The Solidarity Express and guests, by Candice Willemse
He’s explaining why the album he’s just released with an eclectic bunch of fellow artists doesn’t feature the sort of songs you hear on the average album.
Radio Ubuntu by The Solidarity Express features lyrics about climate change, migration, overpopulation, the unsustainable use of resources, xenophobia and the quest for racial harmony. In a country where hashtags like #PutSouthAfricansFirst spread hate on social media, it’s certainly calling out popular sentiment.
There’s even a track where the renowned conservationist Kingsley Holgate delivers an impassioned plea about rhino poaching. Who on earth invites Holgate to record a monologue for their album - did nobody point out that this may be commercial suicide, I ask?
Dan Chiorboli playing the cuica
One track begins with the singing bass guitarist Tebogo Sedumedi intoning: “I don’t care if you were born in a rural village, I don’t care about your education” with the passion of a Pentecostal preacher. But by the time the title and chorus ‘I believe we can live in harmony’ comes around for the third time, you catch yourself singing along.
Another song highlights how we’re destroying our planet, with the lyrics: ‘They beat me, they burn me, they cut me – hear the cry of the Earth.’ With Roxy Music’s guitarist Phil Manzanera on electric guitar and bold saxophone trills from Nigerian Femi Koya, it’s surprisingly potent.
N’Faly Kouyate of Guinea
The Solidarity Express features 10 core musicians, although the number fluctuates as they collaborate with guests including New Zealander Tim Finn from Crowded House and musicians from Cuba, Italy and other African countries. “They were handpicked people I wanted to work with, so it was just inviting friends to come on board and that’s how the band grew. Everybody just fitted in perfectly – there were no big egos,” Chiorboli says.
Andre Kriel, with Sibusiso Lerole on the pennywhistle
Powerful vocals are added by Ann Masina, who sang with Cape Town Opera and in the William Kentridge stage show The Head & The Load, which explores Africa’s role in the First World War. “She was mindboggling – she stole the show, so I asked her to contribute and she’s become an integral part of the band as an incredible singer,” Chiorboli says.
Then there’s Tamani Mbeya, a Malawian who auditioned as a backing singer and matured to handle the lead vocals on a track called Together, written by Chaz Jankel, Alice Platt and Phil Manzanera. Mbeya is now researching the heritage of Malawian folksongs from her grandmother’s era for possible inclusion on their next album.
The whole concept is a spin-off from The Liberation Project, a huge collaboration of 142 musicians from 18 countries that resulted in a triple album of protest music called Songs That Made Us Free, produced by Chiorboli, Manzanera and Neill Solomon.
Ann Masina
They were determined to speak out against it, and since they’d seen how the up-tempo, joyous South African mbaqanga tracks were well received on the tour, they created uplifting music to cushion the meaningful messages.
The Covid lockdown delayed production because the band needed to record in the studio together to capture their large, exuberant sound. “I wanted the feeling that a band was playing in your living room and it was live, not computer-generated or over-produced or cleaned up. My reference was the old Motown material I grew up with that had such a powerful sound, like Aretha Franklin and James Brown, and I wanted to create the same emotion,” Chiorboli says.
Ann Masina and the Solidarity Express
The big disappointment is that Covid regulations are preventing live performances. “This is a powerful, exciting festival band and we can’t wait to get out there and start playing. That’s where the power really kicks in and the songs come alive,” he says.
The first gigs might actually be in Cuba in November, at the invitation of the Cuban Ministry of Culture. The Cuban connection comes with saxophonist Michel Herrera and his jazz-salsa band Madre Tierra, who play on the song Cuito Cuanavale. That’s about an Apartheid-era battle in Angola fought by Cuban, Russian, Angolan and South African forces, credited by some historians as the catalyst for negotiations that led to the withdrawal of troops from Angola and Namibia by 1991. But the lyrics by Kobus de Kock Jnr and sung in Afrikaans and Spanish have drawn flak from conservative Afrikaners who feel it denigrates their apartheid war effort.
The Radio Ubuntu album cover
Chiorboli himself has been performing as a drummer and percussionist since he was 15, often collaborating with musicians from Italy, his ancestorial home, and with Brazilian and Cuban artists because he loves lively Latino flavours. He’s worked on more than 200 albums and produced music festivals, and he’s too passionate about the mission that fuels The Solidarity Express to fret about commercial popularity. “I think I’ve got enough of a back catalogue that hopefully I have a place in the greater canon of South African music,” he says.
“I think we’ve lost the sense of our soul and we follow the superficial, shallow American styles that permeate our airwaves. I wanted to move away from that and do something that has some meaning and stands the test of time, and hopefully we’ve done that.”
For more information see www.solidarityexpress.co.za
First published in the Daily Maverick.