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ACL Review: Les Freres Guisse
Les Freres Guisse - the three Guisse Brothers of Senegal - presented us with a most sublime musical gift Saturday afternoon in the WaMu tent. It was a gift of gentleness. A gift of harmony. A gift of hope. In music and in message, the brothers’ set of West African music was breezy and reflective, a welcome respite in world filled with so much tension and crisis. No surprise, of course, that the title of Les Freres’ breakout record, “Yakaar”, is a Peulh expression meaning “live in hope.”
The Guisse Brothers’ music is an enchanting blend of sparkling bright guitar sand subtle vocal harmonies set against a percussive aura that uses as its foundation a hard bass beat that often feels like a heart pulse. It’s not a big band, just the three brothers. And while the music is delightfully rhythmic, Les Freres Guisse is not a dance band, either. The brothers like to say that they aspire to touch their audience’s humanity in their shows, not just make their feet dance.
Les Freres Guisse filled its 45-minute set with six songs, including a gentle a capella number, a breezy Sahelian blues, and a curtain-closing celebration of Nelson Mandela. “We don’t like war. We don’t like power,” guitarist Djiby Guisse said to the crowd in introducing “C.C. Le Feu” - a tune (sung in African dialect) that speaks on behalf of “the innocents”, the victims of war in Sarajevo, in Rwanda, in Soweto. At the end, the brothers switched into English and sang “No War in Our World.” The audience, attuned throughout to the spirit of lyrics sung in a language that is foreign to them, eagerly joined in on the chorus.
Aliou Guissse, who handles percussion for the band, drew gasps from the audience while soloing during “C.C. Le Feu.” He’d been playing a leket - a globe-shaped hand-drum - and at one point, he struck it with his fist so hard that the instrument cracked open like a broken egg. There was a slight pause; the transcendant spirit seemed to break. Aliou shrugged his shoulders. Then he revealed a spare leket, raised it above his head, and put it back into play in his percussion stand. Les Freres Guisse love allegory and metaphor - and in this spontaneous moment, harmony and hope reigned supreme.
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Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: ACL 2008: Saturday, ACL Festival
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By Pete J.
September 28, 2008 8:56 AM | Link to this
I was pulled toward this gentle performance while on the way to another stage, and I recall the magnetic attraction of the percussion. A huge, pale gourd-like hemisphere sat enthroned on black velvet to the left of the huge, smiling African man who alternatively rapped and tapped with this fingers, then THUD-D-D with a fist. I’d seen and heard this instrument played once before during Angelique Kidjo’s performance at Antone’s last year, and the commanding BOOM! that such a fragile bowl can produce reminded me of the simultaneous strength and frailty of our own human spirit. The rapid recovery by the Senegali artist was inspiring, and in the split-second that he held the backup dome overhead with a triumphant grin, about to replace the broken shards that he had already tossed aside, I wondered if this could be an intentional allegory, gracefully demonstrated within a single skipped beat. I learned today that at this moment the people living in the Casamance region of southwestern Senegal are caught between their government’s forces and armed separatist rebels. The clear message of their closing song “No War” must be as heartfelt as our own; may the beat go on.