There were also smiles in 2020!
Félix Sabal-Lecco, ready to answer questions from Joe Farmer.
© Christian Rose
By: Joe Farmer Follow
6 min
The year 2020 is coming to an end ... During these long months of health concerns, we have tried to listen to the world.
The artists fought valiantly to bring us messages of hope.
Thanks to their musical resilience, thanks to their refuge melodies, we can approach the future with an ounce of confidence.
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Thanks to Ray Lema, Félix Sabal-Lecco, Girma Bèyènè, Boncana Maïga, in particular, our radio conversations were a little lighter and more comforting.
We will obviously never forget those who have left us but, at the dawn of a new stage for each of us, we find the sonorous smiles of our guests who have come to brighten up our antenna despite the gloom and fear.
May they be thanked here!
On January 19, 2020, drummer
Félix Sabal-Lecco
was happy to come and chat on the air.
In addition to a series of concerts planned in Paris, his presence in the studio was not motivated by his own promotion but by the simple and generous desire to share memories, to tell stories, anecdotes, slices of life.
The Covid-19 then seemed far from our daily concerns and his evocation of his beginnings alongside Manu Dibango was not yet tarnished by a spring clouded by cascading disappearances.
With a smile on his face, Félix Sabal-Lecco appealed to his memory to tell us about his meeting with the famous Cameroonian saxophonist and conductor.
His story was perky and humorous, especially when he spoke of his collaborations with Prince and Peter Gabriel.
Our conversation was carefree and bursts of laughter punctuated this joyous radio interview.
Pierre Guillaux-Luc and Éric Rebut proud to present their film dedicated to Girma Bèyènè.
© Christian Rose
A few weeks later, the clouds gathered above our heads but the desire to continue to live normally encouraged us to listen to our interlocutors whose creative impetus and communicative enthusiasm fully satisfied us.
Pierre Guillaux-Lux and Éric Rebut
, for example, were delighted to be able to announce the release of their film
My Beautiful Girma
, a hectic documentary dedicated to the Ethiopian pianist and singer Girma Bèyènè.
Illustrated by some croquignolesque sound clips, our discussion with broken sticks was lively and enthralling.
Remembering the great moments of the shoot was just as pleasant as it was instructive, especially when Girma Bèyènè, carried away by the emotion of finding his audience, had totally forgotten the cameras and the presence of his musicians by his side.
On March 1, 2020, we were still laughing ...
Ray Lema and his musicians in Kinshasa after their concert in tribute to Franco Luambo.
© Thomas Fréteur
Then came the confinement and our dismay.
Our heroes disappeared one after the other, Manu Dibango, Tony Allen, Lucky Peterson and many others… How could we continue with enthusiasm our interviews with artists in mourning?
How could we ask them about their plans when the future seemed so uncertain?
Once again, it was the musicians themselves who had the courage to resist.
Despite the travel restrictions, the impossibility of going on stage, the passion prevailed and we resumed our dialogues with the actors of the Afro-planetary cultural ferment.
On June 14, 2020, the Congolese pianist
Ray Lema
told us, over the phone, his performance in Kinshasa in 2019 in homage to one of his elders, Franco Luambo.
This memory of sincere communion with the Kinshasa spectators gave us balm in the heart as we faced an unprecedented and oppressive human experience.
Admittedly, the atmosphere was heavy but the smiling words of Ray Lema, the space of a radio program, brightened our sky so threatening.
Richard Minier and Boncana Maïga at RFI in October 2020 © Christian Rose
Over the months, we have learned to tame our new way of life.
We adapted to the constraints and we coped.
When
Richard Minier and Boncana Maïga
had the opportunity to travel to the French capital, they warmly accepted our invitation and graciously accepted the sanitary measures to be with us on October 4, 2020. To be able to present
Africa Mia
, their film dedicated to the adventure of the "Maravillas of Mali", was for them as for us the sign of a slow return to cultural and social normality.
We were not at the end of our troubles but the availability of our hosts and their good humor had a taste of rediscovered freedom.
It would be futile to deny the impact of this pandemic on our state of mind, but here we salute the tenacity of all those who preferred to smile and believe in a brighter tomorrow.
This episode will necessarily leave traces but will also bring us lessons.
2021 will be, let us hope it fervently, an invigorating year full of promise ...
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