Jill Turner can't quite believe that after a 30 year career for the Mandingo singer from Burkina Faso, this is Victor Deme's first recording. There's a gentle understated feel to the album as he sings his way through a varied and rich repetoire of mandingo blues, african folk with touches of salsa, flamenco and latin influences.
The fact that the album exists is in part true faith and determination of the artist and part fairy story.
After a short vocal introduction entitled Crisis and Crockery from his neighbours in Bobo-Dioulasso the album opens with a ballad of heart stopping mandingo blues, "Djou'maya". I understand its a song advocating tolerance. Listening to the track I am reminded of some of the elements of the music form the Garifuna people of Belize and Honduras, there's a yearning, an echo of separation from something in the melody. The next track, "Toungan" has a light salsa inflected feel and reminds me of Cape Verde, I'm now getting a strong connection with how music has been carried from West Africa across the Atlantic, as a consequence of the vile European slave trade. The way this music was carried 400 years ago and survived was from the solo griot and his stringed instrument. In 2008 we have Victor and his guitar.
Victor sings predominantly in Dioula, taking in such subjects as praising the women of Burkina Fasso who built the country with their own hands in "Burkina Mousso". Praise of women continues with a later track "Sabu" a song about feminine grace. He is joined by musician friends including Lionel Riou who delivers a haunting muted trombone accompaniment in "Deni Kemba". The last two tracks include Ali Diarra on balafon and Salif Diarra on ngonis and kora for a slice of traditional Mandingo music.
Victor inherited his musical talent from his mother, a griot who sang at weddings, christenings and circumcisions in the neighbourhood of Bobo-Dioulasso. His father comes from a long line of tailors, the Markas. As a teenager Victor joined his father in his workshop in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan. In the evenings he started to venture into the clubs and later began singing and making a reputation for himself, notably with Super Mandé Orchestra, led by famed musician Abdoulaye Diabaté.
In 1988 he returned to Burkina Fasso during a time when the country was benefitting form a momentum of artistic creation helped by the late Thomas Sankara. For a while he did very well winning a number of talent prizes which led to his recruitment into a number of bands including Echo de l'Africa and the Suprême Comenba. However, he struggled to make his own mark and often had to submit to the whims of the club owners who wanted to see him cover classics from the likes of Salif Keita.
He didn't give up on his own compositions and in 2005 met Camille Louvel, manager of the Ouagajungle, with ties to a bar in Ouagadougou that held several live performances each week.
It was here that Victor impressed Soundicate's activists and journalist David Commeillas who formed the label Chapa Blues to help promote his music.
Victor set about working on his album which was recorded from a small studio at the back of his home in Ouagadougou, two rooms separated by a windscreen from a lorry and equipped with a 16 track console, which has gone on to become a meeting place for many talented musicians in the region.
The result is a simply titled Victor Deme and is released on Chapa Blues distributed by Harmonia Mundi.
