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THE SONA JOBARTEH MIXTAPE
By Kalamu ya Salaam of Kalamu.com
Wednesday, April 20, 2011.
‘Afropean’
is a new term for European born/African heritage people. A number of
them are of mixed racial heritage, but all of them strongly identified
with their African heritages - both directly from the motherland
continent of Africa and via the various diaspora homelands,
particularly Brazil and the Caribbean. Most of them are at least
bilingual, and many of them are polyglot. Although they may specialize
in a particular musical genre, their works reflect diverse influences
even as they champion an African essence. Sona Jobarteh is a
quintessential example of this development.
Jobarteh
is the granddaughter of Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, who migrated from Mali
to Gambia. In Gambia he was acclaimed as a major griot and kora player.
She is the cousin of celebrated kora master Toumani Diabate and is also
the sister of Tunde Jegede who directs the African Classical Music
Ensemble, with whom Sona tours. Sona has spent significant time in both
England and Gambia, and is considered the first major female kora
player. But she is much, much more than a novelty act.
Sona
formally studied music in England and the Gambia. She was born in
London in 1983. When she was four she performed at the Jazz Café in
London. She attended London’s prestigious Royal College of Music, where
she studied the cello, the piano and the harpsichord. She went on to
study composition at the Purcell School of Music.
In addition to the kora, she is a proficient guitarist. She also sings and composes including scoring for movies.
While
it would be easy to go gaga over her accomplishments thus far in her
young career, my interest in her music is in how she negotiates the
wide divide between her European education and her more traditional
African aesthetic.
The
kora is her major instrument; it sounds somewhat like a harp but more
percussive. Her singing voice is both soft and strong, lilting and
definite.
On Afro-Acoustic Soul,
her debut album, the songs are divided mainly between songs of
sweet/bitter love and conscious statements exhorting self-awareness and
social struggle. The first six tracks on the Mixtape are from Afro-Acoustic Soul and at least half of them would not be out of place in the format for contemporary urban radio.
The next six songs on the Mixtape are from Motherland,
the movie soundtrack that Jobarteh composed. These tracks have a
floating, meditative atmosphere—incense, candles, quiet contemplation.
The selections are not songs in the western sense, instead they are
gentle grooves with beguiling melodies featuring string-voiced vamps,
enriched by the floating beauty of Jobarteh sotto-voiced cooing.
The
movie soundtrack has an open sky, long journey ambiance to it. It seems
simple, but in reality the pieces are exquisitely crafted with layers
of lyricism including multi-tracked vocals and a truly subtle use of
percussion.
But
there is more. Two tracks are taken from video clips of recent
performances of Sona Jobarteh in a trio format with a percussionist and
guitarist supporting her kora/guitar and voice. These intimate
selections demonstrate both her skill and her confidence. The music
does not sound weak or incomplete. Indeed, it is amazing how
comfortable the trio format is for her but then she is singing
traditional lyrics in tribal tongues. These tracks make you wonder
whether Western education has had any significant impact on her music
aesthetic.
The last two tracks are from the Fasiya EP, which is a precursor of her forthcoming full-length Fasiya album. The EP has three tracks from Fasiya and two tracks from the Motherland soundtrack. The two Fasiya selections included on the Mixtape indicate an intense identification with traditional village music.
Whereas
many musicians of her generation born in the eighties and nineties are
trying to fuse traditional elements with contemporary hip hop elements
or with jazz elements, Sona is exploring the traditional to striking
effect.
Part
of this emphasis may be due to her skills as a producer and sound
engineer, by which I mean there are so many ways for her be involved in
the music making process that she probably feels no need to explore
other genres or even to attempt to mix and/or merge genres.
And
this is the contradiction of being a cultural creole — some of us chose
to emphasize one element even though we are often expert in a number of
fields of expression. In Sona’s case, her decision to employ the
traditional is in fact a choice and not an imposed restriction. She not
only knows other genres, she has studied other musical aesthetics at
the highest level.
I thoroughly enjoy what Sona is doing.
At
the same time I am curious about both her intentions and her emotions.
Can her English upbringing be so easily forgotten and/or totally
abandoned on an emotional level? It is one thing to go totally one way
or the other, but to live urban and make village music, I wonder is
there a part of Sona that is consciously jettisoned or at the very
least constrained.
I
do not mean to imply that she is not doing what she wants to do and
what feels right for her to do. One listen to the trio tracks and you
can tell, she is all the way live into this music.
But then again, perhaps her first album was the answer to my question. Afro Acoustic Soul
was the English-speaking part of her. Now she is exploring the other
parts of her. This is a fascinating cultural treasure. Will she produce
more English-language music?
Those last two selections from Fasiya
are superb. Even as I wonder about the unvoiced elements, I am
nonetheless marveling at the richness and beauty of what is presented.
These Afropeans are significantly enriching Afrcan-heritage musical
culture.
Moreover,
this is only the beginning. Imagine what Sona Jobarteh and all the
others will produce once they mature. What a bright future we have!
Sona Jobarteh Mixtape Playlist

Afro Acoustic Soul
01 “Change”
02 “Father”
03 “Lost My Soul”
04 “Journey”
05 “Home”
06 “Freedom”
 Motherland 07 “Enat Hager” 08 “Battle of Qadesh” 09 “Sahel” 10 “Maat” 11 “Reflections” 12 “Kemet”
 Video Clip 13 “Saya” 14 “Jarabi”
 Fasiya - EP 15 “Saya” 16 “Donso”
Kalamu ya Salaam is a writer and filmmaker from New Orleans. He is also the founder of Nommo Literary Society - a Black writers workshop.
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