New Music New Venues is a weekend of laid back world and contemporary music in a PapaKåta style tent in Crescent Gardens. Muntu Valdo is the headline act on Saturday 17 July…
Can you explain the character behind the Sawa blues for audiences unfamiliar with the music?
Sawa Blues is a concept which aims to enlighten the richness of the Sawa culture, and the Sawa people (all the population living by the sea in the coast of Cameroon). It’s a rich and diverse culture where music plays a significant role by supporting almost all the activities of day to day life: fishing, farming, hunting, washing clothes, carrying water, all kind of work, celebrating or mourning. Why blues? Because the word is more internationally recognisable, in ‘Esewe’, ‘Ndutu’, ‘Bolobo’, ‘Ngoso’, (names of the different ways of singing & doing music) we see a similarity with the ‘work songs’ in the sugar cane fields in slavery America which gave birth to what is known today as blues music. So the origin of this music is rooted deep in the centre of the planet earth, in a place known today as Cameroon. But beyond that, it’s the story of all the people around the world who use water, sea, river as a mean of communication, of travelling. So it’s the journey or the story of the human kind through migration, exchange and collaboration.
Muntu Valdo
I read you played your first guitar aged 8 (made of plasterboard and fishing wire). How important was it discovering music in childhood?
It was as important as being able to recognise or identify the names and the faces of different people, as important as knowing how to speak or read. It was just one of the key moments in my life.
You were injured as a student by the military during protests in Cameroon. It sounds like a difficult place to grow up – did the political situation inform your music or make music more important as a creative act?
Of course, just like an event as big as the Football World Cup in South Africa, the release of Nelson Mandela after 25 years in prison for false and political reason, or like the Catholic Clergy paedophilia business or all the big news or issue in life. Everything that captures my attention is a source of inspiration.
You live in London now (via Paris!) which must be a world away from your childhood. Do you miss Cameroon or is life too full in London?
Yes you always miss home. Even if London is another home for me now, you always miss your home. Imagine if you have 3 brothers. Even if you see one of them everyday, you’ll still miss the others. Home is home. One, two or three homes. You always miss your home.
What kind of impact do you hope your music has on audiences?
I want my music to bring joy, happiness and positive thinking to the audience. I want them to share good moments in my company and to remember in their life when they came across an important moment by watching and listening to live music.
What would you say to Harrogate who haven’t heard your sound before to entice the to come along to your show?
See Munto Valdo on July 17, 7.30 – 8.50pm in the New Music New Venues Papa-kata tent on Crescent Gardens, Harrogate.
To read a recent review of a Munto’s gig at the Slaughtered Lamb, click below:
http://thelondoneer.blogspot.com/2010/07/muntu-valdo-sawa-blues-tour-slaughtered.html
