Banku

Review from Mejeriet, Lund, from Sydsvenskan (daily morning paper) published 23 Oct, 2006
Ambitious afrosoul with “push/pull”
Jazz. Etienne Mbappé Su La Take: Mejeriet’s jazz brunch, 21.10

When was the last time you heard such a virtouso musician who does not long for playing show-off solos?
Etienne Mbappé is moving about as easily on the electric bass as his compatriot Richard Bona. Which means very easily.
But no regular bass solo comes until the last song. Mbappé’s only ambition is to beautify the songs. Which doesn’t stop the man with the black silk gloves from rapping out quite wild licks with his paws while singing totally different melodies.
In the afrosoul of Mbappé there is also funk, jazzfusion and even hard rock, when the young guitarist Jim Grandcamp gets one of his Yngwie Malmsteen-attacks. The ambitiously written songs feel like little symphonies composed by a series of different movements: there are many variations in swing, intensity, key, melody and general atmosphere.
Basically Mbappé seems to be a soft guy who likes creating contrasts with “push/pull”.
The Cameroonian bass player has a pleasantly soft, slightly raucous voice and sings nicely together with Cate Petit. Who with her sensitive voice definitely would deserve a few solo numbers.
The little band is very tight. Hervé Gourdikian on sax and flute has quite a bit of jazz in him, and the drummer John Grandcamp works hard and effectively. His brother Jim became the big favourite of Mejeriet and his ability to nail down African picking, fat whining rock solos and Spanish classical guitar passages was really impressive.
The sympathetic band leader could have tightened up his cosy talk between the numbers, the energy went down there and the “beautiful people of Lund” could have had two more songs in the time that this took. But of course Mbappé established a fine contact with the audience in the packed venue. A nice afternoon!

Alexander Agrell

- Sydsvenskan (daily morning paper)

A magic concert with elastic afropop and jazz grooves

There were less people in the audience this Saturday night than earlier this week when Marcus Miller played, also at Jazzclub Fasching in Stockholm. The bass lovers who missed this concert made a real loss, since Etienne Mbappé's playing is of absolute world class, just like Miller’s. The band, Su La
Také, was also brilliant all the way through – not least the drummer John Grandcamp impressed with his dynamic playing, which left nothing further to ask for. That him and Mbappé on many occasions went down in intensity when one of the other musicians went off into intense soloing gave the music a great groove, intelligent and solid. And the group playing was also in the center through the whole concert. Impressive that such a virtuoso musician as Etienne Mbappé has such little needs to show off, which is usually the case with musicians of his kind.
The obvious and for Mbappé probably slightly tiring musical reference is Richard Bona. Both play their bass in a sort of afropop-, jazz- and funk mix, both have also been playing and singing in the Zawinul Syndicate, and finally it could be mentioned that both come from Cameroon. But where Bona's music is nearly always soft, Mbappé has a more distinct edge and rawness in his music.
Which was also the case on this magic night.
Su La Také were very well coordinated, both when playing straight afropop with typical South African light guitar phrases or when heavier funk playing was on the menu, or why not some more jazzy excursions. There is actually no reason to lift forward anyone in particular in the band, since they all delivered. Etienne Mbappé showed, many times, that he belongs to the absolute world elite.
I have for example not heard such distinctive flageolette playing from anyone else after Jaco
Pastorius. As mentioned before, a magic night.
Andreas Lagercrantz - LIRA Swedish jazz & world music magazine

Tasty African Danish

Deodato Siquir

BALANÇO

Born in Mozambique and presently based in Denmark,drummer/vocalist/bassist/guitarist/pianist Deodato Siquir has made a solid and enjoyable African jazz CD here. At times his breezy style is similar to that of Cameroon's Richard Bona- light, accessible, full of catchy riffs, pleasant vocals and expertly played solos. Siquir's also got a knack for tossing in contemporary touches like samples and turntable manipulation without messing up a largely organic approach favoring honest music over trickery.

The title track sports a buoyant Latin feel with great horn interplay, "Grito" laments the state of the environment via the spoken word and elsewhere the disc borrows from several African styles (including Zimbabwean chimurenga, Senegalese m'balax and the marrabenta of Siquir's own land) to create relaxed fusions that are more about warmth than fire. It all might come across as too much on the smooth jazz side for hardened African music fans, but repeated listening reveals further pleasures and nuances that are more than enough to make this disc one to keep and savor.

Tom Orr November 19 2008
- WORLD MUSIC CENTRAL

An Enchanting
Night
JAZZ
Deodato Siquir & Balanço. Soweto Kinch,
Copenhagen Jazzhouse, saturday 20.12.2008.

World Music with grand Pop quality and an amazing tight interaction made the concert with Deodato Siquir & Balanço and guest stars a superb experience.

A Mozambican singer, song writer and drummer. A Brazilian percussion wizard. A Vietnamese keyboard player. Two Danish guitarists. A Polish bass guitarist. A Danish tenor sax player. And a British rapper and alto sax player. Plus some guest stars in the form of an extra Danish sax player and three African percussionists. This certainly adds up to World Music!
And it sure was World Music of the purest kind that Deodato Siquir and his ensemble introduced us to on an icy cold saturday in December at the Copenhagen Jazz House. Exclusive World Music indeed. Excellent and out of the ordinary.
Deodato´s music has it's foundations in modern Jazz Fusion (e.g. Weather Report) and in African
Music. Actually one of the first images that popped up in my mind during the concert was WR´s Black Market from 1978, but Deodato´s songs have a lot more tradionally melodic pop quality.
The next image that came to mind was Paul Simon's South African backing band on the 'Graceland' LP from 1986. Simple ear catching themes played on keyboards and sax, sung with Deodato´s soft tenor voice, and accompanied by crisp guitar riffs and groovy bass. At times the music transformed into fragile poetic rhythms of Brazilian Bossa and at other times into energetic beats in the style of Sonny Rollins' West Indian coloured Bop. What Deodato & Co. produce, is a genuine eclectic form of rhythmic music which incorporates elements of all the traditions, the musicians have been in contact with. Anders Bast´s forceful tenor sax occasionally had a taste of Scandinavian melancholy in his expression The British rapper and sax player Soweto Kinch contributed with pure Hip Hop as well as main stream sax. The protagonist himself played skilfully and teasingly on his drum set, when he wasn't beating on his home made instrument, made of a large tin can and plastic sheeting. The Polish bass player displayed a unique funky style with outstanding harmonies while the two guitarists created a swinging rythmical background. Several times Deodato managed to get the large audience to sing along with the beautiful refrains. Even though most of the spectators did not understand the meaning of the lyrics, they sang in the Ronga dialect from the bottom of their hearts.
The percussion magician Jorge Bezerra,
who has played with The Zawinul´s Syndicate,
was another miracle. That man can make a Bandeiro sound like a twelve-man drum ensemble, and with his contribution, he spread magic dust on the musical séance - in constant, almost telepathic dialogue with the lively leader of the band.
At the beginning of the second set we also had the pleasure of experiencing Deodato as a troubadour with a guitar, which was very
beautiful even though most of us - once again - did not understand any of the words. That didn't matter at all. It was an uplifting night with a magic musical mixture for the ears. Catchy melodies performed in complex arrangements, played by a highly coordinated band. Invigorating!

HENRIK PALLE
henrik.palle@pol.dk - POLITIKEN