Soné Ka-La – Jacques Schwarz-Bart, 2006

In 2006, Jacques Schwarz-Bart released Soné Ka La, the first musical transcription of his return to the gwoka and his Guadeloupean roots, following his studies at Berklee and his immersion in urban jazz with Roy Hargrove, d’Angelo and Erykah Badu. Interviewed on the release of the album, Jacques explains: ‘Soné Ka-La is a concept I started working on in 1990 in Phil Wilson’s applied composition course. At the beginning of the semester, I brought along some modern jazz compositions that he really liked. Halfway through the semester, he pulled me aside and said: ‘I feel you can do better. I feel that you have unique things to say. Forget that you’re at school and bring me something that represents what’s deepest inside you’. It was at this point that I began to draw on Gwoka and my childhood emotions to transpose all the facets of my personality musically. From that point on, the compositions followed on from each other’. He relies on the pairing of Sonny Troupé & Olivier Juste to set the rhythm on the drum – and without drums, the voice of Jean-Pierre Coquerel to make the tradition resonate. He makes the link with Africa, thanks to Lionel Louéké’s guitar and Abou Diarrassouba’s percussion. Finally, Jacques invites the voices that mean so much to him: his mother, Simone, his wife, singer Stephanie McKay (ex-Brooklyn Funk Essentials), the distinctive timbre of Jacob Desvarieux and the powerful voice of Admiral T. Also featuring Milan Milanovic, Mark Kelley, Patrice Blanchard, Vicente Archer and Daniel Sadownik.