In his sixth and latest album “New African Orleans”, released by ENJA and Yellow Bird, bass guitarist and composer Alune Wade explores the multiple junctions between his native West African rhythms, the Afrobeat and juju rhythms from Lagos and the brass band repertoire immortalized in New Orleans. “I’m exploring a world that goes from my roots to the lost branches on the other side of the Atlantic,” explains the musician from Senegal. He has whittled down around 50 compositions – both original and standards - to a dozen which Alune recorded in Paris, Dakar, Lagos and New Orleans. “The idea first came to me during the Jazz à Gorée festival I organized back in 2014,” he explains. “It had me reflect on the notion of reversing the musical trip most people take from the United States to the African continent. I wanted to set out westward and begin a musical conversation with the best artists, both in Nigeria and the US.”
To achieve this, Wade has invited top artists from both sides of the Atlantic, including the Nigerian talking drummer Olaore Muyiwa Ayandeji, the percussionist Weedie Braimah and the jazz drummer Herlin Riley from New Orleans. The musical inspirations are equally transatlantic, ranging from Dr. John to Manu Dibango and Charlie Parker. But Alune also pays homage to his father who was a brass band star in his native Senegal back in the Sixties.
THE COMPOSITIONS
Alune Wade begins this exploration with three new versions of global standards. This features a biting reinterpretation of Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock. Alune transforms this 1962 hard bop standard into a vibrant song dominated by his Afrobeat bass drive and sharp guitar solos. “The song also pays homage to Manu Dibango and the huge legacy he left behind.” This is followed by an energetic version of Jimi Hendrix’ classic Voodoo Child which Alune sings in his native Wolof. It takes a degree of audacity to tackle this 1968 standard from Jimi Hendrix, featuring fast-driving arrangements that turns Voodoo Child (Slight Return) on its head. This version sparkles through the driving rhythms of Cyril Atef and a strong brass section of saxophones and trumpets led by the masterful Victor Ademofe. This song honors the crossover passions Hendrix upheld, as describes by English journalist Charles Shaar Murray: “With 'Voodoo Child' - and, most specifically, with the West African even-before-Bo-Diddley beat he percussively scratches from his guitar and wah-wah pedal at the beginning of 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)' – (Hendrix) is announcing as explicitly as possible that he is a man of the blues, and one who honours, respects and understands its deepest and most profound traditions".
And, precisely, the latter sees a homage to his song Water No Get Enemy in which Alune slows down the tempo and makes it a dreamy version of this standard which underlines the power of nature. The lyrics also suggest that if a country’s political opposition works with nature, its victory is guaranteed.
After these standards, the West African bass player focuses on several original compositions which explore the New Orleans sound, with its brass front line of trumpet, clarinet and trombone allying itself with syncopated rhythms and a strong backbeat. These sounds complement lyrics about the universality of food (Same Foufou), hospitality on both sides of the Atlantic (Three Baobabs) and the perils of travel (Taxi Driver).
The boogie woogie and juju styles from the east and west coasts of the Atlantic Ocean are like a brother and sister torn apart by the vicissitudes of History. In composing this song Boogie & Juju, Wade conjured up pictures of, on the one hand, Little Richard fusing boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and the gospels. And, on the other, the Nigerian juju of King Sunny Ade and the Assiko rhythms from Cameroon, played on a bottle with metal. These harmonize seamlessly to evoke the chanting at football matches in Senegal which echo into the samba from Salvador de Bahia. The song features a strong brass section led by New Orleans trumpeter Andrew Baham.
And Alune returns to the underlying theme of the album with the song From Congo to Square, ft the Afro American singer Somi, which recounts the odyssey of brass band music, how its kernels were shipped across the ocean from the west African coasts and grew under oppression and violence. The clarinet, bass, saxophone and voices featured describe this odyssey which began in the square in 1724.
Arguably one of the most touching illustrations of this cross-Atlantic reflection is Alune’s interpretation of Gris Gris Gombo Yaya. This 1968 underground classic by Dr. John captures the mystique of swampy South Louisiana and the Senegalese bass player delivers a powerful Afrobeat version of this ageless New Orleans standard. Dr John Rebbenack announced himself to the world with this haunting song. As writer Richie Unterberger put it: “The blend of druggy deep blues, incantational background vocals, exotic mandolin and banjo trills, ritualistic percussion, interjections of free jazz, and Dr. John's own seductive-yet-menacing growl was like a psychedelic voodoo ceremony invading your living room.” The New Orleans icon is known for having resuscitated a mysterious 19th century artist who signed his compositions ‘Dr. John Creaux’ (hence Dr. John’s stage name). Unconfirmed rumors claim that Creaux was a Senegalese prince reduced to enslavement in Cuba! Creaux went on to gain his freedom as a sailor who settled in Congo Square.Once again, we see an intriguing possible link to Alune Wade’s native homeland.
These are some of the featured songs Alune Wade includes in an album he will be releasing in early 2025. They are a powerful tribute to the resilience and impact of songs rooted in Africa which survived the horrors of the Middle Passage and gave birth to some of the most important music our societies know, sounds which bathed Alune’s musical education from the start. Indeed, there is a more personal reason for this album. His father, Serigne Fallou Wade, played the French horn and was one of the stars of the Senegalese Army brass band. After studying in the Paris Conservatoire, he became a key member of the band, composing music which mixed traditional Senegalese sounds with classical brass band fanfares. The band was founded in 1961 for the nascent nation and Alune’s father shared his love for brass band compositions with his family throughout his upbringing.
BACKGROUND
We only have a partial idea of the birth and remarkable development of the music born of the transatlantic slave trade. From Malinke ballads to Cuban son, from call-and-response patterns to field hollers and hip-hop, Yoruba rhythms to Argentinian tango, from Angolan percussions to the New Orleans brass band sounds… all have roots in Africa and a shackled migration that lasted four centuries. No more so than Congo Square in the Louisiana capital. In 2024, we mark the 300th anniversary of the implementation of the Code Noir which “gave enslaved Africans Sundays off to dance”. A drop in the ocean, but one which shows the importance of culture as a lifebuoy against this barbaric trade. As the Guadeloupian writer Daniel Maximin once claimed: “Our music guided us from the scream to the song, from dragging our chains to dancing.”
Recordings for this unique album begin in Saint-Louis, Senegal, and Lagos, Nigeria, around the month of May 2024
