Tomorrow hails the beginning of the The Kano Music Festival (KAMFEST), an annual event that has been organized for the pasted six years by the French Cultural Centre Abuja with the Alliance Française Kano.
KAMFEST is the place to meet the musical expression from a vast geographic area marked by the Hausa music, and a place for intellectual exchange for African and European music and culture.
Several animations and cultural matches are on the programme for this great moment from cultural department of the Embassy of France in Nigeria.
There will be performances from several musical groups from across the globe including the famous Soubyana Music from Chad, the Dangana group from Niger, the Nassiru Garba group from Nigeria and the Trio Belhumeur from Upper Brittain.
The background of the impressive line up of musicians is summarised below.
Shantu Music has been enlisted, since 2006, in the catalogue of the “Maison des Cultures du Monde Paris” (album “Hausa Music Traditions of State Kano”). They draw their inspiration from everyday life, aware of the important role music plays in Hausa society, where they often bring popular aspirations before an enlarged audience. Consequently, they celebrate, turn by turn, the big and the small events. In their songs, the tone of the voice, in accordance with the themes and the target, conserves its natural accent. To give rhythm to their words, they sit right on the ground, close to one another in a crescent, tapping long and strange hollowed out and decorated calabashes. They participated last October in Abu Dhabi, conference on world intangible heritage (music in the world of Islam).
Nasiru Garba Supa and his band represent a new breed of musicians in Kano. Nasiru is the son of Garba Supa great poet of Kano, known to draw the enthusiasm of the audience and arouse emotion with his tense voice, using subtlety. He accompanies himself, with dancing movements, on a one-string fiddle (Kakuma)that the other percussionists supports his melodies, poems and improvisations with their playing drums (kalangu and kuntubu) and their song responses. This very mobile group is busy with invitations for wedding, naming ceremonies, secular or religious festivals, in which the young musician sings songs of entertainment, praise and education. Nasiru Garba Supa participates in various national cultural events such as National festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) and Abuja Carnival, he also represented the country at the World Festival of Imagination in Paris-France and United Kingdom. He participated in joint workshop with the British artistes in promotion of Hausa culture in UK; recently he participated in Abu Dhabi festival, conference on world intangible heritage (music in the world of Islam).
The Belhumeur Trio consists of Alain Pennec, diatonic accordion and bombard, flutes, Patrick Couton, guitar and banjo, and Roland Brou, singer. These three have attended traditional music scenes for many years together already. Alain and Roland have been playing since 1996 in “Les 4 jean”, Patrick and Roland; in 1998, created the “Duo Brou Couton”, all three created with Hervé Lorre, in 2002, the group „Roquio. In 2006, they decided to give rise to “Trio Belhumeur” with the idea of introducing a repertoire essentially composed of traditional songs and music of Upper Brittany (Eastern part of the region of francophone tradition), studded with some texts put into music by Patrick Couton evoking the labour of Nantes and Basse-Loire.
The Dangana group of Zinder, Niger is has seven musicians and has been on the music scene since 2002. After their success in France at the Oh Festival (2009),the Visa Francophone Festival(2003) and numerous concerts in West Africa ( Finalist at the National pre-selection of the 6th Francophonie Games , Lebanon 2009, and the winner of the Grand Prix Dan Gourmou in 2004) , they became known because their albums “Saki Damo” (2004) and “So Ko Sosso” 2007. Dangana has now finished its 3rd live album “Sabon So” with a totally acoustic sound. The music of Dangana remains profoundly attached to his Nigerian musical roots, that of praise singers of the Sahel that merges their pieces with more western and modern inspiration. The music and traditional instruments mix to form warm and colored rhythmics inspired by soukouss and reggae. The principal motivation is to maintain alive an ancestral musical patrimony while enriching it with new influences. Through his texts, sang as much in Hausa as in French, Dangana tackles themes of peace and national unity, love , a woman’s and a child’s place in the society, suffering and sickness, education.
A main group of Chadian musicians, Soubyanna Music, surprises by its well bundled and solid arrangement, as well as by the professionalism of the instrumentalists. Made up of hardcore shareholders of very supportive musicians, Soubyanna Music has not ceased to compose between tradition and modernity, giving birth to a rhythm which leaves its audience moved during its concerts. The group started out in 2002 in Ndjamena, Soubyanna Music, gives concerts regularly. They have performed at many tours within Chad and they have participated in many international festivals, amongst which is AFRIVISION festival, in Cotonou, Benin, in November 2004; Pan African Festival of Arts and Music (FESPAM), in Brazzaville, Congo, in July 2005, where the group recorded its first album in DRTV Dabira general studio and made up to 11 titles called Eternel. In 2008, Soubyanna Music flew to France to perform at a big Chadian celebration organized by Honorine Ranguebaye, on Saturday, August 16, 2008 in Paris. Honorine Ranguebaye organized a second concert at the end of July 2008 in Angers (France), in a big theatre. There was a third concert organized September 2008 at Satellit-Café in Paris by Irene Moudalbaye. During their 45 day visit, Soubyanna Music was able to record a second album called “Se souvenir”. Soubyanna Music came back to the country with half a tonne of instruments and albums in its luggage. Presently, Soubyanna Music is in the middle of filming its audio-visual clips which will soon be in the national and international market.
With such accomplished performers, this year’s KAMFEST promises to be a great event worth attending.
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