🎸🌴🎶🇲🇬💃A brief stop in Madagascar. In 1972, Freddy Ranarison and his ensemble performed the séga Saint Pierre. A key figure in Salegy—a musical style at the crossroads of séga and traditional Malagasy rhythms, infused with African influences and highly popular in the 1960s and 70s—Freddy Ranarison was one of its pioneers and greatest innovators. He blended his electric guitar with the accordion and traditional instruments, giving the genre a new dimension. On the B-side, we find Afindrafindrao, a quadrille—an essential dance that has traveled across oceans. Its elements, particularly the “commandement” (call-and-response instructions), have often been incorporated into imported cultures and rhythms, both in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.
Saint-Pierre / Afindrafindrao – Freddy Ranarison et son ensemble, 1972
