New French-Cuban jazz outfit Que Vola? are today sharing a new track, ‘Nganga’, the latest to be lifted from their forthcoming debut album, ‘¿Que Vola?’, due out on January 25, 2018 via French imprint Nø Førmat! (Mélissa Laveaux, ALA.NI, Blick Bassy). The band will follow the album release by making their UK live debut – alongside label mates Oumou and Gérald Toto – at a label showcase to celebrate Nø Førmat’s 15th anniversary booked for London EartH on April 10, 2019.Stream ‘Nganga’ below!
Que Vola? “What’s up?” – that’s how Cubans like to greet each other. They like it so much it’s common currency in the heavily-accented street slang of the island. It is now also namesake to a new collective bringing together a French jazz septet with three young and talented Cuban percussionists, marrying dizzying virtuosity with the Afro-Cuban divinities, such as Santeria and Palo, that drive Cuban music. It’s the customs of the Palo religion which underpin the frenetic 7 minutes of new release ‘Nganga’, which takes it’s title from a cauldron where the spirit of a dead Palo priest is believed to live. Speaking about ‘Nganga’, trombonist and founding member Fidel Fourneyron says; “For this track, I added a bass line to the Palo rhythm. I wanted to be respectful of the choral voice that would usually respond to the soloist, but here it’s my trombone that takes the lead vocal, and the rest of the horn section responds, before being answered by the tenor sax.”
It all started with a journey – in 2012, Fidel headed to Cuba to learn more about the country that inspired his name. He packed little more than his instrument and one Havana address: Calle Luz – ‘the street of light’. It was recommended by his friend, the double-bassist Thibaud Soulas, who’d previously lived there with Cuban family. Soulas had returned to France with a bulging address book, including the names of three remarkable percussionists – Barbaro Crespo Richard aka ‘Barbarito’, Ramon Tamayo Martinez and Adonis Panter Calderon – all members of the celebrated Osain del Monte Orchestra.
In the Calle Luz, Fidel dived into the world of the Afro-Cuban cults that summon the gods to purge the spirits of the living. As Fidel jammed, danced and drank it all in, new ideas took hold. What if the voices of this music were replaced by brass? What if the power of ancient ritual was transformed with the sensibility of John Coltrane? What would happen then? Fidel and Thibaud assembled a repertoire to reflect the immense variety of these rhythms and chants, returning to Cuba in late 2017 to link up with friends and plug back into the Afro-Cuban ‘mains’. They surrounded themselves with talented French jazzmen, & when the three Cuban percussionists joined them in Paris, a deeper dialogue was woven.
So the answer to that question “what’s up?”, is in fact another question: Que Vola?