#Live session by David Walters and Vincent Segal for the album "Nocturne"
Nocturnal.
© Ingrid Marseki
By: Laurence Aloir
5 mins
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Presentation
The night blurs the tracks. It promotes fire, the game of incandescent encounters. In this
Nocturne
of sweetness and delicacy, a swirling cello with classical and nomadic inflections mingles with the delicate rainy notes of the kora, the folk of a guitar, the ka drum and its cohort of spirits. On the instruments, surf songs in West Indian Creole carried by swaying melodies. Here, the territories become confused. Mali follows the contours of Guadeloupe, Martinique… But basically, what does it matter? The music resonates new, always moving, lived in the present, forged by the combined love of four musicians, four humans, who share their sounds and their legacies, without borders, with open hearts.
The idea of this reunion of masters, of this trio "all stars" - the cellist
Vincent Segal
, the kora player
Ballaké Sissoko
, the Guadeloupe percussionist
Roger Raspail
- germinates in the mind of
David Walters
thanks to a time suspended. In full promotion of his disc
Soleil Kréyol
, released at the beginning of 2020, the all-terrain singer, globe-singer and adventurer of Creole is subject, like the whole of France, to this "big brake". “
Just before confinement, I was at full speed, on a magical tempo
, he confides.
Suddenly, I find myself locked in my home, with energy that I don't know what to do with: a fireball in a cage "
.
After the early days, where the artist multiplies the
livestreams
, he then takes refuge in the essential.
On his guitar, modestly, he whispers his secrets, chisels on his strings new songs, like testimonies, out of the womb, time passed through and this withdrawal into oneself.
David Walters and Vincent Segal.
© Ingrid Marseki
Between two music sessions, he calls his friends, including Vincent Segal, his "mentor". Confinement favors confessions. Over the course of a discussion, David assumes his dream: "
You know, Vincent, one day, I would love to make a record together, spontaneous, raw, not overproduced. And, above all, I would like us to invite Ballake. "
Because, among his bedside records, those who soothe him and reset his counters, alongside
Chopin's
Nocturnes
, and the duo Ali Farka Touré / Toumani Diabaté, Walters cites the precious
Chamber Music
, signed Ballaké Sissoko / Vincent Segal.
Entrust your dream to the cellist, and he would be able to make it come true. Or even go up. To David, Vincent simply replies: "
So, let's do it!
And what would be even crazier would be to invite Roger Raspail"
. Quite a symbol for David: a "master" of the drums, an "old" from the West Indies ... A few phone calls are enough and here is the appointment made, for a recording session, fixed just after confinement.
For David Walters, the pressure is mounting. He still has all the pieces to compose. He isolates himself for ten days in a cabin near the ocean. There, in a meditative state of mind, inspired by the immensity of the sea and the dance of the waves, he creates his songs. In the depths of his rhymes, he pays tribute to Manu Dibango (
Papa Kossa
), carried away by the coronavirus; summons Fela Kuti and his famous maxim "
Music is the weapon"
(
Freedom
); tells the story of this refuge boat that he rents every summer (
Carioca
); aspires to more autonomy for the African and Caribbean peoples (
Sam Cook di
), or tries to appease with music, this slight wind of panic which blew on his home when the confinement was announced (
Baby Go
).
And then, on
Vancé
, he describes this strange moment, between doubt and confidence, in the midst of chaos: over there, the prospect of a horizon.
"
I only composed pieces very connected to my interior landscapes
, he explains.
There was not the slightest desire for effect, or desire for seduction ... I was helpless, naked: alone my voice and my guitar "
.
With Vincent, for two days, he worked out the architecture of the songs.
Ballaké Sissoko and Roger Raspail.
© Ingrid Marseki
And here are the long awaited three days of recording. Roger Raspail listened to some patterns. Ballaké, he prefers to land a blank ear. And Vincent set this rule: "
record without clicking, without headphones, without electronics."
Quite a challenge. "
In an atmosphere of proximity, as by a fireside, we were in absolute listening to each other: an osmosis, an incredible harmony"
, David says.
Roger Raspail recognizes, in the challenge and the adventure, the immense complexity of simple things.
Vincent Segal speaks of a "jazz session" as a miracle, never reproducible: the photograph of a moment.
Ballaké adapts, happy, unrolls his notes in a lull.
All play on low heat, quietly, on the lookout for each other.
And the magic arises: a new world paced by four, over a journey like a communion.
On their tracks, an intense melancholy emerges, just like an infinite sweetness.
"Nocturne
resonates with our time
, concludes David.
A subtle mixture of modesty, sadness, hope. A shared secret. A great inner joy ... A sacred fire."
Anne-Laure Lemancel
David Walters and Vincent Segal at RFI.
© Laurence Aloir / RFI
Performed titles
Sam Cook Di Live RFI (
see the RFI video
)
Mama,
from the album
Nocturne
(Heavenly Sweetness)
Vansé
Live RFI (
see the RFI video
)
See the Freedom clip.
David Walters and Vincent Segal playlist
- Richie Heavens
Here comes the sun
(David's choice)
- Gilberto Gil
Joao Sabino
(ao vivo) (choice of Vincent)
- Salif Keïta & Cesaria Evora
Yamore
(choice of David)
- Dudu Tassa vs Bumcello
Above the stars
(choice of Vincent) Live Rfi with a meeting between Dudu Tassa, Vincent Segal and Cyril Atef.
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