Year 2022 rolls in and the prospective of recording his third long play is getting closer, but The Bongo Hop (aka Etienne Sevet, a french trumpetist, composer and long time Colombia resident) has news for us in the meantime. With La ñapa, his new 8-track mini album, he resumes, through carefully selected remixes, bonuses and freshly recorded tracks, the travelogue he initiated with his Satingaronaseries. And the same ingredients prevail: infectious afro caribean grooves, warm brass and heanvely voices.
It took The Bongo Hop two albums and 5 years of existence to have his name established on the so called «world music» map - the afro caribbean one in particular. The success of tracks like Agua Fria, El Terron and Sonora, was followed by 120 gigs on the best stages: Womad Spain, Nancy Jazz Pulsations, The Barbican London, Ariano Folk Festival, Tempo Latino, Lent Festival to name just a few. And it all seems to be rooted not just in his sense of polyrithmic danceability, but also in his original genre-bending approach, an invitation to escape to our own imaginaries, far from musicmarketing trends.
In this case, given his inclination for a club/dj culture approach to «world music», a project blending remixes and new material was obvious to him since the start. Hence the feeling here, that it’s not just about looking backwards with apinch of new stuff to spice it up. It’s about reinterpretation, iteration.
On the remix side, the tropical-garage version of Clouds cooked by Futuropelo(ex Sporto Kantes), seems to be the score for a latino B series movie. It is followed by Voilaaa’s remix of Ventana, a one way ticket to 1970s discoinfested Lagos, Nigeria. Then the Detroit-meets-Port au Prince remix of Grenn Pwonmennen, a dystopian banger offered by the afro futurist unit Dowdelin, where creolité meets the future, topped with environmentally conscious lyrics. More than just remixes, they reveal new facets of the originals, with the same fever, and a sense of traveling in time and space.
The same could be said about the bomb delivered by the danish colective Dafuniks & nigerian mc Kuku Agami, in a Jurassic 5/Ozomatli L.A latin-hop style. It clearly sounds more like a new song using samples of The Bongo Hop than just a remix of El Terron.
This sense of surprise gets even stronger when Algerian singer Souad Asla steps in, bringing the vibes of her native Bechar, south west Algeria. Maybe because, after her debut at WOMEX 2019, where her all-female folkloric ensemble Lemma received rave reviews, she clearly didn’t expect to be called to bring her saharian vibes to this ambient dub tune reminiscent of Jah Wobble, Czukay & Liebezeit’s 1982 Full Circle, topped with stambali grooves and melodies (stambali is the tunisian gnawa style played here by gambrist Mehdi Belhassen and kawalist Mohamed Ben Salha whom TBH called to join in). Souad recalls: «This song shows a part of my intimacy that arised unexpectedly when I came to the studio» she says «I’ve been through some really tough times with the death of several relatives during the pandemia, and the impossibility to go back there.» She further ads «Etienne had given me stambali repertoire type of indications because of the composition and instrumentation he’d chosen, but finally it’s a more intimate, personal thing that came to me when I was on the way. I had these words, nothing is eternal, in my mind. And it developped, once together in the studio. It was a strong experience, as I recall crying at some point. And finally the singing fits perfectly the tunisian gambra and kawala»
From his point of view, The Bongo Hop recalls «For me it’s quite funny to think that, at the same moment we did this family trip to Algeria in 1987, I was actually reading the comic book that gave its name to my musical project, Les aventures de Keubla & Kebra» What does it mean exactly? « Because, from the Kouba disctrict in Algiers to Ghardaia, via Biskra, El Oued...dunes, bazars, fucked up hotels, empty pools, smells, donuts in newspapers, oasis, clay walls, donkeys, dates, blazing heat, red earth, the doors of the desert...all that was mixing up with my favorite book, even the buildings sometimes looked the same. So, to record the kind of voice that blows in those southern territories, brought me back to that place and time.» Somewhere between Bechar and Kingston, Maydoum hal seems to fly over the dunes of the western Erg, taking us on the magic carpet of memory, a unique voyage.
After this trip to the sands, what about going back to Cali and the tropics? The streets of our man’s second home is a natural & endless source of inspiration for his collaboration with afro colombian Grammy nominee Nidia Gongora. The idea was to talk about La ñapa, a tipically colombian word, used when one bargains at the grocery store. She made up the story of the store owner who’s fedup with bad payers, shedding a humoristic light on a sometimes critival episode of daily life in Cali. It ended up being particularly relevant to work on such a song,considering the rough year Colombia and Cali was having, with a deep political and economic crisis that took its toll and can still be felt in the daily life. The long awaited trip to Colombia for the shooting of the video clip had a sense of this thinline between life and death, as it was full of obstacles for TBH, culminating with the death of a person on the set!
Tempo Rei is marked by the encounter with Angolan singer Paulo Flores, probably the greatest among the post Bonga generation... His passion for Angola clasics, and newer Semba and kizomba genres brought The Bongo Hop to listen to Paulo Flores, author of many clasics. «It’s a dream come true to have him on board because it’s the second time I have a track tailored for a lusofonic voice. I really wanted to hear that language and feel that vibe, and possibly with a thick, warm voice. Paulo was the perfect guy. I knew him from older tracks like Coisas da terra which sound very much 90s -I guess it’s vintage now - but some of the more recent tracks like Njila la dikanga and Herois da fotografia, which are becoming landmark songs of lusophonic musical landscape, confirmed his enduring status as a figure, and shows how inspired he is.»
So he composed him a deep, upfront bassy track contrasting with warm & spacy winds. He asked him to sing about his trip from Luanda to Lisboa, his arrival there. The idea was to sing about a boat, but it became a first person tale, and the lyrics poetically evoke the discovery of a new world, from small details to the big picture. One should see the video Paulo Flores sent together with the vocals, as the track was recorded in the distance, in a Covid-curfewed Lisbon. He and the sound engineer are listening to the first bounce. Both heads are nodding, going up and down, like Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs riding on their own imaginary high speed boat. Then Paulo turns to the camera, sending virtual kisses «Live and direct from Gotham City man...but this..Digging it my friend! Waw, it’s a killer» as the small shots of cachaça go from hand to hand...
Concluding this delivery of new music, a bonus track in its own right, with none less than Nidia Gongora again. She’d already declared that Pa Congo, which features Cali rapper Maik Cel was among her favorites in the first album. She decided to throw in her vocals to make a new version, and it’s no surprise to now hear her say that this song is her favorite. With Esta vida she bridges the gap between Kinshasa and Barranquilla, celebrating champeta and the afro congoleseheritage left by late colombian guitar legend Abelardo Carbono; but most of all the gift of life, quite a relief in those times. Especially when you consider that Nidia survived a car accident that almost took her life in october 2021!
LIVE! On stage The Bongo Hop has a new format, with an even more afro-latin imprint. Beninese drummer Albert Gnanho (Cheick Tidiane Seck, Toure Kounda, Faada Fredy), camerunese bassist Jean Tchoumi (Peter Solo, Kady Diarra) and french tunisian guitarist Riad Klaï (Bigre!) are joined by a latin squad made of colombian saxophonist Luisa Caceres, long time TBH collaborator Mario Vargason the percussions and Vicente Fritis (Vaudou Game) on the keyboards. On the vocals, two great singers who together took part in the 2021 Latin grammy-winning Ancestras project are on board : panamian maestra Yomira John alternates with Nidia Gongora.
foto The Bongo Hop © JP GIMENEZ
