Most of the time when I step into Blankenship Recital Hall, I expect to hear a sampling of Bach or Mozart, or some meandering contemporary piece of composition. Seksion Maloya’s performance, however, was a pleasant change of pace, even for someone who is not particularly “with it,” as one might say.
Seksion Maloya is the second artist to perform in the Allison Nelson Guest Artist Series, named after the UTM professor emeritus and concert pianist. The group’s raucous, hour-long performance on Nov. 19 nearly packed the auditorium and filled the area with sound.
Seksion Maloya is a percussion and vocal group based out of France led by Jean Didier Hoareau, with members Bruno Toussaint, Loran Velia and Gael Champion-Neeka. The group’s genre, Maloya, is a form of music and dance developed by the slave laborers in the sugar plantations of Reunion during the French colonization of the island.
Once centered around ancestor worship, the music came widely to be known as a protest music for the slaves against their masters and is culturally similar to American genres like blues, which developed out of slave communities. Because of its status as a protest music, Maloya was banned by French authorities but was legalized by French President Francois Mitterand in 1982. Since then, Maloya has spawned a growing number of cultural projects both in Reunion and internationally.
Maloya was declared by UNESCO as part of France’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009. Perhaps the most famous Maloya artist is Danyel Waro, Hoareau’s uncle.
The music showcased during this particular performance was lively and festive at times, but pensive and somber at other times. The closest style of music that I can compare it to is Mandinka, a style of music from West Africa developed by an ethnic group of the same name. In contrast, Hoareau’s Maloya is a bit more loud, bombastic and energetic.
Utilizing instruments like the sati, rouler and kayanm, the group produced an almost solid wall of sound during periods of driving intensity and increasing tempo. They also encouraged audience participation as much as possible, having the crowd echo lyrics for them and inviting everyone to stand and dance.
Overall, it was a pleasant diversion for an hour, and it’s not every day that a percussion group from halfway across the world stops by to give you a taste of Reunion, an island most people have probably never heard of.
