Zap Mama
ZONE RANGER Urban Beats and Forest Chants Harmonize in Zap Mama's A MA ZONE
It's a long way from the a cappella hoots and whistles of Central African Pygmy song to the rattle and crack of Bronx-born hip-hop beats. Or is it? Like an ever more powerful satellite dish, Zap Mama seem never to lack for bandwidth. The group founded by Brussels-based Marie Daulne has proven capable of absorbing and reconciling every new Diasporic development, from Afro-Cuban rumba to American rap and London drum 'n' bass. Zap's latest, A Ma Zone, makes the most fluid connections yet between the ancient and the modern, the hi-tech and the primeval. Is it the guest shots from the Roots, Speech, and Manu Dibango? No, more likely it's the expansive spirit of Marie Daulne. Equally in touch with her African and European ancestry, Marie is a true urban bushwoman if ever there was one. Visiting New York on the eve of A MA ZONE's American release, she talked with Mark Schwartz about the music that's nurtured her Afropean soul.
bn.com: What is some of your favorite African music?
Marie Daulne: I prefer ethnic music more than African pop music. There are amazing vocal techniques out there -- Hukwe Zawose is good. He's from Tanzania. It's a mix of a lot of Indian sounds and African sounds, because of the international trade in Zanzibar. There are Muslim influences, Christian influences, many kinds of people were there. I like the old rumba music from Congo, the music that was inspired by Cuban music. [Tabu Ley] Rochereau, O. K. Jazz...
bn.com: But when you were growing up in Belgium, you listened to European music, right?
MD: The first music I really listened to, apart from the radio, was jazz -- Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald. When I was growing up, there weren't many black people in Europe -- my family was alone. Then I saw an American musical comedy with black people on TV. And I couldn't believe it. I said, "That's us!" My whole fantasy life was based on that movie. It was an old black-and-white film -- I didn't understand any of it, but there were songs by Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. I recorded the sound with a cassette recorder and listened to it in my bed every night. The tape broke and I glued it back together.
bn.com: So you began to see music as a way of reflecting your identity.
MD: Yes. I discovered Bob Marley -- my favorite album was KAYA. I know that whole album by heart. Then I liked FRONT LINE with U-Roy. I was identifying with those people. We went to England when I was 14, and we saw real Jamaicans and all this reggae music! My sisters and I would go to music festivals and pretend we were English -- the backup singers, you know? So we got in backstage with Steel Pulse and other bands.
bn.com: Did you ever connect with French music?
MD: I liked Serge Gainsbourg. That was the only French music I really liked. His reggae album turned me on to him. I discovered Jacques Brel at that same time. I like the way he expresses himself, his story. That was my French period. I even liked Edith Piaf.
bn.com: And when did you come to rap?
MD: Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys. I was into breakdancing at the time. I formed a gang, and we would beatbox like the Americans, like the Fat Boys. We did graffiti -- I had a tag. Nobody did graffiti in Belgium; we wanted to be the first. I remember getting stopped by the police. "Put your hands on the car!" Then they would go into our pockets. Candy. Chewing gum. An apple. But they searched us at gunpoint! And my friend cried and wet her pants. I thought, "Wow, it's like a movie." It was exciting.
bn.com: Judging from the first Zap Mama albums, I don't think people would imagine you were arrested for spraying graffiti.
MD: It was listening to hip-hop, and hearing the Fat Boys making beatbox sounds, that inspired me to create. Then I went to my African side, and saw that people were making noises with their mouths, but the noises were different. When I saw kids on TV playing drums on plastic buckets in the street, and I saw "Flashdance" and "Fame," I said, "This is more me than European music is."
bn.com: And this was all before Zap Mama even began?
MD: Yes. I didn't even know I wanted to be a singer. I wanted to be a runner, but then I broke my leg and I was finished with sports. I stayed at home, listening to music. I was recording sounds all the time -- I would listen to sounds repeating for hours. I painted, too. Then I was recording others, and some people wanted me to collaborate with them, with breakdancing and songs in the streets. But there was something that I needed still, and that's when I decided to go to Africa, to the forest.
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