Talking To...Daby Toure
Daby Toure gew up in Mauritania, Africa, near the Senegal border; an area rich in musical heritage. He then found himself uprooted by conflict in Africa and following his father to live in Paris, France. I had the chance to speak to Daby in his dressing room at The Sage, about these two places he has come to call home and his love for his homeland, along with his musical influences and his recent EP; a collaboration with Ohio bluesman Skip MacDonald.
DT=Daby Toure HM=Helen Mitchell
HM: Can I start by asking how your name is pronounced?
DT: Daby - some people say 'Day' but it is 'Da'
HM: Toure - is that French or from the African background?
DT: It is from Africa - everything is from Africa - you know that? (laughs)
HM: Everything?
DT: We know that the first men - earliest signs of human being life come from Africa.
HM: Really?
DT: Lucy is an old, old, old human being found in the ground in Africa.
HM: Tell me, Daby, what was it like growing up in Africa? Was there a lot of music around?
DT: In Africa? Yeah, of course. Everything is about music and rhythm. Everything is about our harmony to nature. Problems when Europeans come to Africa and tried to stop that. They didn't. They make a big mistake because they just decide to change the life of these people and said to them "You have to be Christian, you have to follow Jesus Christ, you have to wear these clothes, you have to go to school; you have to, you have to......" So now we don't know what to do, so that's why it's really complicated now, because we are between our traditions, our lives between the nature and the modern things we took from the Europeans. It's kind of complicated for a time; but music is still in Africa and people still enjoy their lives and they're still smiling all the time.
Everywhere of course there are people who like power and they kill people for nothing. This is what we see about Africa but what I see in Africa when I go back is a vision I have of these women and children. The beautiful smiling of these children running everywhere in my village amid all these people. You can read on their face that they are peaceful, you know. Really that is magic because when you see how life is really hard for them but still they are smiling. This is Africa.
HM: It gives you hope?
DT: Oh every time, every time, it is giving you every time a hope and an energy when I go back to Africa. I don't know, I just take something from there that is helping me continue.
HM: That's lovely. Thankyou for sharing that. How often do you go back?
DT: I was there two weeks ago to see my mother.
HM: Your mum stayed and you moved to Paris with your Dad. Is that right?
DT: Exactly. You knew that? (laughs)
HM: So, Daby, how big a change was it; musically and generally, moving from Africa to Paris?
DT: Yes. Of course different. In Africa I was listening to cultural folklore and traditional music. When I was a teenager I began to hear about Bob Marley and the Police and reggae songs. So at that moment I heard about the band who most impressed me; The Police because there were 3 of them and they were British and they were doing this music with harmony and this is exactly what African music is like.
HM: Did you know that the lead singer from the Police, Sting, grew up not far from here?
DT: They what?
HM: Sting, the lead singer from the Police grew up just a couple of miles from here.
DT: Really? I didn't know. Now here I am. This is really amazing.
HM: There you go. It's a small world. Sorry, you were saying?
DT: No, no, that's fine. It's good to know. No really. I'm a fan (laughs)
HM: So the Police were one of your biggest influences?
DT: Yeah, The Police. They were three and they had rhythms and melodies and everything. It was magic and they were just three. I like that. When I came to Europe I discovered Jazz music and for the first time I played with professionals, with people who play music because they are professional musicians not because they are just playing music. That was really important for me because at that point everything has changed because I was doing that seriously.
HM: Did you suddenly realise that it could be done in that way?
DT: I always realised I could do music this way I just was waiting......waiting....
HM: To meet the right people?
DT: (laughs) to meet the right people. (laughs) Yeah and that happened there.
HM: Is there a big music scene in Paris? I love Paris as a city but I wasn't aware of a big music presence.
DT: Yeah. I think once there was a meeting of different cultures from everywhere, but now, French people are so closed. They closed the door with the European Union. I'll never understand something. I was talking about this with a friend of mine and we never understand - Africa - why English people and French people and other European people when they need African people to help them - against the Nazis - everything was open for us. These people came to fight for the liberty. So they fight and a lot of them died here. So.....but today you hear people refuse these people and that makes me really really sad and really angry because I just don't understand. So that's why today I think everything is (makes sound like closing door) closed and music is really...doesn't exist anymore in Paris to me. Everything is against multi-cultural things. I don't know if it's the same in England or USA....I just feel that as a musician I'm on my way. I don't think I'm African or European. I just try....
HM: You are what you are?
DT: Yeah. It's normal that I work everywhere and go everywhere. It's normal. That's the world. The world belongs to everybody. The ground belongs to everybody I think. Nobody can say that that ground is for me, because when you die you leave the ground here. They put you underground so you belong to the ground really. Now Paris has changed so I go where the music is. I think I can find it here in England and in Africa of course. I think it's really important to move sometimes. My father was a singer in a band. At that moment I can say that Paris was really the centre of that music but today it is different. Most of the music in Paris is French now. It's not really easy to explain.
HM: I certainly think the French are possessive of their language.
DT: Oh yes. Of course.
HM: They like us to have a go at speaking their language.
DT: Yeah and when they speak English they speak they speak it without making any energy to to do it. (laughs) I think they are really proud to speak French - that's really nice but I think we can be proud of our culture and still be open.