously . That ' s kind of my trademark . I don ' t like to take myself seriously when playing music . It ' s fun , after all , and then it ' s a succession of noises . My drums are noise ; to be honest , they ' re well-ordered ; you either like them or you don ' t , but you have to keep in mind that it ' s organized noise . So that ' s that .
Anyway , on June 19 , 1998 , you were in Warsaw , Poland , with Jonas Hellborg and Shawn Lane , and the result was majestic . Over the years , you ' ve no doubt accumulated a number of incredible memories . I ' ll name a few , and you can tell me what you remember about these encounters . Well , let ' s start with the most famous . Prince ? Oh no , that ' s funny because I met Prince through Manu Dibango . We went to play in Minneapolis with his band . We were passing the First Avenue club . Prince ' s Club on the way to our hotel , and we were supposed to play there .
32 Flashmag ! Issue 149 April 2024