Rippling Otherwise

Yvonne Schmedemann
Yvonne Schmedemann

    

We are honored to welcome Dudù Kouate – musician, storyteller, and keeper of ancestral traditions – to our SAVVYZAAR radio waves as part of the series Rippling Otherwise. Dudù offers a sonic work centering the continually urgent topics of restitution and rehabilitation: giving voice to the stories and powers of sacred subjects/objects stolen from their ancestral lands, forcibly looted by colonial powers, and incarcerated in Western museums.

Through his sonic piece, Dudù engages with the spiritual technologies and hearts of seized African artifacts, instruments, and entities, probing their displacement and inviting listeners to listen closely to the rhythms and words that bridge the visible and invisible, and the audible and inaudible, of their orations and roles. Dudù initiates an aural and musical dialogue between the ancestral and the weight of responsibility that modernity’s enduring colonial power structures must bear. 

By connecting the sub-sonic with musical traditions and critical fabulations, hand-in-hand with peers and kin, Dudù calls upon a collective listening that reclaims the spirits, souls, and stories of violated and displaced histories – and presences – to invoke restorations of dignity. 

This sound piece features contributions from Dudù Kouate (head composer, performer), Zayt Trio, Sam Langer (reading voice), Nihar Mehta (tabla), The Art Ensemble of Chicago (Famoudou Don Moye, Roscoe Mitchell), Moor Mother, Elaine Mitchener, Eloisa Manera, Komiel, Eiliyas (reading voice), Pensieri Africani, Mamy Kouate (reading voice), Simon Sieger, and Multikulti. 
 

DUDÙ KOUATEborn in Dakar, Senegal, hails from a family of griots, inheriting a rich musical tradition. Since 1988, he has showcased his talent worldwide, mastering over 200 traditional African instruments. As a key member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago since 2017, he has recorded albums and graced prestigious stages as The Carnegie hall NY and many others around the globe. Based in Berlin after three decades in Italy, he conducts educational workshops internationally and collaborates with cultural institutions. His music, blending Afro free jazz with diverse influences, notably demonstrated in his acclaimed album Africation, reflects his modern reinterpretation of griot traditions, while his versatility extends to cinema, theater, performance and poetry projects.

     

PLAYLIST AND CREDITS

SOBUGE
An imagined tale of a difficult, or impossible, love story between an African, Black girl and a white slave trader.
Music: Dudù Kouate and Zayt Trio

KEMET
A celebration of our Black Kemet ancestors.
Reading Voice: Sam Langer – "Me, a Mask"
Music: Dudù Kouate

A. VELENO
From Odwalla: The World of Percussion and Dance.
Performers:
Dudù Kouate (Xalam)
Nihar Mehta (Tabla)
B. The Art Ensemble of Chicago
Instrumental performance featuring Famoudou Don Moye and Roscoe Mitchell.

CONGO SQUARE & CLOCK FIGHT
The first part of this song evokes the acoustic environment that Africans were stolen from, taken from their lands and forced into slavery. This piece centers the infamous and beastly "Congo Square" of New Orleans where peoples were sold and bought like commodities. This place contributed significantly to the history of Jazz.
The second part, Clock Fight, was written by Moor Mother.
Music: Dudù Kouate and Moor Mother (featuring Elaine Mitchener and Eloisa Manera)

YELLO
A traditional Senegalese wedding song.
Music: Dudù Kouate and Komiel

LA FÉE
"Revealing the True Narrative"
Reading Voice: Eiliyas (from Black Communion Mixtape)
Music: Dudù Kouate

TOOL BI
A track that invites listeners to consider life as a field where we reap what we sow
Music: Dudù Kouate

GORÉE
Named after Gorée Island, situated off the coast of Dakar: an island where almost all of the people taken from West Africa were forced onto slave ships to the Americas where they were enslaved.
Reading Voice: Mamy Kouate (Migritude)
Music: Dudù Kouate and Pensieri Africani

NAGNOUMA
A tribute to Casilda Cundini, known as Nagnouma Dembelé (1823–1945), a woman who resisted slavery and formed an army of freed slaves to fight against the Creole Army in Colombia.
Music: Dudù Kouate and Simon Sieger

PYGMÉE
A sound narration designed to spark the listener's imagination and encourage them to explore their fantasies.
Music: Dudù Kouate
Introduction: Dudù Kouate

DUDÚ KOUATE & MULTIKULTI
A tribute to Don Cherry
Music: Dudù Kouate and Multikulti