Growing up as the eldest of eight children in a poor family couldn\u2019t stop Pascal Lokua Kanza from being shaped by (and shaping) the music around him. With his soft acoustic skills influenced by classical guitar and his merry vocals \u2013 a gift, he says, that comes from being half-Rwandese, half-Congolese \u2013 Kanza swipes away the prevailing clich\u00e9s about rumbas and other Congolese soukous in favour of something more original.<\/p>\n
Now based in France, Kanza spent eight years crafting his latest album, Moko. His eighth studio record features fellow legends of African music, including Cameroonian singer Charlotte Dipanda and saxophonist and songwriter Manu Dibango, Senegalese folk and jazz icon Wasis Diop, and Congolese pianist and guitarist Ray Lema. \u201cMoko\u201d literally means \u201clove\u201d and, through a blend of beautiful melodies and radiant atmospheres drawn from the musics of India, the US and Africa, the cross-cultural album invites listeners to feel like they belong and that the titular theme is ever-present. Moko defies easy categorisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic is spiritual,\u201d Kanza tells us. \u201cIt is something very special when you come from Africa. To take all those artists and put them together, you need time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really appreciate the way they play, the way they communicate and give love to people,\u201d says Kanza of his Moko collaborators, \u201cbecause to play music is one thing \u2013 giving or getting love through it is another. I travel a lot, that\u2019s why it took so long, but it\u2019s worth it if you want to do something bigger. It\u2019s not an ordinary album.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kanza has helped ensure the global revival of African music. At 64, he was recently nominated to become a member of the Recording Academy, the governing body of the Grammy Awards. He has also been a coach on The Voice Afrique Francophone \u2013 the French-speaking African version of the reality TV singing show that started in the Netherlands \u2013 since its debut in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what else to do in my life,\u201d he says. \u201cThe morning, I wake up, you know, I play guitar, piano and sing. Just singing all the time, that\u2019s what I do. I don\u2019t have any practice schedule because practice is just my way of living.\u201d<\/p>\n
But what of his creative process? Kanza gathers detailed research and feedback every step of the way and works to incorporate it before he releases new music. It took Moko more than five years to conceptualise Moko, then a further six years to record it and two more for mixing and mastering.<\/p>\n
\u201cI usually have songs ready, often inspired by the people and nature around me,\u201d says Kanza, adding that he still has more than 300 songs in the bank that he\u2019s yet to release. \u201cEvery now and then I have to choose which one I would like to record. Same thing on Moko \u2013 the songs were composed already. In the middle of the process, I like to bring my family and friends and let them listen and make their choice, their title, the one they like. And through that I get to know what people want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such a lengthy creative process with so much shared information makes it tough to select a favourite song. But Kanza\u2019s is the one you will listen to without realising how often the chords change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen an artist paints, he uses different colours but people just see the beauty of the painting and won\u2019t think much about how many colours he puts in and how many hours it took him to make it. When I was recording, my ambition was not to tell people how sophisticated it is and how many chords are in it. No, I would like people to hear it as two chords \u2013 if you\u2019re not a musician, you wouldn\u2019t tell, you\u2019d think more about the groove. But musicians will hear a lot of chords changing, the adaptive and mysterious information is the beauty of this particular song. The rest is for the audience to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kanza plays a Taylor guitar, and is hoping for a signature model sometime soon. His right-hand technique incorporates classical influences, while his left hand is all jazz and African folk music. His fingerpicking is fluid and his dynamic control is top-notch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe classical technique teaches you to keep sound under control,\u201d he says. \u201cThe first thing I think for musicians, especially when you play an instrument like guitar, is to have a good sound and get the rhythm right. To get that, your left hand has to become stronger with your right hand becoming strong and soft. You have to know how to use your strength without being aggressive. That\u2019s kind of my mixture. My style comes from French music, Congolese music, with classical guitar and jazz. If you don\u2019t have a background in classical, it\u2019s going to be difficult to play my songs. But everyone can do it \u2013 it just depends how driven you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lokua Kanza\u2019s records have broken many genre boundaries, and he continues to share the Moko with his legendary music and live performances. He\u2019s still ahead of his time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the latest in his Guitar Tales series, Deo Salvator meets African music legend Lokua Kanza to discuss his diverse influences and creative process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":18216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,31],"tags":[7,14,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-18219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-music","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"yoast_head":"\n