Zap Mama is a Belgian musical group founded and led by Marie Daulne. Sources of Zap Mama’s music include Daulne’s roots in the Democratic Republic of Congo her upbringing in Belgium, and her return to Africa to rediscover her musical roots. They have been performing with Alanis Morissette, Bilal, Erykah Badu, Tony Allen, Ladysmith Black Mambazo etc, made soundtracks to lots of movies and even to video games.
Zap Mama has released nine successful albums, which the latest is called „Flashback to the present!” This has been described as a combination of hints of the past, explorations of the FUTURE and FRESH glimpses into NOW. This new album is a soundtrack of imagery and rythms brought from the past into the present. Estonians have the unique chance to listen to this album and songs from the previous cds
Marie Daulne, the founder and leader of Zap Mama, was born in Congo, yet raised in Belgium. At the beginning she performed as a solo artist but In 1989, she founded the group Zap Mama to merge the African and European aspects of her identity. In 1991 Zap the group recorded their first record, Zap Mama, at Studio Daylight in Brussels, Belgium and since then has had nothing but success.
When they asked about the origin of the band’s name Marie answered „I love the letter „Z.” Z for Zair, where I was born and Zap as it’s easy for me to zap in from one instrument to another, a culture, a style. I’m more a citizen of the world, not an American or Belgian.What I would like to do is bring sounds from Africa and bring it to the Western world, because I know that through sound and through beats, that people discover a new culture, a new people, a new world.”
Zap Mama specializes in polyphonic, harmonic music with a mixture of heavily infused African instruments, R&B, and Hip-hop and emphasizes voice in all their music.”The voice is an instrument itself,” says Daulne. “It’s the original instrument. The primary instrument. The most soulful instrument, the human voice.”They sing in French and English with deep African roots.
So be prepared for an ecstatic journey around the world and beyond, through sound.
But what happened to Amadou and Mariam? On the 17th of April it came to light that the Amadou & Mariam album tour for „Folila” had been cancelled, including the Jazzkaar opening show on the 20th at Tallinn Marina Pavilion.
The band representatives said that the singer Mariam Doumbia has had problems with her health lately, which led to her collapsing at the London show on April 13th. The artist was rushed to a hospital and she returned to France over the weekend. The doctors say she needs time and care to recover, band will not be performing at any shows for a while. Taking into consideration the gravity of the situation it is currently not possible to set up a new date for Estonia.
The agency relays that the musicians are devastated because they were so looking forward to meeting the Jazzkaar and Tallinn audience.
Amadou & Mariam tickets are valid for the concert of Zap Mama. Piletilevi will refund the tickets until April 30th.
More information at www.jazzkaar.ee
See you at the Jazzkaar opening show