One the most famous band from Madagascar:
Njava
mercredi 10 mars 2010
R.I.P. Jean Gabin Fanovona (Vaovy)
One of the greatest artist from the androy area is dead on Saturday.
Slim and taciturn, a sly upward turn to his lips, a farseeing look, Jean Gabin Fanovona gives off a feeling of secrecy and one suspects that the race of musician to which he belongs is similar to that of magicians. However, in Madagascar, it is as the modernizer of Antandroy music that Vaovy’s leader is known – and often pillaged, for over the last twenty years everyone over there has been shamelessly plagiarising his compositions and his ideas. Surprising for us, his music is no less surprising for the traditional background from which he comes.
Jean Gabin is from the Antandroy people, the “people of the prickles”, so called because they live in a region full of cacti which serve both as fodder for their herds and protection against invaders. The origin of the Antandroys, as for most of the peoples of Madagascar, is unclear. Legend would have it that their great ancestor, Raminia, came from Arabia between the 5th and the 7th century, and indeed traits inherited from the Arabs can be found in Antandroy culture, such as astrological knowledge and techniques of prediction. However the region inhabited by the Antandroys has, over the centuries, served as a shelter for other populations fleeing the innumerable migrations and invasions, and it is impossible to define an Antandroy ethnic “type”. Their culture, however, is very different to the others, because of their isolation. Hunters and breeders, the Antandroys still today have a very simple lifestyle, never leaving their assagai or stick, which is the warrior’s emblem, and respecting the codes of a very strict traditional society. Their celebrations in particular, with their music, their dances, their wrestling, are sacred and are guided by an original conception of the world: a whole universe still living and perfectly functional.
But over the last few years a parasite has almost completely wiped out the cacti, thus bringing famine on the men and beasts and destroying the natural barrier that had protected them for hundreds of years. The introduction of this parasite, with criminal intent according to some, is a menace to the existence of this community, already weakened by illness (high rate of tuberculosis) and malnutrition. The general impoverishment of the island and the famines of the last few years have thrown whole families onto the street ready to sell their most precious belongings, the silver jewellery that is their protection and their pride, for a crust of bread. In this context, Jean Gabin Fanovona’s music simply had to take a nostalgic and rebellious turn.
Jean Gabin Fanovona: born on the 23rd August 1948 in Ambovombe, in Madagascar’s southern tip, Jean Gabin Fanovona formed his first band in 1965 at the age of 17: le Groupe Artistique de l’Androy (GM), for which he composes an (already) original repertoire. In 1970 he was named head of a protestant choir which included splendid Antandroy vocal harmonies and gained international renown, to the point of being invited to tour the USA in 1972. Jean Gabin did not take part: the gentle rebel was expulsed for heresy, for he had adapted the Bible to the local cosmogony, rewriting Genesis and assimilating Joshua’s sceptre to the Antandroy warriors’ sticks. In 1974, he founded Vaovy (the name of a hard wood endemic to Madagascar). It was a modernised band, which, from then until 1984, recorded five LPs, all memorable: Lahimora Ko lay, Androy tane Mileven-drano, Omeo Ranr, Salakao, and Talignere. In 1984 they returned to a traditional form, entirely acoustic: vocals, percussion, violin and harp (“marovan”), plus the Antandroy’s war dance (similar to the stylised wrestling of Zulu pastors). Today Vaovy performs in both these forms, adding on occasion a bass and a keyboard to the original formation (seven musicians and dancers). Their reputation was limited to the south of Madagascar for a long time, for the high plateaux consider music from the south to be savage and take no interest in it; Vaovy did not play in Antananarivo until 1994, when the imported trend of “World Music” sparked an interest in the capital for music from the coast.
Jean Gabin is above all a great composer. His songs are always inspired, elevated by a musical vision. The orchestration brings in elements from Antandroy tradition, notably some beautiful a cappella harmonies and some unique vocal sonorities. The guitarist D’Gary has remarked that some of the voices “bleat” – a kind of mimicry, according to him, by this people of breeders. The drums and the percussion give the tertiary Antandroy style rhythm (ta ta tum ta ta) to the vocals. But the most astonishing sounds come from the lokanga (traditional three-stringed violin) and the marovany (harp with resonance chamber).
Slim and taciturn, a sly upward turn to his lips, a farseeing look, Jean Gabin Fanovona gives off a feeling of secrecy and one suspects that the race of musician to which he belongs is similar to that of magicians. However, in Madagascar, it is as the modernizer of Antandroy music that Vaovy’s leader is known – and often pillaged, for over the last twenty years everyone over there has been shamelessly plagiarising his compositions and his ideas. Surprising for us, his music is no less surprising for the traditional background from which he comes.
Jean Gabin is from the Antandroy people, the “people of the prickles”, so called because they live in a region full of cacti which serve both as fodder for their herds and protection against invaders. The origin of the Antandroys, as for most of the peoples of Madagascar, is unclear. Legend would have it that their great ancestor, Raminia, came from Arabia between the 5th and the 7th century, and indeed traits inherited from the Arabs can be found in Antandroy culture, such as astrological knowledge and techniques of prediction. However the region inhabited by the Antandroys has, over the centuries, served as a shelter for other populations fleeing the innumerable migrations and invasions, and it is impossible to define an Antandroy ethnic “type”. Their culture, however, is very different to the others, because of their isolation. Hunters and breeders, the Antandroys still today have a very simple lifestyle, never leaving their assagai or stick, which is the warrior’s emblem, and respecting the codes of a very strict traditional society. Their celebrations in particular, with their music, their dances, their wrestling, are sacred and are guided by an original conception of the world: a whole universe still living and perfectly functional.
But over the last few years a parasite has almost completely wiped out the cacti, thus bringing famine on the men and beasts and destroying the natural barrier that had protected them for hundreds of years. The introduction of this parasite, with criminal intent according to some, is a menace to the existence of this community, already weakened by illness (high rate of tuberculosis) and malnutrition. The general impoverishment of the island and the famines of the last few years have thrown whole families onto the street ready to sell their most precious belongings, the silver jewellery that is their protection and their pride, for a crust of bread. In this context, Jean Gabin Fanovona’s music simply had to take a nostalgic and rebellious turn.
Jean Gabin Fanovona: born on the 23rd August 1948 in Ambovombe, in Madagascar’s southern tip, Jean Gabin Fanovona formed his first band in 1965 at the age of 17: le Groupe Artistique de l’Androy (GM), for which he composes an (already) original repertoire. In 1970 he was named head of a protestant choir which included splendid Antandroy vocal harmonies and gained international renown, to the point of being invited to tour the USA in 1972. Jean Gabin did not take part: the gentle rebel was expulsed for heresy, for he had adapted the Bible to the local cosmogony, rewriting Genesis and assimilating Joshua’s sceptre to the Antandroy warriors’ sticks. In 1974, he founded Vaovy (the name of a hard wood endemic to Madagascar). It was a modernised band, which, from then until 1984, recorded five LPs, all memorable: Lahimora Ko lay, Androy tane Mileven-drano, Omeo Ranr, Salakao, and Talignere. In 1984 they returned to a traditional form, entirely acoustic: vocals, percussion, violin and harp (“marovan”), plus the Antandroy’s war dance (similar to the stylised wrestling of Zulu pastors). Today Vaovy performs in both these forms, adding on occasion a bass and a keyboard to the original formation (seven musicians and dancers). Their reputation was limited to the south of Madagascar for a long time, for the high plateaux consider music from the south to be savage and take no interest in it; Vaovy did not play in Antananarivo until 1994, when the imported trend of “World Music” sparked an interest in the capital for music from the coast.
Jean Gabin is above all a great composer. His songs are always inspired, elevated by a musical vision. The orchestration brings in elements from Antandroy tradition, notably some beautiful a cappella harmonies and some unique vocal sonorities. The guitarist D’Gary has remarked that some of the voices “bleat” – a kind of mimicry, according to him, by this people of breeders. The drums and the percussion give the tertiary Antandroy style rhythm (ta ta tum ta ta) to the vocals. But the most astonishing sounds come from the lokanga (traditional three-stringed violin) and the marovany (harp with resonance chamber).
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