Steve Coleman has a history of succesful
collaborations with Afrocuba de Matanzas. Most recently,
he took 8 members of the group on tour with him in
Europe.
"The year 1995 was an important year for
Steve Coleman but Steve was soon organizing a trip
that would make a profound impact on his music.
While pursuing his philosophical studies and
learning more about the transmission of these ideas
through music, Steve began to plan to investigate an
idea that he had been thinking about for at least 7
years. He wanted to collaborate in a creative way
with musicians who were involved in certain ancient
philosophical/musical traditions which come out of
West Africa. One of his interests was the Yoruba
tradition (predominantly out of western Nigeria)
which is the Ancient African Religion underlying
Santeria (Cuba and Puerto Rico), Candomble (Bahia,
Brazil) and Vodun (Haiti). Steve decided to go to
these places and investigate the way the ideas these
traditions were transmitted through music. First
stop, Cuba!
In Cuba Steve found that the situation was more
complex than he had imagined for the people had
preserved more than one African culture and these
were mixed together under the general title of
Santeria. There are the Abakua societies (Ngbe) , the
various Arara cults (Dahomey), the Congo traditions
such as nganga, mayombe and palo monte as well as the
Yoruba traditions. But he did find one group called
AfroCuba de Matanzas who specialized in preserving
all of the above traditions as well as various styles
of Rumba.
It was to the town of Matanzas that Steve headed
in January of 1996 in order to study the music and
also contact AfroCuba de Matanzas and arrange a
meeting with the leader of this group, Francisco
Zamora Chirino (otherwise known as Minini). Minini
was also excited about the project and so it was
arranged that the collaboration would take place in
Feburary during the time of the Havana Jazz Festival
in order to give the expanded group a chance to
perform before the Cuban public.
In February of 1996 Steve rented a large house in
Havana and along with a group of 10 musicians and
dancers, a three person film crew and the group
AfroCuba de Matanzas (who had been bused in from
Matanzas) the collaboration was started. For 12 days
the two groups hung out together, worked, practiced
and conceptualized in order to realize their goal.
After their performance at the Havana Jazz Festival
the musicians went into a Egrem Studios in Havana and
recorded the collaboration. The results of this
effort are preserved on a recording made for the BMG
France recording company called The Sign and The Seal
by Steve Coleman and The Mystic Rhythm Society in
collaboration with AfroCuba de Matanzas. This effort
is also preserved on a documentary film shot by
Eve-Marie Breglia based on Steve’s music and the
theme of cultural transference."
