WOMAD

Jaojoby

From Madagascar

It would be like Huw Edwards suddenly revealing a hitherto unknown talent for traditional Welsh folk songs. Such was the double life of one Eusebe Jaojoby, by day a newsreader on Madagascan national radio, by night one of the most exhilarating singers on an island of exhilarating singers and musicians. Back in his broadcasting days, one of the few ways to make a living as a musician was to play the pop hits of the day in the international hotels. Jaojoby opted for a more noble route, choosing to assimilate traditional Malagasy rhythms into a contemporary sound. This was salegy, a style that grew rapidly in popularity during the late 1980s, allowing Jaojoby the opportunity to rip up the script and abandon the news-reading. Still the dominant music in Madagascar, salegy is an absorbing, relentless dance music that’s full of delicious contradictions – rootsy yet modern, a sound from nowhere else on earth yet eerily familiar. Madagascar might be famous for being phenomenally rich in flora and fauna not found anywhere else on the planet, but its music’s not too far behind. That man Jaojoby can take plenty of credit for that.