Sten Källman & Sanba Zao

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Mapou to tour Sweden in October 2022!

STEN KÄLLMAN – MAPOU – SANBA ZAO

Pyebwa mapou se yon pyebwa sakre paske li la depi epòk Taino e li se yon reposwa pou espri yo. Pou vodouyizan, lè yo salye espri nan pyebwa Mapou, yo jwenn kontak avèk Lafrik kote zanzèt yo te soti. Espesyalman nan Lakou Souvenans moun yo santi yo pitit peyi Dawomen. Sa vle di peyi Benin. Se pou tèt sa yo sèvi lwa-yo avèk rit Dawomen tankou Kase Dawomen, Vodou Double Nago…

English translation from Kreol:

The Mapou tree is a sacred tree, since it has stood there since the Taino epoch and is also a place where the spirits rest. When the vodou people greet the spirits in the Mapou tree they come into contact with Africa, where their forefathers came from. The people of Lakou Souvenans in particular feel that they are children of the country of Dahomey, now Benin. Thus they serve their spirits with Dahomey rhythms such as Kase Dawomen, Vodou Double Nago…

Recorded and mixed at Studio Baxx, Port-au-Prince and Studio Epidemin, Gothenburg.

Here is the booklet about the album Mapou

and here is a trailer:

Release date November 19, 2020

“Sten Källmans mångåriga kunnande och lysande spel och arrangemang gör MAPOU  till en självklarhet för den som vill lyssna in sig på Haitiskt slagverk, nordiska folklåtar eller helt enkelt riktigt fin musik. För det finns det gott om här.” –Rasmus Klockljung, Lira

More reviews in Swedish: Peter Sjöblom i MONO, Alexander Agrell i HD,

In Norweigian: Tor Hammerö, Nettavisen

In English: Andrew Cronshaw in RootsWorld

“This is the genius of Sten Källman; that he is able to create music with brilliant Haitian artists led by Sanba Zao in praise of the spiritual gifts of Mapou. But more than anything else this music reminds us that as a humanity we are affianced to but one feeling – and that is “Hope”; the one aspect of life that has enambled our species to survive for 6 billion years. And this is so evocatively ennunciated in this music… enunciated with great passion and deep emotion on an album to die for…”

The incredible Raul da Gama has listened to Sten Källman’s Mapou! https://worldmusicreport.com/…/sten-kallman-sanba-zao…/

In French by Dan Behrmann i TED, Quebec

STEN KÄLLMAN - MAPOU - SANBA ZAO

Sanba Zao

Sanba Zao & Sten Källman

Sten Källman

Sten Källman

1. Vals Azounke (4:09)
2. Beautiful waltz (5:10)
3. Love halling (2:54)
4. Dance of darkness-Svarthalling (5:19)
5. Sleipner (3:41)
6. Nan fon bwa (3:59)
7. Un soir/Twilight (6:07)
8. Kitchen spirit/Den blåkledde (2:54)
9. Kanaval & Jubilation (5:10)
10. Magdalenapolskan (4:33)

All arrangements by Sten Källman, with contributions by Henrik Cederblom on Sleipner and Stefan Bergman on Twilight.
Sten Källman (all tracks) soprano, tenor, baritone saxophones
Louis Lesly ”Sanba Zao” Marcelin (all tracks except 5, 8) percussion (segon, gwonde, fè, tcha-tcha)
Adjamile Marcelin (all tracks except 5,8) percussion (kata, manman petwo)
Woulele Marcelin (all tracks except 5,8) percussion (manman petwo, manman rada) Robin Johansson (1,2,4,5,7,8,9) bass clarinet, soprano saxophone
Jonas Simonson (2,5) alto flute
Hilda Ekstedt (1,7,9) tenor saxophone Anna Malmström (1,7,9) clarinet
Sofia Andersson (1,9) baritone saxophone Cecilia Moore (1,7,9) soprano saxophone Johannes Bergil (1,7,9) alto saxophone Martin Brandqvist (1,7,9) alto saxophone
Klas Nilsson (1,7,9) trumpet
Viktor Turegård (1,7,9) tuba
David Byström (9) trombone

Recorded at Studio Baxx, Port-au-Prince, January 2019 by Browns Louis Charles, co-production Dadi Beaubrun.
Recorded and mixed at Studio Epedemin, Gothenburg, 2019–2020 by Henrik Cederblom. Produced by Henrik Cederblom, Sten Källman and Bengt Berger.
Mastering by Claes Persson, CRP.
Graphic Design: Jon Edergren, Spektra.
Illustration: Malva Fürst, Spektra.
Photos: Lotta Sjölin Cederblom (Studio Baxx), Erland Segerstedt (Zao), Sanna Källman (mapou tree) and Ulf Celander (Sten).
Text in Haitian creole by Sten Källman.
English translation by Fred Lane.
Release date November 19. 2020.

Thanks to: My dearest life partner Sanna, my children Moa, Simon and Sofia, Zao, Adja, Woulele, Henrik, all the wind musicians on my album, Ti Dok Tanbou (my first drum teacher), Simbi, Lolo Beaubrun, Wawa, Den Fule, Bäsk, Lakou Souvenans, Lakou Soukri, Lakou Badjo, Markus Schwartz, Richard Morse, the Song Ensemble Amanda.

LOUIS LESLY « Sanba Zao » MARCELIN

The singer, drummer and composer Louis Lesly Marcelin alias SANBA ZAO was born in Port-au-Prince Haiti 1954. Raised with american pop-rock music at the time he became one of the first young musicians from the haitian capital to discover the rich folk music among the people in the countryside. He started studying the great and complex ritual drum music in the religious compound Souvenans in northern Haiti. Zao together with other musicians like him started the Mizik Rasinn (Roots music) movement in the beginning of 1980’s. Zao was an important member of Group Ca, Foula Jazz and Sanba Yo. Boukman Eksperyans was also part of this movement.

Later on he formed Djakata, a band based on drumming and singing. Zao came to be a very conscious researcher in traditional vodou music with all its rhythms and songs and as such he has worked as a teacher at l’ENARTS, the Academy of Fine Arts in Port-au-Prince.

The last years he has been involved in the haitian band Lalou Mizik and many other collaborations abroad both as a musician and pedagouge for example in Sweden with the Vodou music band Simbi. This on-going collaboration with Sten Källman, Simbi and the Choir Amanda started in 2012.

Mapou is the name of a sacred tree which grows in Haiti. This tree was there long before Europeans and Africans arrived and has become a place where people and spirits meet. To the vodou people, the mapou tree is a magical link to the Tainos – the first people to inhabit Haiti. It is also a place where the spirits rest – the spirits which are so important in the lives of Haitians. The best-known mapou tree is where the vodou pilgrims gather in the village of Souvenans, where a great and powerful rite takes place at Easter. This rite aims to recall the long journey from Africa, slavery in the New World and the struggle for freedom from slavery and for equality. This is what vodou is about, in addition to the spiritual identity of the individual and the collective and community. The Souvenans temple has its own rhythms to accompany song and dance. Through the music, the members of the congregation preserve the memory of their country of origin Dahomey – the ancient kingdom in the present-day Benin in Western Africa. My friend and colleague Sanba Zao has learned their unique music since the 1980s and has through his knowledge and dedication influenced an entire generation of Port-au-Prince musicians. He was one of the foremost figures in what came to be known as « Mouvman mizik rasinn » (roots music movement) which I regard as Haitis answer to our Nordic folk music wave. Since 2012 I have been privileged to cooperate with Sanba Zao, thus gaining insight into this fantastic music. In 1970 I landed in Haiti for the first time, spending a year there. My observations and powerful experiences during that year have greatly influenced my life. The folk music of Haiti and the creole language – spoken by all Haitians – have not least become a great part of my life as a musician. Our Swedish and Nordic folk music has also been an important part of my music-making. In Filarfolket in the 1980s and later in the groups Den Fule och Bäsk, we explored the possibilities of using Haitian drum music in the Nordic tradition. Additionally, my cooperation with Boukman Eksperyans, Wawa and Sanba Zao has been and still is invaluable. My band Simbi has worked together with these musicians many times in Sweden, Haiti, the USA and Canada. After many years of working with these two esteemed and living music traditions, the Haitian and the Nordic, I have managed to bring them together and find ways for them to combine without the need to compromise with identity or originality. A new music has thus been created. (Obs! I originaltexten står ”orginalitet”) My album Mapou – Haitian Drums and Northern Wind is a tribute to Haiti’s ritual music – an art form of its own with a unique musical sound – which developed in Haiti’s vodou temples. This album is at one and the same time a tribute to the struggle of Haitians for independence and human dignity. Mapou is also a tribute to Nordic traditional music and to the insight that each people has a story to tell via its music. Music gives us a sense of community. To my mind, the great Mapou tree with its enormous roots and branches is a symbol of this longing for community. – Sten Källman

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