Photo by Terry Hughes
Musicians from the four corners of the world are bringing their unique rhythms to various Vancouver music festivals this summer.
Three visiting musicians share their personal history. With a diverse range of musical styles, Wil Campa, Faris Amine and Cécile Doo-Kingué will each bring a multitude of stories, connecting with their audience through their love of music.
Cuban sonero
Cuban musician Wil Campa will be in the city again this summer playing at the Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver from July 29–Aug. 7.
“Carnival is coming (to the festival) with all the warmth and rhythm that Cuban music has to offer,” he says.
Trained at the Raul Sanchez Superior School of Music, Campa says music is in all Cubans and that most musicians in Cuba have a university degree as music is held in very high esteem.
“It’s a rite of passage. There’s music and dancing all around you at a young age – it’s what children do [in Cuba]. My mom always sang in the house,” says Campa, 49, through interpreter Antoinette Massolin.
Campa currently travels with a group performing a sonero, meaning improvisation. Including himself there are 13 members who range from 20–54 years old. Campa says in Cuba people perform and play professionally up until they are 90 years old.
“I love performing with a full orchestra. It is a gift I’ve been given, a gift that I’m so happy to give [to the audience]. Having this group of young, talented musicians performing live is so exhilarating and really gets the audience going,” says Campa.
Campa’s mother tongue is Spanish. He says English speaking countries, especially North America, really support music and for that reason has been influenced by jazz music and music from New Orleans.
“Music is the universal language; its elements border and travel freely through countries. It brings people together [regardless of] race, class, ability and age. It is the global medicine to understanding each other,” Campa says.
Hints of the Sahara
Faris Amine – sounds from the Tuareg people. | Photo by Claudia Bonacini
Faris Amine, 31, spent his childhood and youth in many countries including Portugal, France, Mali, Algeria, Angola and parts of South America.
“My father used to work for developmental projects and there was dinner and all these people from Brazil playing music with people from Japan, Colombia and Libya – there were a lot of sounds,” says Amine, who will be at this summer’s Vancouver Folk Festival.
Amine’s diverse style of music is most influenced by Tuareg, ancient people from the Sahara.
“Assouf is what we call our modern Tuareg music played on acoustic or electric guitars, bass, etc… – modern instruments anyway. This style was born out of the rebellions (it is a revolutionary music) in Algeria, mainly in Tamanrasset, with Tuaregs coming from Mali, Niger and everywhere,” he says.
The Tuareg people are nomads. Amine is used to a fair amount of traveling but being a nomad is not the same as being a traveler and may be different from what most people think.
“Being a nomad is a way to use the mind – it’s not about kilometres,” he says.
Amine feels singers and songwriters use English to convey messages and reach more people with their unique stories.
“[It felt] contrived to just sing in the Tuareg language; one half of me was missing… when you are in a traditional language, you have more rules. I can express all the shades in English,” he says.
Being of mixed races, Tuareg and Italian, Amine says he went through years of doubt with people telling him he looked this way or that way.
“When you are a kid, you want to be like everyone else and then you realize you have something unique. In my case it was helped by music. I owe music; I’m found,” Amine says.
The many strings of blues
“So many styles found themselves into my ears and into my fingers,” says blues guitarist Cécile Doo-Kingué, who will perform at the Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival in August.
For Doo-Kingué, 41, it all starts with the vibrations.
“One of the things I love most about music is it comes to find you at a primal level… it’s about the feel,” she says.
Doo-Kingué’s first guitar came from her brother, also a professional musician. She says she was exposed to the music of the three Kings, B.B., Albert and Freddie, at a young age, as her father was a big jazz fan, but didn’t discover female players such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915–1973) until later on in life.
As for her own style of music?
“It’s bastardized blues – it’s a mix of all the things I am,” says Doo-Kingué.
Most of Doo-Kingué’s training came from gigging, which she describes as being hired by people more seasoned who show you the ropes, chew you up and, if you’re lucky, won’t be nice about it, so you learn. She says it’s the best school for anybody who wants to be an active musician.
“I was fortunate enough to fall on some seasoned music veterans who recognized the talent they wanted to see blossom. That was definitely more of a school than university,” she says.
Although better known for her voice, Doo-Kingué still considers herself a guitarist first.
“It’s greater than how it started, which is neat. It opens up a whole other dimension to touch and reach out to people – the reaction to a human voice is different than just to sounds,” says Doo-Kingué.
For more information on these summer festivals, please visit the following sites:
