Capital City Hues,
Interview
>>
The Comoros Islands are composed of four major volcanic islands north of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean just off the coast of Africa. They are islands that have been awash in the cultures of the world for centuries. “There is all of this traditional music,” said Nawal who will bring her blend or world musical styles to the World Music Festival at the Wisconsin Union on September 15. “There is the Arabic, the Persian, the Portuguese,
the French and even Indians and Americans. They went to this area
because it was the road to spice and slaves. And we are rich in music
because we have 4-5 Sufi communities for a little country like that. And every community has a way to sing a lot. For me, I love it. I like to listen to all of these kinds of songs and music from different cultures and communities. I remember when I was young, sometimes I would go see groups from places like Zanzibar. There was all of this African, Indian, Arabic and Western music. People listen to a radio station to get western music. Now we can even have the BBC. It’s really rich.”
Until she was 12-years-old and her family moved to France, Nawal was exposed to all of these musical traditions. Although she grew up in a Sufi household — her grandfather had been a religious leader, her family was open-minded.
“In the 1960s, things were pretty open minded toward the West,” Nawal recalled. “My mom and dad had open minds. I was lucky for that because not all of the children from Comoros in my generation could go to Western movies. We didn’t have television at this time. To see a movie, you had to go to the cinema. I have good memories of my childhood. I was always interested in music. I remember when I went out with my uncles who were playing some pop music. I was a baby then. They were playing The Doors and Jimi Hendrix.”
In Francwe, Nawal grew up around her uncles and musicians. She played the Gibson electric guitar and they played Afro-Pop music. Then Nawal went back to Comoros for a year and it had a profound impact on her music.
“I discovered again traditional music and my heritage,” Nawal said. “I decided to become a professional musician. I did my music concert. The people from Comoros who don’t travel like the old people, I wanted them to understand my music and be able to dance to it. But it wasn’t the traditional music. It was rock music. When I grew up in France, I listened to jazz, African music, Indian music, lots of music. And so I mixed this African, Arabic, Indian and a little Western music. When I got to Comoros, I began to listen more to traditional music. I learned to play and sing traditional music, to really be into this traditional music. Then I went out of that to do my music, but with some of that blended in.” Nawal created her own musical style by blending these different musical traditions. And while her style is unique to her, one can still hear the distinctiveness of those different musical traditions within her music.
“Some young people were fighting because one was saying that you had to dance \calico,” Nawal said about her music. “The other one said, ‘No you have to dance moulid.’ Finally after my show, they came to see me and said they were fighting about how to dance to my music. Actually I mix all of them together. You can dance what you want because I’m not doing traditional music. I could hear the moulid. Yes, I was thinking more about the moulid because it’s a mystic, healing rhythm. But I mix with the calico and I mix with all of my influences. There is reggae there if you want it. I don’t think when I make these songs about all of my influences. I think about the different Comorian rhythms. But I just realized that I would say that more than 80 percent of the rhythms are the same, but they are just variations. They are the same with little variations. When I mix them and mix them with my guitar or my gambusi, I can understand what I want. In my opening music, I want people to dance traditional music in my songs. People can make my music their own.”
Nawal continues to adhere to the mysticism of the Sufi traditions. Her music and spirituality are intertwined.
“My ancestor was the grand Sufi marabout of Comoros,” Nawal said. “I do zikrs, which are Sufi worship services. I do retreats and mystic
rituals. We all have a spiritual guide. I’m lucky to come from this family because I feel like it is easier to just love than if I didn’t come from this family. I study with people in Switzerland who look for the beauty inside themselves. Before I get on stage to perform, I need at least 5-10 minutes to reconnect, to open the door for my heart to let the spirits speak. The more I do meditation before my show, the more there is something magical happening, something more than the music. In the voice, there is something mystic there that has lots of love and beauty. And people love it and need it. We all need it. The spirituality and the mysticism are important because I believe that when I can be in connection with my spiritual guide, I can give more love from my voice when I sing. I’m trying to mix the religious and the profound. I mix not only my Muslim religion, but also other religions. I am from everywhere. I believe in God and I think that God is everywhere. So I don’t care where, if I open my heart and I am with people who open their hearts, we can meet God. In my music, I try to create a window where we can all connect together. For me, it is best when the public, the musicians and I are connected for 1-2 hours. That is what I am looking for.”
When people hear Nawal perform, they can connect to it on a physical or spiritual way. “There are some people who like to dance when we play,” Nawal said. “That’s good. But there are some people who just like to close their eyes and fly away. They don’t even want to clap because they want to go into this kind of music place. And that’s okay too. I give my best and then I want the audience to receive it the way that they want to receive it. Once in a while I begin slowly. It’s like a ritual. So I begin slowly and then I go more and more rhythmic. There are some people who want to close their eyes until the end. But most of the time, there is one song where they get up and dance.”
When Nawal takes the stage at the World Music Festival, people will be able to take it in, body and soul together. 09/08/11
>> go there
|
