Afro-Chic
Zap Mama's Marie Daulne merges African, African-American sounds
Marie Daulne has followed the route of the black African diaspora with her voice, from Congolese jungles to the ghettos of the U.S. Along the way, she's had invaluable personal and musical guidance, from celestial-sounding pygmies, at the beginning, and most recently from soulful African-American songstress Erykah Badu.
Daulne (pronounced DOO-lin), who performs under the name Zap Mama, was tapped by Badu to tour and record with her. Badu returned the favor on the latest - significantly-titled - Zap Mama album, Ancestry in Progress, released on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label. The album displays Daulne's sweet and exotic Afro-European neo-soul.
Daulne's musical roots run back to the central African region now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she was born in 1964. After her white father was murdered by Simba rebels, Daulne and her sisters - bitter after years of colonial exploitation - accompanied their mother, a black woman who they call Mama Amingi, to the homeland of the peaceful pygmies. The pygmies were left alone because their spiritual power frightened the rebels. After eight months in the interior of the newly independent country, the mother and daughters relocated to Brussels, Belgium, where Mama Amingi remarried.
Although the kids were encouraged to adopt the language and culture of their host country, Mama Amingi kept Congolese music alive in the household. "In Africa, before you eat or do something, you sing to call the spirits of the peace, and my mother teach me that," Daulne says. "I discover that, with my two cultures, I have something very rich in me."
Daulne, inspired to find out more about her ancestral past, returned to Africa at age 18. "Spending time with the pygmies, all the music came to me," she says. "And when I came back to Belgium, I found all the energy to put it all together, and to find singers to sing with me."
Daulne founded Zap Mama originally as an a cappella women's vocal group. "I didn't want to use my own name, I didn't really feel like it would come from me, because it was like the spirit of the ancestors talking to me and using me to translate what's going on," Daulne says.
The group's alluring 1993 debut, Adventures in Afropea, showcased the angelic harmonies and yodeling of the Congolese pygmies, as well as elements from other cultures. The album brought Zap Mama international recognition as the group toured around the world.
Celebrity fan Bobby McFerrin caught up with the group at a San Francisco show. "He knocks on the [dressing room] door," Daulne says, "and says, 'I want just to tell you we are brother and sister.'" Zap Mama's subsequent recordings explored the potential of the human voice, in the fashion of McFerrin and the all-female Sweet Honey in the Rock. But in 1996, Daulne decided to make a formal break from a cappella and to dissolve her Europe-based group, retaining the Zap Mama name and enlisting collaboration from the other side of the Atlantic.
Luaka Bop supported the transition, and label founder Byrne encouraged Daulne to overcome her limited English, resulting in song titles and lyrics that are sometimes quirky but entrancing. There was further encouragement from the Roots collective, based in the neo-soul capital of Philadelphia, who acted as producers on Ancestry in Progress. "What I like about the Roots is their instruments, the jazz background, which is helping to have a real, acoustic, organic sound," says Daulne. "If you take it and make it groovy, it seems like our life is lighter and easier. ... And I loved the beatbox which some of their members were doing, grooving with only [their] mouth."
The "organic" approach allowed for the inclusion of baby sounds on one track, some of them from mama Daulne's youngest child, Zekey. Daulne hopes her sound will help buoy spirits worldwide. "I want [listeners] to feel like they open a window, like a fresh wind came into their place," she says. "And they can close their eyes and imagine they can travel and take off and discover other spirits, other cultures, and a thousand ways to smile."
Music@CreativeLoafing.Com
Daulne (pronounced DOO-lin), who performs under the name Zap Mama, was tapped by Badu to tour and record with her. Badu returned the favor on the latest - significantly-titled - Zap Mama album, Ancestry in Progress, released on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label. The album displays Daulne's sweet and exotic Afro-European neo-soul.
Daulne's musical roots run back to the central African region now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she was born in 1964. After her white father was murdered by Simba rebels, Daulne and her sisters - bitter after years of colonial exploitation - accompanied their mother, a black woman who they call Mama Amingi, to the homeland of the peaceful pygmies. The pygmies were left alone because their spiritual power frightened the rebels. After eight months in the interior of the newly independent country, the mother and daughters relocated to Brussels, Belgium, where Mama Amingi remarried.
Although the kids were encouraged to adopt the language and culture of their host country, Mama Amingi kept Congolese music alive in the household. "In Africa, before you eat or do something, you sing to call the spirits of the peace, and my mother teach me that," Daulne says. "I discover that, with my two cultures, I have something very rich in me."
Daulne, inspired to find out more about her ancestral past, returned to Africa at age 18. "Spending time with the pygmies, all the music came to me," she says. "And when I came back to Belgium, I found all the energy to put it all together, and to find singers to sing with me."
Daulne founded Zap Mama originally as an a cappella women's vocal group. "I didn't want to use my own name, I didn't really feel like it would come from me, because it was like the spirit of the ancestors talking to me and using me to translate what's going on," Daulne says.
The group's alluring 1993 debut, Adventures in Afropea, showcased the angelic harmonies and yodeling of the Congolese pygmies, as well as elements from other cultures. The album brought Zap Mama international recognition as the group toured around the world.
Celebrity fan Bobby McFerrin caught up with the group at a San Francisco show. "He knocks on the [dressing room] door," Daulne says, "and says, 'I want just to tell you we are brother and sister.'" Zap Mama's subsequent recordings explored the potential of the human voice, in the fashion of McFerrin and the all-female Sweet Honey in the Rock. But in 1996, Daulne decided to make a formal break from a cappella and to dissolve her Europe-based group, retaining the Zap Mama name and enlisting collaboration from the other side of the Atlantic.
Luaka Bop supported the transition, and label founder Byrne encouraged Daulne to overcome her limited English, resulting in song titles and lyrics that are sometimes quirky but entrancing. There was further encouragement from the Roots collective, based in the neo-soul capital of Philadelphia, who acted as producers on Ancestry in Progress. "What I like about the Roots is their instruments, the jazz background, which is helping to have a real, acoustic, organic sound," says Daulne. "If you take it and make it groovy, it seems like our life is lighter and easier. ... And I loved the beatbox which some of their members were doing, grooving with only [their] mouth."
The "organic" approach allowed for the inclusion of baby sounds on one track, some of them from mama Daulne's youngest child, Zekey. Daulne hopes her sound will help buoy spirits worldwide. "I want [listeners] to feel like they open a window, like a fresh wind came into their place," she says. "And they can close their eyes and imagine they can travel and take off and discover other spirits, other cultures, and a thousand ways to smile."
Music@CreativeLoafing.Com