Flashmag September 2020 www.flashmag.net
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word about this experience what would you say?
As I was constantly coming to work in New York, I met a musician Philip Hamilton, a soul jazz singer who likes meeting people. He had created a project where there were only a Capella voices with singers of various origins. There was an Indian singer, another Israeli, a beat boxer called Kenny Muhammad who was one of the pioneers of beat box, that I was really lucky to work with. This is what pleases me. Work with people who are also big in their style. After all, a great experience ... with Voices I spent 4 or 5 years there a lot of fun and travels with the group.
In 2014, with Buda music and Universal, you made a film VOYAGES & FRIENDS and an eponymous album. What inspired this film album?
It wasn't really planned from the start. In Toulouse I met a photographer and videographer Guillaume Ajavon. His sister graduated from a school in New York, and she had come to continue her studies in Toulouse. His sister is dancer, while I’m musician, and her brother came to take pictures every time we were training or performing. We traded. He was passionate about me doing something different. That I travel the world. He told me listen I'm going to take a year off, and I would love to follow you everywhere. That's how he followed me everywhere in Cameroon in Europe, in the United States. So, with this mass of images of travels and moments of meeting and collaborating with people like Manu Dibango or my experience in New York in Voices, we decided to do something. We thought it would be nice to accompany the album with these images. The album released at Buda music is an album of encounters, it’s very diverse, there is everything on it. Each song has a story. It's a very interesting film. it's also Isabelle Tchoungui (Editor's note Franco Cameroonian Journalist) who makes the narration.
Since last year with singer Landy Amdriamboavonjy you have created a group Color Voices, in Lyon what is the vocation of this group?
It's a bit on the same idea as Voices of New York, because this singer, too, took part in Voices initiative. During a tour in Scotland, Philip Hamilton asked me if I could find a singer or two, from Europe to make things easier. That's how I called Landy to join us. She is a singer of world music, but also of lyrical music. So, she asked me if it was possible to do the same thing here. After a few years it’s only since last year that we started to realize this idea. With Colors Voices we had several dates, but , with the Covid, everything was turned upside down.
A question that is often asked very little to mixed people, for fear of offending them but it is important at the very least to know, especially with the current social tensions, if the fact of being of mixed race gives you a less passionate and more factual vision of the racism, since you have black and white parents. Is there a difference between being black or mixed race in the West?
I always dissociate things, because there is the color and there is the person. Moreover, even among the mixed peoples there is a whole range of colors and you never know where it ends. What is interesting is the cultural mix. I think the person who comes from two cultures already has more keys than another on opening a 3rd culture. And I know that there are people who love me for that because they often tell me you can be asked to go and create something even with India, that you will find a way to make it happen. I'm always trying to find the connection and I think this is what means melting pot . That’s why I love countries like Cuba because they knew how to mix it up; they didn’t underestimate the percussion to classical music for example. Whereas in France we are in a classification of values according to their own criteria and it is very difficult to get by. It was the West that started multiculturalism by reaching out to others. And then coming from Cameroon also a country where there are 250 ethnic groups we know how to appreciate and live with different people. We know humans. Whether they remove France O or try to silence world music, French society is nonetheless mixed. However, for example nowadays whether you like it or not, Aya Nakamura is the most listened French singer as of today.
In your opinion, should the pandemic which has shaken the world since, leads to something positive? If as an artist we imagine that it’s difficult, because concert halls are still closed in most countries. But in your creation and philosophy of life, has it had, or will it have, any impact?
It is a bit early to measure the effects this pandemic will have on life. So far I know I have 6 months of canceled work. No one wants to commit to anything at all. I think it's going to be about two years of damage. My concern right now is how to find the means to survive all this. Good, for creation, I continue to create without problems.
At the end of this interview, does Wambo have a particular word towards the public? What's his agenda for the coming months?