Jazz stylists still on beat after five decades

By PARRY GETTELMAN
Special to the Journal Sentinel

The reascendance of Bembeya Jazz, an Afro-pop ensemble that dates back to 1961, might seem almost as unlikely as the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon.

Once celebrated far beyond the borders of its native Guinea, Bembeya Jazz suffered a series of reversals and had begun to fade from the international scene by the end of the '80s, an apparent casualty of economic upheaval, changing musical tastes and burgeoning solo careers.

This summer, however, a re-energized Bembeya Jazz is not only drawing ecstatic reviews for its first recording since 1988, "Bembeya," on the World Village label. The group also has embarked on its first full-fledged tour of North America, riding the wave of an Afro-pop revival that has also buoyed the careers of Senegal's Orchestra Baobab and Femi Kuti, son of Nigerian Afro-beat legend Fela Kuti.

Bembeya Jazz plays a free Rainbow Summer concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Marcus Center's outdoor Peck Pavilion (the group is not performing at noon that day, as is common for many Rainbow Summer shows).

But although others may marvel at the new success Bembeya Jazz is finding in its fifth decade, trumpeter and band director Mohamed Achken Kaba isn't surprised.

"Pas tellement," Kaba said, speaking in French, his second language, from a tour stop in Edmonton, Alberta. That is, "Not all that much."

"People were waiting to hear the music," he said.

Remaking old material

"Bembeya" was certainly worth waiting for. The album includes sparkling new versions of Bembeya Jazz classics, showcasing the group's insistent polyrhythms, soaring vocals, peppery horn section and four hypnotically intertwining guitars.

Bembeya Jazz formed in the wake of Guinean independence, but like many of its African contemporaries, started out with a heavy Cuban influence. Over time, the band developed a distinctive sound, exuberant as the first flush of freedom, whirling together national folklore, traditional tunes of the Mandinka, tribal rhythms and influences from jazz to funk. Lead guitarist Sekou Bembeya Diabate took up Hawaiian guitar in the early '70s and on "Bembeya" plays soulful, exquisitely shaped slide solos that could give Robert Randolph or Sonny Landreth serious pause.

Diabate, aptly nicknamed "Diamond Fingers," found fame as a solo artist when Bembeya Jazz's fortunes began to slip, and some of the other members dispersed. But the group never called it quits, Kaba said proudly.

The current lineup includes four veterans from the '60s: Kaba, Diabate, tenor saxophonist Dore Clement and original drummer Conde Mory Mangala. Younger members joined along the way to learn from those who had shaped the music, and the band was ready for its triumphant return to Europe in 2002.

(STYL)subed Universal language of music

Bembeya Jazz's lyrics are in African languages, including Konianke and Kono, but that's never proven a barrier for European or North American audiences, Kaba said.

"They don't understand the words, but they understand the harmony, the rhythm. I don't speak English, but I understand Louis Armstrong," said Kaba, who likes to play Armstrong's songs on his trumpet when he's at home, just for his own pleasure. "I think he was a very religious man - you hear about God in his music."

While Armstrong's music is studied in universities here, Kaba doesn't believe a jazz musician can submit to formal study.

"Jazz, it's an expression of nature, of the heart," he said. "You can't learn it in a university. If you learn it in a university, it's not jazz anymore.

"Jazz is life. Music is for all moments - when you feel happy, when you're tired, when you're crazy. It's a medicine for the heart, for the head, for the ears. It's food. And it's not commercial. It's not commerce, because you must have music to live well. Without music, life is empty."