Daby Touré

小簡介
TOURE家族近兩代人的故事聽起來象個神話——從前，有四兄弟住在馬里附近的小村子，以捕鱷并制作鱷魚皮制品為生。大概是因為干旱或者是過度捕捉的原因，鱷魚數(shù)量大大減少，這個家族不得不另謀生路。四兄弟各自選擇了一個方向四散而去，從此再也沒有見面。其中一個叫“Daby Toure”跑到了塞內(nèi)加爾最南邊的省份Casamance，娶了四個老婆，生了一群孩子。不知道是什么原因，這一支Toure家的人有著良好的音樂天賦，其中一個叫“Hamidou Toure”的毛里塔尼亞當(dāng)上了醫(yī)生，娶了個有一半摩爾人血統(tǒng)的漂亮女人，生了兒子，取名還是叫“Daby Toure”，用以紀(jì)念他的祖父。當(dāng)?shù)厝朔N混雜，Daby Toure從小就生活在不同文化和語言交融的環(huán)境里，除了學(xué)習(xí)各種語言和音樂之外，種田、放牛樣樣都能干。他后來回憶起這段鄉(xiāng)村童年的經(jīng)歷時說：“……艱難的鄉(xiāng)村生活是我一生中最重要的時期，因為我在那里被鑄造成形?！痹谀切┨禊Z絨般溫暖的夜晚，他和小伙伴們用罐頭盒、鐵桶、紙箱練習(xí)音樂節(jié)奏，有時候還會被邀請去婚禮上表演。
雖然他父親Hamidou一直反對他以音樂為職業(yè)，Daby還是利用各種機會學(xué)習(xí)各種樂器，還從收音機里收聽西方流行音樂，一邊聽一邊學(xué)。1989年，正是毛里塔尼亞政局不穩(wěn)、民族之間沖突嚴(yán)重的當(dāng)口，Daby父親的兄弟邀請他父親加入Toure Kunda樂隊，于是他隨同父親到了巴黎，這對于18歲的Daby來說，簡直大開眼界，接觸到了更多的音樂學(xué)習(xí)機會，還和堂弟搞了個名叫“Toure Toure”的樂隊……再后來，盡管樂隊和一些致力于搞法國融合爵士的法國音樂人合作，出版了一張在法國頗受歡迎的專輯[Ladde]，而且還開了百十來場演唱會，Daby卻對樂隊的發(fā)展很不滿意?？雌饋砻襟w和聽眾對根源非洲的音樂和舞蹈更感興趣。Daby認(rèn)為：“我演奏的音樂其根基在于探索和原創(chuàng)。正象畫家一起床就要畫畫一樣，我一早起來，就抱著吉他開始工作。我不知道自己要去哪里，但我一直往前走?！?br />Daby把自己鎖在房間里，用家里的設(shè)備開始寫歌編曲。他自己作曲、編曲、演奏、混音，逐漸形成了個人化風(fēng)格十分明顯的音樂。經(jīng)過這樣幾年的努力，Daby又和電子音樂高手Cyrille Dufay組隊，出版了充滿探索和實驗色彩的專輯：[Diam]，也就是“和平”的意思。不過這鄉(xiāng)下來的同學(xué)所講的和平和始皇帝的和平大大不同，Daby在音樂里講述著自己的經(jīng)歷、周圍的人、他的家庭、自由和那些艱苦的歲月，他的“和平”是一個人內(nèi)心深處的渴望。因為Daby知道自己從哪里來，這讓他可以毫無畏懼地大膽前行。
Daby's story goes back two generations and has a fairy tale beginning. Once upon a time, there were four brothers who lived in a village near Kayes, in what is now the modern state of Mali. They were all shoemakers and leather workers and they strived to sustain the old traditional family trade by turning the skins of crocodiles from the nearby river into shoes, bags, pouches and wallets. But for some reason, perhaps drought or excessive hunting, the crocodile population began to fall dramatically and the family were no longer able to live from their craft. The brothers decided to disperse to the four winds and they never saw each other again. One of them, Daby Toure, went to live near Zinguinchor in Casamance, the southernmost province of Senegal, where he married four wives and produced a large brood of children. For reasons that no one has ever been able to really explain, this new Toure generation was touched by a deep love and gift for music. A younger member of the clan, Hamidou Toure, was brought up by an uncle up north in Mauritania. Once he had graduated as a doctor in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, he was sent to a sand blown desert town called Boutilimit, where he married a beautiful woman, who was half Moorish or Hassaniya and half Toucouleur. They gave birth to a son who they called Daby, in honour of his grandfather, the patriarch of the family.
Mauritania is situated on the fault line between Moorish North Africa and sub-Saharan black Africa. As you travel south from its northern border with Morocco, the unrelenting lifelessness of the deep desert cross fades into the dry bushy scrubland of the 'coast' or sahel, as the Arabs used to call it, of the southern grasslands and forests. A big river, the Senegal, marks the southern boundary of this modern nation state. Although the lighter skinned Moors have always held political and social power in the country, more than half the population belong to black ethnic groups; Toucouleur, Fulbe, Soninke and Wolof. The country always lived comfortably with its own ethnic and cultural diversity, until the late 1980s, when dark forces disturbed this harmony and bitter inter-ethnic conflict held sway for a while.
Daby grew up in Boutilimit, Nouakchott, and Casmance before going to live with an uncle in the village of Djeole, near Kaedi, on the banks of the Senegal river. His parents had divorced, and Daby's father couldn't be seen to be raising young children on his own. In Djeole, Daby soaked up the language, culture and music of his Soninke people, as well as those of the neighbouring Toucouleur and Wolof. He learned all about farming and cattle rearing. It was a secure village childhood. 'With hindsight, I think the times I spent in the village were the most important in my life, because that's where I was forged,' Daby remembers. In the black velvet warmth of the night, he would get together with friends to bang out rhythms on old tins, canisters and cardboard boxes and entertain the village. And when diversion was required at henna and wedding feasts, Daby and his mates would often be sent for.
Later, Daby moved back to the capital Nouakchott to live with his father. After a tiring day at the hospital, Hamidou would often relax by playing music with his friends. Daby wasn't allowed to touch the guitars, because his father did not want him to develop any crazy ideas about becoming a musician. But he stole time on the instruments anyway and taught himself the basics. He also began discovering the exotic joys of western pop music, thanks to radio, pirated cassettes and the occasional TV broadcast. The Police, Dire Straights, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson were powerful formative influences. Although a deep fascination and hunger for music was developing in the teenager, Daby's father continued to insist that music was not a career option for a any well brought-up young man. 'In Mauritania, the profession of musician doesn't really exist,' explains Daby. 'A profession is something you train for and get a diploma. My father was more fearful for me than anything else, because he knew what a musician's life consisted of and for him it wasn't a future.'
In 1989, political unrest and inter-ethnic conflict was making life in Mauritania very difficult, so when Hamidou received an invitation from his younger brothers Sixu and Ismael to join their group Toure Kunda, although at first he hesitated, the offer seemed too good to refuse. He sold his house to pay for his son to come along with him. The rich musical life of Paris was a magical revelation to the eighteen-year-old Daby, and although his father continued to brow-beat him about his studies, music slowly became his whole life. He began to play little gigs in bars and college parties with rock and cover bands. After he finally gave up his course at Business School, despite his father's objections, and went to live in an African hostel or foyer in Paris, Daby teamed up with his cousin Omar and formed Toure Toure; the two 'Toures'. They began to explore the vivid common frontiers of jazz and African music.
A meeting with Jean-Pierre Como, the keyboard player with established avant-jazz-fusionists Sixun, kick-started a chain-reaction which lead to a record deal with French independent label Pygmalion Records and the release of Toure Toure's one and only album 'Ladde'. The Sixun connection opened up the doors to the bubbling Parisian jazz scene, with its open-mindedness and vitality, and Daby fell in love with bands like Weather Report, Joe Zawinul and Pat Metheny. It was their originality and artistry that fascinated him above all else. Despite the fact that 'Ladde' was very well received in France and Toure Toure played hundreds of concerts all over the country, as well as further a-field in Canada and Brazil, Daby felt dissatisfied with the band's progress. It seemed that the industry, the media and audiences were only interested in the roots, African and dance band aspects of the group.
'The music that I play is based on exploration, on original compositions. It's like a painter who gets up to paint a painting. I get up in the morning, I pick up my guitar and I start working. I don't know where I'm going but I go.'
Daby locked himself away in his room, with his own home-studio and equipment and began to write and arrange songs. He controlled every aspect of the creative process, from composition, to arrangements, to performance and mixing. That was important. Daby was in pursuit of a very individual musical vision, and he needed the time, space and solitude to make it a reality.
After several years hard work, Daby teamed up with electronic musician and digital wizard Cyrille Dufay to develop the sound further. The result of all this experimentation, exploration and hard graft is 'Diam'.
The songs on the album tell of Daby's life, of the people around him and of the world in general. He sings of relationships, his family, freedom and, above all, of being positive when times are hard. It is perfectly fitting then that the title, 'Diam', means peace, something that Daby has looked for throughout his life.
It is because Daby is sure of where he comes from that he can move forward without fear