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At a time when this #&@*%$¿ Trump is announcing his intention to annex Greenland – which clearly sounds a bit chilly – we can only hope that he breaks his teeth against a good old ice floe and that we take refuge in territories where the sun shines non-stop (except at night, of course!).

Well, the timing’s just right, as the great French jazz singer Clotilde Rullaud, following a series of residencies in Burkina Faso, where she met the musicians of Kananyé in Bobo-Dioulasso, during the Badara festival in 2019, has brought back to the metropolis a totally exciting Burkinabé quartet with whom she sings and plays flute.

The quintet – and the CD – are called Kananayé (Oh Yeah!) and if you didn’t catch them in December at the New Morning, Paris, you’re missing out, because the atmosphere was scorching, the music fabulous, and dozens of young women were dancing near the stage, screaming their joy. Strangely enough, the (young) men were more static, chugging their beers. As for the audience seated in front of the stage, it took the balafon player to call them to their feet for them to comply and take a more active part in the collective jubilation. Strange, isn’t it, this passive audience for more than active music. But then, you know what Brel says about bourgeois and pigs…

Getting back to Kananayé (Seydou Diabate on balafon, Abdoulaye Traore on guitar, Achille Nacoulma on drums, Boubacar Djiga on kundé – a kind of guembri – and Clotilde Rullaud on vocals and flute), it’s a very convincing and successful mix of West African music, jazz (in the impros), blues… It tells beautiful, moving and amusing stories about France and Africa, without falling into the clichés of world music. It’s beautifully sung in French, English and local languages of Burkina Faso by Clotilde, and also by the four instrumentalists, who are all stunning soloists of virtuosity, generosity in their playing and inventiveness in their solos. And Clotilde is not to be outdone – far from it – when she embraces her transverse flute, an instrument she’s been playing since she was a teenager and which acts as a sort of second voice to her vocal timbre, making her one of the most interesting singers in France, far ahead of some overrated vocalists, whom my natural (or cultural?) modesty forbids me to mention here.

So, whether you’re a fan of jazz, African music, blues, vocals, balafon, guitar or percussion, you’ve got no choice but to give Kananayé a big thumbs-up and spread the word about this wonderful music until you get the chance to see/hear them live on stage.

And I can assure you that it will be “live”, in the sense of “lively”!

Line up:

Clotilde Rullaud: voice, flute

Seydou Diabate: balafon, voice

Boubacar Djiga: kundé, voice

Achille Nacoulma: drums, percussion, voice

Abdoulaye Traore: guitar, voice

Kananayé was released by the label T’zig’Art, on November 22, 2024. 

©Photos Claude Ferrara

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