The exceptional SUBA Trio, formed by masters Omar Sosa (piano), Seckou Keita (kora) and Gustavo Ovalles (percussion), will end this weekend at Le National theater their creative cycle that began two years ago with the release of his second album of original compositions. “In addition, we love Montreal, assures Omar Sosa. The audience is multicultural, which makes them receptive to our work. He understands this music, whereas sometimes we play in front of people who don’t even know what the kora is. Montreal knows! »
Freshly landed in Washington DC, Omar Sosa joins the conversation we had started (in French) with Seckou Keita: “It’s okay, thank you — tired, but alive! escapes the Cuban jazz composer and pianist. “Where are you, Seckou? In a cab? Is the internet connection working? he asks with a sneer. “Yes, I just came back from the hairdresser! » replies the Senegalese.
The interview has barely begun and the complicity between the two virtuosos is already revealed, who obviously like to exchange jokes as much as solos. They were made to work together: Sosa, jazzman consecrated on the stages of the world, has spent his career recalling the influence of African rhythms on Cuban jazz, while Keita, composer, kora player and pedagogue of Mandinka musical culture, devotes himself to inscribing the music of griots in modernity by exploring the world of possible interbreeding between his roots and those from elsewhere.
“And what’s more, we are also both percussionists”, recalls Sosa, insisting on the privilege of being accompanied for this project by Gustavo Ovalles, a specialist in complex rhythms (chimbanguele, tamunangue, cumaco, guazaand so on) Afro-Venezuelan music that makes its drums sing with such musicality that its role within SUBA Trio goes beyond that of a simple metronome.
When people ask me if what we do is jazz or Cuban or African music, I simply answer that it’s music for the soul — music for the soul
“Music for the Soul”
“When people ask me if what we do is jazz or Cuban or African music, I simply say that it’s music for the soul — music for the soul, explains Seckou Keita. The pleasure lies in the chemistry that we have established between us for a dozen years traveling the world with this project. People leave the concert with a smile. »
Omar Sosa picks up the ball again: “What is interesting with SUBA Trio is that, in a way, the instruments we play together all have a link with nature and man – take the kora, for example, and Seckou plays the two-necked kora, he is one of the few in the world to play such an instrument. Keita calls his kora “the instrument of the three souls”: that of the tree from which the handle is made (the two handles, in the case of his instrument) and of the gourd from which the gourd is made, that of the skin. taut animal that covers the calabash and that of the one who plays it.
The kora dictates the form taken by SUBA Trio’s musical expression, which Sosa describes as “contemplative”: its pearly and soft notes force the pianist and the percussionist to temper their playing, to exchange in the same tone, with the same energy. , that Keita. There are two paradoxical details in the trio’s work: firstly, the modernity that emanates from their compositions, which are nevertheless firmly anchored in the traditional music of Africa and Latin America. Then, that such virtuosos of their instruments can thus refrain from playing with the vigor that we recognize in them: it’s very sweet, SUBA. Gently cadenced, gently jazzed up, spiritual music that could even be described as contemporary.
“We create a lot of space, of silence, between the notes, in the way we play, Omar and me,” says Seckou. Omar replies: “In jazz, for example, it is common to see musicians play millions of notes from the first beat to the last. No, with us, you have to listen to our voices, the voice of the kora, then that of the piano, and between all that, that of the [tambour vénézuélien] tambora. This is how we can listen to our ideas fly away! »
And let them take new forms: at each new concert, the material recorded on the album SUBA moves in unexpected directions. “It’s funny, just yesterday, before the concert in Chicago, I proposed to the guys to try a new harmony in Kharit which opens the album. “And a little earlier, it was Seckou who ‘jammed’ on the song Allah Leno ; its time signature is in 4/4, but Seckou was playing it in 6/8, and there, wow!, it had become this funky groove, I skipped: That shit is dope! For us, it makes no sense to always replay the same songs in the same way at each concert. On stage, we listen to each other, we respect each other, we respect the silence between the notes. When we play, Gustavo, Seckou and me, it’s like attending a conversation between friends. »
“Let me tell you, my brother: we are on a mission, underlines Omar Sosa. Our mission is to work together to show people how vital and modern African music is. Are you todo. That’s it, brother ! »
SUBA Trio will be in concert at Le National theater Saturday and Sunday, 8 p.m.