Mapou

Amazon.com
Music fans will have to read the informative liner notes to Rene Lacaille's Mapou to get a detailed explanation of how Creole culture came to La Reunion, which is a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Like Creoles everywhere, the La Reunion's culture is a mixed one: in this case made up of slaves and free people from Africa, India, Madagascar, Europe and China. Son of a working musician who played events of all kinds on the island, Lacaille has broad range of styles at his disposal. The album opens with an African-influenced "Madina" (featuring ukulele, triangle, and bongos) and moves through a very fulfilling but varied 20-song program where elements of tango, bolero, cha cha cha and calypso come out in such local strains as sega and maloya. Singing in Creole, Lacaille's voice is warm and inviting even to those who don't speak the language. A veritable inside-out version of western hemisphere Creole music, Mapou is a one-of-a-kind listening experience. –-Tad Hendrickson

Product Description
René Lacaille is the musical embodiment of the unique Creole culture of the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion, incorporating African, Indian, Madagascan and European rhythms and instruments. On the album Mapou, this remarkable singer, accordion player, guitarist and extraordinary songster tells the story of his troubadour life, which highlights the evolution of the music of La Réunion and features (among others) the fascinating styles of séga and maloya.

Tracks:

Madina
Ogardanou
La Bou Dan Fon
Lusaka
Game Zoboc
Isis
La Mandoz
Atmosfer
Kizi'n Man
Mazurka 28
Dalonaz
Titep
Pencheur Quat'sou
Sega 58
Zamalgamer
La Rosee Si Feuilles Songes
Cabaret Sam
Quand Moin La Quitte Mon Pays
Lo Ker I Bat
Cos Cote

Amazon.com

Music fans will have to read the informative liner notes to Rene Lacaille's Mapou to get a detailed explanation of how Creole culture came to La Reunion, which is a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Like Creoles everywhere, the La Reunion's culture is a mixed one: in this case made up of slaves and free people from Africa, India, Madagascar, Europe and China. Son of a working musician who played events of all kinds on the island, Lacaille has broad range of styles at his disposal. The album opens with an African-influenced "Madina" (featuring ukulele, triangle, and bongos) and moves through a very fulfilling but varied 20-song program where elements of tango, bolero, cha cha cha and calypso come out in such local strains as sega and maloya. Singing in Creole, Lacaille's voice is warm and inviting even to those who don't speak the language. A veritable inside-out version of western hemisphere Creole music, Mapou is a one-of-a-kind listening experience. --Tad Hendrickson

Album Description

René Lacaille is the musical embodiment of the unique Creole culture of the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion, incorporating African, Indian, Madagascan and European rhythms and instruments. On the album Mapou, this remarkable singer, accordion player, guitarist and extraordinary songster tells the story of his troubadour life, which highlights the evolution of the music of La Réunion and features (among others) the fascinating styles of séga and maloya.

Customer Reviews:

Really showed me the full scope and depth of Rene Lacaille's art.......2006-01-30

I, like possibly many of you reading this, first found Rene through his collaboration with Bob Brozman a few years ago on their album, DigDig. As much as I liked that one at the time (though the recording quality has at times bothered me over the years), it is greatly surpassed by this album.

This album has both a larger stylistic and emotional range than DigDig plus it also has better sound. I loved DigDig for a while. Then over the years I began to just like most of it and really like parts of it. Mapou is a whole other story, though. It only gets better the longer you own it. I think I may have given DigDig 5 stars but it needs to be dropped down. I'm a huge Brozman fan and if you are also, you still want DigDig, but don't purchase it at the sacrifice of Mapou. If you're curious about the music of Reunion Island but can only afford to get one or the other, get this one.

Some of the same things still apply. The music of Reunion kinda seems like a little French village grew up surrounded by the peoples and musics of various regions of Africa, India, and for some reason on this album there also seem to be hints of Spanish influence (at least to my ears).

The instrumentation is largely percussion, acoustic guitars and flute, with accordion being a major presence on most songs. If you just began to cringe, don't. You can unclench. Reunion Island-style accordion is fantastic! This isn't some sort of cheesy Vegas lounge-polka accordion here, this is killer stuff. Rene is utterly brilliant. There are also some electric guitar moments on this album as well as the Odyssee Accordion which I'd never heard of before. Going just from ear, it must just be some sort of electric accordion. If you're an acoustic purist, don't let my mention of electric guitars and accordions freak you out. As they're used here, they both serve the music well. Sometimes electricity on "world music albums" means a producer dumbed-down the music and cranked it up simply as a way of grabbing the Western ear. That's not the case here.

I love this album and I hope it's been selling well enough to allow further American releases of Rene's music. You fans of rhythm will love this album.

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