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Ballou Canta

Album "BOBOTO” L’Autre Distribution Réf : TB 956291606

ABOUT BALLOU CANTA “François Ballou “Canta” has been a long-time hidden treasure. The uninitiated discover him today alongside with Ray Lema, as master singer of the ball of magic Africa, or as Black Bazar’s black eminence. However, this voice that served so well the rumba in his country, before spicing up the soukous years of Paris, that voice is like those birds which fool borders and skim through the quiet morning over the tumbling waters of the Congo River. Delicate, agile and meandering… Yes - because voices travel just like ships. They fill up with tunes and rhythms, colors and sounds of the crossed countries. From Cape Verde to both Congo, from Europe to the West Indies via South Africa, the singing and music of this Boboto tell the story of Ballou Canta’s journeys. His life, here and there.” Vladimir Cagnolari (France Inter - radio) « Ballou Canta, vieux complice de Ray Lema, est la voix d’or de la rumba congolaise… » Alain Pilot – RFI « Brocardant la corruption et la polygamie, l’humaniste Canta distille avec douceur son optimisme coloré ». Anne Berthod – Télérama fff « […] le timbre délicieux et enrobé de Ballou Canta, […] fameux acteur de la scène musicale congolaise, mais aventurier de bien d’autres… » Frédérique Briard – Marianne « D’une musicalité renversante mais bienveillante, il ne force rien pour obtenir tout : notre adhésion, notre admiration, notre affection. Très très attachant. » J.BE - Midi Libre « Ballou Canta, […] pilier de la Rumba Congolaise, il est l'ami et partenaire incontournable des grandes figures de «L'épopée des Musiques Noires», de Manu Dibango à Papa Wemba ou Koffi Olomidé, entre autres... Admiré et respecté depuis 40 ans, il porte en lui la sève des mélodies originelles. » Joe Farmer – RFI

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Ballou Canta "BOBOTO” This album will tell you a lot about me and my life, in the modest tone imposed by music that suits the African I am. It will tell you about the attachments I have to my roots and the defence of women because my tribe is matriarchal ; it will tell you about the hopes I have for the African youth ; the true friendship and admiration I have for Hervé Celcal who I entrusted with this solo-return. Africa-Martinique : creating a bridge to renew the ties with our ancestors taken by force to this island -amongst other places-, when I go there today with love and by plane…It will tell you about the peace I carry inside and take to you. Boboto (good manners – peace) To listen to Ballou Canta is to plunge into an authentic Africa! “Boboto”, the new Ballou Canta album, is the fruit of his course and of the dialogue he’s had with so many music styles. This singer and songwriter native of Congo-Brazaville, where he started music at an early age, is settled in Paris since the 1980s. That’s where he built a career as a chorus-singer (with Papa Wemba, Manu Dibango, Ray Lema, Lokua Kanza, Oliver N’Goma…) ; and also as a lead singer, with six albums in the so joyous style of soukous, and especially in the masterful Congolese rumba, of which it is said that he is “the golden voice”! He is also lead singer in the France Inter band [“the Ball of Magic Africa”], in the Black Bazar, which is borne by the writer Alain Mabanckou, and he has recently released a remarkable three-voice album, “Nzimbu”, alongside Ray Lema and Fredy Massamba. A stunning bridge to Martinique It is with the pianist from Martinique Hervé Celcal - recently greeted for his “Bel air for piano”, a brilliantly novel bèlè jazz album – that Ballou wanted to work for this solo comeback. Here we are talking about touching history, taking up with those of the African people that were torn away from their land long ago, and building a bridge between the Antilles and the African continent. Both musicians have known each other for 15 years. Ballou knew that Hervé celcal would write an album where the singer, who’s used to putting himself at the others’ disposal, could at last use his voice in its full emotional register. Etiquette and living together “Boboto” means good manners, living together, peace. The album consists of 11 original titles, through which Ballou Canta, as a mature artist, recalls what concerns him, in a philosophy of peace. His words are as powerful in Lingala as in Bambara, Pular, Vili, Munukutuba, Kikongo or even Creole. Hervé Celcal’s extremely refined arrangements draw from the colors of jazz, or even the energy of rock, as in pure traditional music. A rather acoustic orchestration serves Ballou’s voice in tones remaining unexplored. Style-wise, the uninitiated will thus discover the modern Congolese rumba and the soukous ; one shall witness the meeting of Martinique’s bèlè (of African heritage) and Congolese rhythms. You will feel like being somewhere in Cape Verde, out in Brazil or South Africa, before the trance of the drums and polyphonies that belong to Ballou Canta’s tribe.

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MUSICIANS TEAM ON ALBUM

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TITLES

1 - Soki (lingala) : « If ». If those who, in Africa, have the power, a high position, could remember that it is for the good for all and not their own interests! Ballou praises the ancestors, the charitable spirits to come and help Africa get rid of its creditors. Here the rumba flirts with saudade which evokes Cabo-Verde.

2 - Boboto (lingala) : “ the art of living, peace “. To all, Ballou assures that he will come only with words of peace to welcome friendship, face hostility, deviate jealousy, and serve the needs. That’s what he learnt from his parents and those are the precepts of Nelson Mandela.

3 - Tamar : A man knows that he has met the woman he loves. She told him that she is not ready yet, he is willing to wait.

4 - N’gando « the crocodile »: Life is a struggle, reminds Ballou, who advises not to avoid difficulties by denial, drugs, alcohol, resignation like a crocodile who would hide in the river to flee from the rain…

5 - Vumbuka (lingala) : » wake up « young African people, take destiny in your own hands beyond the injuries of history.

6 - Ni ku zololo (kikongo) : love is chaste in Africa, it is not expressed publically. Ni ku zololo is the attempt of a man that is deeply in love to repair the fault that he has committed and to make his beloved understand that he still loves her.

7 - Zonga (lingala) : « Come back ! » This song questions polygamy. A young woman, neglected by her husband, reminds that she has followed all the rules of conduct imposed by her family, cared for the needs of her children, saved money in order to buy a car and asks her husband to come back.

8 - Madinina (Martinique) : The beauty. The island, like the belle from Martinique, in front of whom Ballou looses his words. Rediscovering this land imposed upon the ancestors deported by boat, rediscovering the desired woman thanks to a plane ride.

9 - M’tchatche (vili) : Here we are inside a world of dance close to the mysticism of Ballou Canta’s tribe. In the area around Pointe Noire where he was born, maternity is a major affair, to the point that a song accompanies the woman’s depart if she hasn’t given her husband any children. This song has been chanted to Ballou’s actual mother when her pregnancy took time to arrive. Once a mother, she sang it herself, but like a revenge, with one of her children on her back.

10 - Ya Lilé (vili, munukutuba) : A young girl becomes pregnant, the lover disappeared, and realizes that the family’s advice was good. In a Soukous tune 11 - Djen Diallo (lingala, bambara, pular, vili) : A theme that worries Ballou : Prejudice that separate Central-Africa and West-Africa, Bambaras and Bantous. Here a man and a woman are in love with each other beyond these differences but are separated.

Ballou Canta : lead, guitar (8) Hervé Celcal : arrangements, rdirection, keybords, piano, backvocals (1, 5) Caroline Faber : backvocals (1, 5) Jérôme Séguin : doublebass (1, 2, 5, 7) Mike Clinton : bass (3, 4, 6, 8) Abraham Mansfarroll Rodriguez : percussions Stevie Landre : drums (1, 4, 5, 7) Blaise Luvengoka (Djudju): drums (10) Mario Luis Ramos Ferreira Varela : guitar (1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11) Rodrigo Viana : guitar (2, 5, 6, 7) Madoka Mambuz : solo guitar (10) Fofo Tati Vangu : rythtm guitar (10) Olivier Tshimanga : solo guitar (6 Youri Bessières : violin (3, 6) Alexandre Leitão : accordion (1, 5, 7, 8)

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Ballou Canta "BOBOTO" ON STAGE

HERVE CELCAL piano, chœurs AMEN VIANA guitare, chœurs

RODY CEREYON contrebasse, basse CHARLES OBIN-YAPI percussions, chœurs

XAVIER DESANDRE NAVARE batterie

 

UPCOMING SHOW 7 june : Café de la danse avec Hervé Celcal Quartet 18 june – Africa Break – Bellevilloise 18 june – Live sur RFI – Couleurs tropicales 22 june – Live sur France Musique (Paris) July / august : la nuit de la rumba congolaise (Paris) 7 august 2015 Saint Nazaire (Le bal de l'Afrique Enchantée) Sept : live sur Radio Nova 19 september 2015 Belfort (Le bal de l'Afrique Enchantée) 2 au 12 oct 2015 - ïle de la Réunion

PRESS CONTACT :  frederique.miguel@gmail.com  +33(0)6  14  73  62  69  BOOKING: tingbangmuse@gmail.com  +33(0)6  77  32  09  10  

20 oct : Divan du monde (Paris) 26 sept - Perpignan (nzimbu) 3 nov - Suède ( nzimbu) 12 dec - Chatenay-Malabry (Le bal de l'Afrique Enchantée) 20 dec (Africolor) 7 feb 2016 – Caf’ Muz (Colombes) 05 to 12 March 2016 - MASA Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) 22 may – Le SAX (Achères) July 2016 – Festival Pirinéos (Espagne)

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BIOGRAPHY

Ballou Canta is a child of May – a month of transition between rainy and dry seasons. End of the 50’s in Pointe-Noire: Congo is yet to remain a colony for another 6 years. Ballou is the 7th child of ten (even though his mother was mocked at first for giving birth so late, Cf. M’tchatche). He is brought up by his “little mom”, i.e. his older sister. She will pick up “her son” after getting married, and Ballou will accompany her to Brazaville, where he will join a high school which also received younger schoolboys : the Chaminade high school.

At the beginning, it’s all sports for Ballou. However, in his “Poto poto” district – a place for ethnic crossings - he meets Dieudonné M’Badi who is about to graduate, and plays the guitar. And Ballou wants to learn to play it! So much so that his classmate entrusts him his guitar not to be bothered anymore! So equipped, Ballou wouldn’t go back to Pointe Noire for the following holidays: only the guitar and he mattered. Sports has disappeared in the joy of chords. Then it will be a district of migrants of all origins (Iran, Cuba, Italy, Germany, France, and of course Belgium), where Ballou makes the premonitory experience of cosmopolitanism and meets Robert Massamba-Débat (son of the former president at the time) with whom he sets up the band “Chanta Bouita”.

Armed with these experiences, Ballou sets up the school’s first orchestra, under command of the Department of Culture: the “Chaminadiens”!

He graduates in 1975 and, whilst studying law and languages, organizes a band – of course. At the time, Ballou is not in sync with the political atmosphere of the Single-Party country. His quest for a scholarship to start a translator’s career in the United Kingdom results in a proposal out in Moscow. Which Ballou rejects, thus loosing all other recourse – than to begin working.

He passes the admission examination to the PTT [Postal & Telephone Services] and enters this public service, which is endowed with a budget for the workers’ leisure. Ballou is spotted as a singer, and thus sets up… a band. He goes away to Rome, Italy, to look for smart amps (Ranger), and recruits outside of the company with the approval of the management. This will be the Télé-Music orchestra!

Now to another time, another regime, other customs: the secretary of telecommunications takes interest in Télé-Music, and the PTT’s director orders a recording in Kinshasa. It will be done in the Kingabwa district, in the Simbard studio, and Ballou’s title “Sambala” will be chosen by the distributor. Here then in 1978 comes Ballou Canta’s lead-off single, rewarded in return by the “Price of the young Congolese song”.

From then on, Télé-Music overshadows some symbolic orchestras like the Capital’s band

Bantou, the Orchestra Le Peuple, the SBB, or Les Trois Frères… In 1979 the title “Bazo” wins the best song of the year prize. The Congolese rumba is going full swing, and with it Ballou tours the country. But trouble rears its head…

At this time single albums are the king of media. When LPs come out, the rest of the band

suggests to Ballou Canta that two tracks out of his work are enough. It is thus in Paris in 1981 in the Laguna studio, Paris 18th, that Ballou records his first album “Romana” that works well. In 1982 comes the second one, with again the title Sambala, produced by Eddy Gustave Eddison, a West Indian whom Ballou Canta learns studio recording with. There will be a third album:”Marylin”.

In the mean time, the singer’s relations with his native country don’t get any better, in the manner of unauthorized strikes at the PTT, and because Ballou has had a police file since university ; to the point that the uncles (the true dads on matriarchal land) recommend that he leave the country for good, for his life is at risk.

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So now to Franc. In this period Ballou meets musicians like Ray Léma, M’Bamina, Manu Dibango etc. and becomes the voice for a bunch of projects. 1985 is the year for the 4th album, “Jean Marie”, produced by Gérard Akueson, and briefly featuring Lokua Kanza on the guitar. Then Ballou sets up his group with Lokossa Ya Bongo: the “Soukous Stars”, with which he releases the album “Lagos night”, produced and distributed by Cyllart Productions. In the wake of this big success Ballou records a new solo album with the accomplished guitarist Diblo Dibala, “Bolingo Sonia”, produced by Eddy Gustave, loyal. These two albums result in an awesome ten-year tour in the United States, Eastern and Western Africa, and in Europe.

This won’t keep Ballou Canta from singing with Papa Wemba, Manu Dibango, Sam

Mangwana, and in the 90’s with the Gabonese Oliver N’Goma, whom Ballou decides to support. He sings with him the track “Bane”, a zouk hit by which the French-West Indians will know Ballou’s voice. It is while doing the casting to play the album that he meets the young keyboardist Hervé Celcal, whom he will identify also and before anything else as a pianist, an arranger and a composer.

Moreover, at his time Ballou lives a singular experience for an African: he records the

album “Rencontre” in Martinique, in the Hibiscus studio, with a fully Caribbean team: the members of the Kwak band. The resulting single Regina will be a hit for months.

In 2000 and 2003 there will be two duet albums with Luciana de Mingongo, the first of which is an adventure. Luciana has come to talk to Ballou about creating a studio in Braza. The album is improvised, more like a demo designed to convince the locals that the studio is worth a try and that they should come to work there! The second album “Rumba lolango” will be released by Lusafrica.

More recently, the endeavor is conducted at once on three grounds. First the “Ball of Magic

Africa”, that Ballou has joined in 2012. It is the France Inter orchestra, which covered African oldies of the 70-80s. Then comes the “Black Bazar” adventure, borne by the writer Alain Mabanckou after the success of his 2009 book and reviving today’s Congolese rumba.

Finally, the very last collaboration with Ray Léma: a three-voice band formed with Fredy Massamba, concluded with a quite recent acoustic album, “Nzimbu”.

So in parallel to this path a long process of maturation took place for a custom-made

album, Boboto, with his “little brother” from Martinique Hervé Celcal. The pianist-composer-arranger knew what artist hid behind Canta-the-chameleon. Their exchanges were like “listen to this!”, or “and that?”…

Time enough to allow for themes close to today’s Ballou: a mature man, a cosmopolitan Congolese, a Parisian admirer of the Antilles, who wants to surprise those who know him… and those that don’t know him yet. Boboto. The art of living, together. DISCOGRAPHY 2015 - NZIMBU - Ballou Canta, Ray Lema, Fredy Massamba – One drop 2004 - Rumba lolango - Ballou Canta & Luciana - Lusafrica 462112 2001 - Pool Malebo - Ballou Canta & Luciana - Mélodie 1998 - Rencontre - Hibiscus Record #970032 1989 - Sadia - Soukous stars – Saxone 1989 - Adama-Diallo 1980 - Maryline - Eddy'son congo music CM 5401 1980 - Gozando - Soukous Stars - Syllart 1980 - Jean-Marie - Bade stars music AM 036 1970 - Romana - Discafrique / salsa musique 029 1970 - Samba-La ! - Sonics 1970 - Megamix Vol 1 - Lokassa et Soukous Stars - Editions d'Ivoire