Zap Mama

Zap Mama is a Belgian musical group founded and led by Marie Daulne. Daulne says her mission is to be a bridge between the European and the African and bring the two cultures together with her music. [http://www.intermix.org.uk/music/music_01_daulne.asp Intermix. "Marie Daulne Is Zap Mama."] ] "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.

ources of Zap Mama's music

Sources of Zap Mama's music include Daulne's roots in Congo Kinshasa, her upbringing in Belgium, and her return to Africa to rediscover her musical roots.

Congo Kinshasa

Marie Daulne, the founder and leader of Zap Mama, was born in Isiro, one of the largest cities in the north of Orientale, Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the fourth child of Cyrille Daulne, a Walloon (French-speaking Belgian) and Bernadette Aningi, a Bantu woman from Kisangani, formerly Stanleyville, the third largest city in Congo Kinshasa. When Marie was only a week old, her father was attacked and killed by Simba rebels, who were opposed to mixed-race relationships. "He did not have a chance to come with us because he was captured," Daulne says. "He was a prisoner of the rebels for a while, then they killed him." [http://www.northcoastjournal.com/083007/hum0830.html North Coast Journal. "The Way Home" by Bob Boran. August 30, 2007.] ] Her mother escaped into the jungle with Marie and was arrested by the rebels but was later set free because she spoke their language. Daulne pays tribute to those pygmies who rescued her family in the song "Gati" from "Supermoon". "They saved my family and many others during the Congolese rebellion," Daulne says, "and they deserve recognition for that." [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/45265-supermoon Pitchfork Media. "Zap Mama Supermoon" by Roque Strew. September 13, 2007] ]

Marie and her sisters were eventually airlifted out to Kinshasa with their mother and flown to Belgium because their father had been a Belgian citizen. "I think the experience of the political situation is more my mother, who had to survive. I was a baby, and I just was protected by my mother. What I know that I learned from my mother is to be strong and to stay positive in any kind of situation; that's the best weapon to survive. That's what I learned, and this is the main message I pass into my music," says Daulne. [http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/07.30.03/zap-mama-0331.html Metroactive. "Zap Happy" by Mike Conner. July 30, 2003.] ]

Belgium

Growing up in Belgium was hard for Daulne. "It was hard as a kid, you want to look like everybody else, and there aren’t many black people in Belgium – compared to England, or America or France. It became easier as I grew older. There were more black role models about – musicians and sports stars. At school I started to see my mixed heritage as a bonus – I could be part of both the African and Belgian communities." [http://btheremag.com/2007/10/01/qa-11/ there! the Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines. "Q & A with Marie Daulne" October 1, 2007.] ]

Although Daulne remembers that her mother sang some songs from Congo Kinshasa around the house, her mother did not teach them to the children, stressing mastery of French instead. Daulne listened to European music as she grew up. "We had the radio when I was growing up in Belgium, so we heard a lot of French music. And of course, American music was also very popular all over Europe. Since our mother did not want us to watch TV in our home, we entertained ourselves by creating our own music. We were very musical." Daulne was introduced to black music watching television. "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." [http://music.barnesandnoble.com/features/interview.asp?z=y&NID=133018 Barnes and Noble. "Urban Beats and Forest Chants Harmonize in Zap Mama's A MA ZONE."] ] Daulne felt a special connection to blues songs like "Damn your eyes" by Etta James. "When I was a teenager I listened to a lot of American blues," she says. "That song brought me happiness while I was going through the pain of a broken love. It helped me to open the door and see the life in front of me. I sing it now and I hope, in my turn, that I can help another teenager to do the same if they are having pain from love."

When Daulne was 14 she went to England and first heard reggae. "I discovered Bob Marley -- my favorite album was Kaya. I know that whole album by heart." Then Daulne became interested in the rap music of 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."

After Daulne left home she remembered the African songs her mother sang to her as a child. "When I left home, I missed those songs, and in the school choir, I wondered why we didn't use African harmonising. So my sister and I started to sing African melodies, and Zap Mama was born. I wrote my first song at 15, and my artist friend Nina said that what we were doing was amazing. She helped me to find a gig, and from that day, it has been non-stop." [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20041008/ai_n12820196 The Independent. "World Music: The second coming of Zap Mama" by Phil Meadley. October 8, 2004.] ] But Daulne didn't really get interested in singing until an accident left her unable to participate in athletics. "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. But there was something that I needed still, and that's when I decided to go to Africa, to the forest."

Return to Africa

In the documentary film "Mizike Mama", Daulne and her family recall a reverse cultural tug-of-war for her allegiance during her childhood. Her mother feared that Daulne would grow up too African and so did not teach her tribal songs. However the Belgian side of her family encouraged Daulne to explore her African heritage.New York Times. "Djembefola." September 15, 1993.] Daulne first heard a recording of traditional pygmy music when she was 20. She decided to return Congo Kihshasa in 1984 [http://www.rootsworld.com/interview/zap.html Rootsworld. "Marie Daulne talks with Jen Watson about unifying people through music"] ] to learn about her heritage and train in pygmy onomatopoeic vocal techniques. [http://www.answers.com/topic/zap-mama?cat=entertainment Answers.com "Zap Mama."] ] "When I went to the Congo, I hadn’t thought of being a musician. Not at all. But I was there, and I was standing in the middle of the forest, hearing the music that had been a part of my earliest memories, and it was like an illumination, like a light," Daulne said. [http://www.zapmama.org/welcome.html Zap Mama. "Zap My Message = Zap Mama Welcome Page + Zap Marie = Zap Mama Bio."] ] Daulne made further trips to Africa. "I go all around Africa. I started where I was born, in the forest of Zaire. After that I branched out to West Africa, South Africa, East Africa. It [is] very easy for me to learn because all African cultures seem to have something in common the music and the voices," Daulne says. Although Daulne draws inspiration from Africa, she does not call Africa home. "You know when I went back to Congo, I thought I would have a welcome like I was part of the family, part of the country, but that was not the case," Daulne said. "They treated me like a Belgian come to visit as a tourist. I saw that that is not especially a place to call home."

Zap Mama

Daulne defines her music over the years as evolving from an a cappella quintet to instruments and a lead voice. "I’m a nomad. I like to discover my sound with different instruments, different genres. For me it’s normal. My name is Zap Mama – it’s easy to understand that 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." [http://www.projo.com/music/content/wk-ZAP_MAMA_08-09-07_QB6GK89.1f8d180.html The Providence Journal. "Zap Mama: Citizen of the world" by Rick Massimo. August 9, 2007.] ] Zap Mama have released six full-length albums: Adventures in Afropea (1993), Sabsylma (1994), Seven (1997), A Ma Zone (1999), Ancestry in Progress (2004), and Supermoon (2007) that fall into three cycles.

First Cycle: Adventures in Afropea and Sabsylma

By 1989 Daulne had returned to Belgium and spent several years singing in Brussels in jazz cafes when she decided to create a group to merge the cultures of her life and in 1990 founded the group Zap Mama. [http://www.singers.com/Zapmama.html Singers.com "Zap Mama."] ] Daulne auditioned scores of female singers looking for the right combination of voices for an a cappella ensemble. "When I did my first album, I was looking for girls that were the same mix as me--African and European," she says. "Because I wanted to put these two sounds together to prove that to have blood from white and black was perfect harmony on the inside." [http://www.westword.com/1997-08-21/music/mama-knows-best/ Denver Westword. "Mama Knows Best" by Linda Gruno. August 21, 1997.] ] The original idea of Zap Mama was "five singers who would be one as the pygmy," Daulne said. "There is no chief." [http://www.sdcitybeat.com/article.php?id=6077 San Diego City beat. "Superswoon: Zap Mama has to be seen to be believed in" by Troy Johnson August 15, 2007.] ] "The power of voices was my thing," Daule said. "I wanted to show the world the capacity of five women exploring with our voices and our minds, nothing else." Daulne felt she was channeling the spirit of her Congolese ancestry so instead of using her own name, she called the group Zap Mama.

Zap Mama performed their first concert in 1989. In 1991 the group recorded their first record "Zap Mama" at Studio Daylight in Brussels, Belgium [ [http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/6320064/a/Adventures+In+Afropea+1.htm CD Universe. "Adventures in Afropea."] ] and the album was released by Crammed, the Belgian record label of Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis. [http://houbi.com/belpop/groups/zapmama.htm The Belgium Pop and Rock Archives. "Zap Mama."] ] The five vocalists, Daulne, Sylvie Nawasando, Sabine Kabongo, Marie Alonso, and Sally Nyolo, combined the sounds of Pygmies with vocal styles of European choral traditions. When Zap Mama came to the United States for the first time in 1992 to perform at New Music Seminar in New York they met David Byrne and agreed to let him reissue Zap Mama's first recordings as "Adventures in Afropea" on Luaka Bop Records. By the end of the year, Billboard announced it was the top seller for "world music." Zap Mama went on tour playing New York's Central Park, Paris' Olympia, the Jazz-festival of Montreux. After the success of "Adventures in Afropea", Daulne said the record company "wanted to mould us into a poppy girl band, but I said, 'No, you'll kill me', and I stopped. Everyone was asking why I wanted to stop when we'd finally arrived at the top. But I felt that it was completely wrong. I wasn't ready. I wasn't strong enough. The manager said that if I stopped then, I'd be killing my career, but it was my decision."

The next album "Sabsylma" (1994) contained music with Indian, Moroccan and Australian influences and earned Zap Mama a Grammy nomination for Best World Music Album. Daulne explained that the sharper sound of "Sabsylma" was due to the increasing influence of American music and the sound of being on the road. "We've been touring so intensively. "Zap Mama" was a soft, African record with a natural, round sound. "Sabsylma" is hectic, sharper. Not on purpose, mind you. I can't help it. If you're driving in a van for months, and you constantly hear the sounds of traffic, TV, hardrock on the radio ... those sounds hook up in your ears, and come out if you start to sing."

Daulne used an organic process to improvise her music in the studio. "I'm always looking for sounds. Most of the time, I work with colors. Each sound needs different colors of voices. I dissect sounds, cut them in little pieces, order them, and reassemble them," says Daulne. "The songs themselves come about in a very organic, improvising way. During the rehearsals, we light some candles, start a tape-recorder, close our eyes, and start making up a story. On that, we start adding sounds. We let ourselves go. We are carried away by the music."

At the same time "Sabsylma" was being created, Director Violaine de Villers made a documentary, "Mizike Mama", (1993) that presents a group portrait of Zap Mama. The film focuses on Daulne and discusses the implications of membership in a racially mixed group that consciously fuses African rhythms and vocal tones with European polyphony.

econd Cycle: Seven and A Ma Zone

After the success of the first two albums, Daulne put her music on hold for a few years to birth and mother her daughter Kesia. "Adventures in Afropea" and "Sabslyma" had both been largely a cappella. Now Daulne moved her music in a different direction coming back as the lone Zap Mama to record "Seven", a break with the past for the inclusion of male musicians and vocalists, the increased number of instruments and the number of songs in English. "I made music on "Seven" the same way as on the other albums. I only used acoustic instruments... I'm looking for instruments that have vocal sounds, forgotten instruments like the guimbri... The first and second albums were about the voice, what came before. This album is about introducing those sounds into modern, Western life," says Daulne. The title of "Seven" (1997) refers to the seven senses of a human being. Daulne had traveled to Mali in 1996 and had learned from a man in Mali that in addition to the five senses known in the west, some have a sixth sense which is emotion. "But not everyone has the seventh. It is the power to heal with music, calm with color, to soothe the sick soul with harmony. He told me that I have this gift, and I know what I have to do with it," Daulne says.

Daulne's next album was "A Ma Zone" (1999). The title is a wordplay meaning both "Amazone," the female warrior, and "A Ma Zone," (in my zone) which "means that I feel at ease wherever I am," Daulne says. "Naturally an Amazon is a rebel, a fighter who, once she has set her heart on something, pulls out all the stops to achieve her goal. I feel this way as well when I'm standing on the stage with the group.- as a team we share the same aim of winning over the audience with our music. I'm a nomad. I'm meeting new people all the time and sealing these friendships with tunes," Daulne says. That same year, Zap Mama makes Iko-Iko for Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack, a cover of Jock-A-Mo by Sugar Boy & the Cane Cutters (1953).

Third Cycle: Ancestry in Progress and Supermoon

Daulne moved to New York in 2000. "I've never been welcome in any country as my own country," says Daulne. "In Europe, they talk to me as if I'm from Congo. In Congo, they act like I'm from Europe. The first time I felt at home was in New York. I said, ‘Here is my country. Everybody is from somewhere else. I feel so comfortable here.'" "Ancestry in Progress" (2000) reflects Dualne's new life in the United States. "The American beat is a revolution all over the world," Daulne says. "Everybody listens to it and everybody follows it. But the beat of the United States was inspired by the beat coming from Africa. Not just its structure, but the sound of it. This is the source of modern sounds, the history of the beat, starting from little pieces of wood banging against one another, and arriving on the big sound-systems today. It's genius. So I wanted to create an album about the evolution of old ancestral vocal sounds, how they traveled from Africa, mixing with European and Asian sounds, and were brought to America." "Ancestry in Progress" (2004), reached #1 on the Billboard World Music Album chart. [http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/artists/Zap-Mama/ Concord Music Group. "About Zap Mama."] ]

Daule moved back to Belgium after three years in the United States [http://www.primary.uk.com/primary/News_2004/primary_sep2004.html Primary News: "New Signing - Zap Mama." September, 2004.] ] and now calls Brussels home. "I lived in the United States from 2000 to 2004 and it is a place with so many stars. When I met a lot of big celebrities I realized I was not a big star and that I didn't want to be, because your life would be a habit, stuck in this and that. I prefer the singularity. I prefer to be me." [http://www.startribune.com/music/story/1493230.html Minneapolis Star Tribune. "Ready for her close-up" by Britt Robson. October 18, 2007.] ] Daule finds life easier in Belgium. "I used to live in New York, and the system in Belgium is much better than in America. It’s much easier for families here." "With my family, my husband, my children, the people I love — that is home." Daulne still draws inspiration from her travels. "Currently, I feel the need to go to England, because a lot of interesting things are happening over there. In my band, there are a lot of young musicians who teach me completely new things. They challenge me - and that is the way I like it," Daulne says.

In "Supermoon" (2007), Daulne's vocals take centerstage. "When the audience appreciates the art of the artist, the audience becomes the sun and makes the artist shine as a full moon," says Daulne. "Supermoon" is also one of Daulne's most personal statements with songs like "Princess Kesia," an ode to her daughter and how she is no longer a baby but a beautiful girl. "With Supermoon, I reveal the way I chose to live when I started my career,” says Daulne. “It’s very intimate…You’re seeing me very close up. I hope that’s a kind of intimacy that people will understand. I’m opening a door to who I am." "I always used to hide myself, and I'm not complaining about it, but now it is time to show my eyes and my femininity and my delicate side," said Daulne. "I am proud to be so feminine, because I have taken the time to develop the inside of my femininity. Now that I have that, I can face anybody. And if anybody challenges me, there is no problem."

Discography

* Zap Mama (1991)
* Adventures in Afropea (1993)
* Sabsylma (1994)
* Seven (1997)
* A Ma Zone (1999)
* Ancestry in Progress (2004)
* Supermoon (2007)

Zap Mama also is featured at Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack with Iko-Iko (1999), a cover of Jock-A-Mo (1953) by Sugar Boy & the Cane Cutters

Works with other artists

*The Roots, This Kid Named Miles, Speech, and Manu Dibango are featured on the album "A Ma Zone".
*Erykah Badu, Common and Talib Kweli, Scratch, Bahamadia and Lady Alma are featured on the album "Ancestry in Progress".
*Tony Allen, Me'Shell NdegeOcello, David Gilmore, Michael Franti, and much more are featured on the album "Supermoon".
*Zap Mama is a guest performer on the song "Comin' to Gitcha" by Michael Franti, from the album "Chocolate Supa Highway".
*Marie Daulne is a guest performer on the song "Listener Supported" by Michael Franti, from the album "Stay Human".
*Zap Mama is featured on the song "Danger of Love" by DJ Krush, from the album Zen.
*Marie Daulne is featured on the track "Ferris Wheel" from Common's 2002 album Electric Circus.
*Daulne recorded with Chanteuse Flight on a track called Vibraphone.
*Daulne is featured on the soundtrack to La Haine, a french film which she recorded with her brother Jean Louise Daulne.
*Zap Mama performs with Ladysmith Black Mambazo on the Ladysmith song "Hello My Baby" on the album "Long Walk to Freedom".
*Zap Mama recorded a version of Waters of March on Sergio Mendes' 2008 album "Encanto".

Citations

External links

* [http://www.zapmama.be/ Official website]
* [http://www.zapmama.org Fan site]