Groove Lélé & Ernst Reijseger Zembrocal Musical

Groove Lélé & Ernst Reijseger Zembrocal Musical
Willy Phileas et Ernst Reijseger

Line up

  • Ernst Reijseger (cello)
  • Groove Lélé band (vocals, kayamb, rouler, piker, sati, oudou, tapou)
  • Mola Sylla (vocal, kalimba, xalam, percussions)

Links

Zembrocal Musical is, like all the most exciting adventures, the result of an unexpected meeting between the acclaimed Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger and the group from the Reunion Island, Groove Lele.

In 2008, following an inspired advice from Nana Vasconcelos, who had been seduced by the Maloya after meeting Granmoun, Ernst Reijseger decided to travel to the Reunion Island and meet the Lele family. It was a coup de foudre and the origin of a new project, Zembrocal Musical: at the Festival des Hauts de Garonne in Bordeaux, Ernst Reijseger teams up with Groove Lele and invites his long time partner Mola Sylla. The concert is recorded live and released by Winter&Winter in 2010.

The title of the album refers to one of Reunion's most famous dishes, zembrocal, which combines different ingredients such as meat, grain, rice and spices. Creating a musical blend as tasteful as zembrocal, Ernst Reijseger, Groove Lele and Mola Sylla successfully bring together their different musical universes and take us on a journey from the Netherlands to the Reunion Island.

The group Groove Lele has been founded by the sons of Granmoun Lele (called Pepe Dynamite), musical icon of Maloya (his music has been described by musicologists as a mixture of traditional music from Zanzibar, Mozambique, Somalia, Madagascar), a traditional style based essentially on voice and percussions.

As the music of the slave riots and the slaves' descendants, Maloya was for a long time only played secretly and connected with the fighters for independence. Granmoun Lele, who died in 2004 at the age of 74, composed over 200 songs and, playing all over the world with his family, became an important figure in the musical culture of his island. Four of his sons, Willy, Urbain, Marie-Claude and Beatrice, decided to carry on the Maloya and formed a group called Groove Lele.
In 2008 they received the prestigious Alain Peters award. On October 2009 Maloya became part of UNESCO's world heritage list.

Ernst Reijseger, an acclaimed cellist in avant-garde jazz and contemporary classical music, plays the cello with an unrivalled craftsmanship and uses his talent enthusiastically to further the development of improvised music. Known all over the world for the humour of his unexpected musical turns and the unconventional use he makes of his instrument, he keeps looking for original places at the intersection of different musical traditions. His discography presents a series of such remarkable musical encounters: "Colla Voche" ( Winter&Winter, 1999) with Cuncordu e Tenore de Orosei, a polyphonic choir from Sardinia, "Janna" (Winter&Winter, 2003) with the Senegalese singer Mola Sylla, and "Requiem for a Dying Planet, music for 2 films by Werner Herzog" (Winter&Winter, 2006) that he recorded with both Mola Sylla and Tenore de Orosei.

In 2008, following an inspired advice from Nana Vasconcelos, who had been seduced by the Maloya after meeting Granmoun, Ernst Reijseger decided to travel to the Reunion Island and meet the Lele family. It was a coup de foudre and the origin of a new project, Zembrocal Musical: at the Festival des Hauts de Garonne in Bordeaux, Ernst Reijseger teams up with Groove Lele and invites his long time partner Mola Sylla. The concert is recorded live and released by Winter in 2010.

The title of the album refers to one of Reunion's most famous dishes, zembrocal, which combines different ingredients such as meat, grain, rice and spices. Creating a musical blend as tasteful as zembrocal, Ernst Reijseger, Groove Lele and Mola Sylla successfully bring together their different musical universes and take us on a journey from the Netherlands to the Reunion Island.

CONTACTS
Zembrocal Musical worldwide management and booking
Cristina Fina | La Strada Mundi
website www.lastrada-mundi.com
24, rue de Bagnolet 75020 Paris (France)
Ph +33 (0)1 43 72 42 48 - Email: c.fina@free.fr

Groove Lele - Association AMAR
14 bis Chemin du Cap 97437 Sainte Anne (Reunion Island)
Marcel Phileas : Ph 0262 50 08 48 - Email: willyphileas@gmail.com
Lendita Amours: Ph. 0692 86 30 27 - Email: ditalh@yahoo.fr