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Abstract: This paper examines the ways in which Orchestra Baobab and AfroCubism, two bands that combine West jfrican and Cuban musics, negotiate musical mixing across the black Atlantic. Looking at the frictions between different musical sounds and meanings, I explore the ways in which musicians re-imagine and reconstruct the black Atlantic and their own identities as they creatively combine Cuban and African musics. I argue that musicians are strategic in their combining of music and social meanings, idealistic in their belief in connecting people and musics across the Atlantic and pragmatic in their discussions if the limits of musical mixing and collaboration.
Resume : Cet article se penche sur les différentes manières dont Orchestra Baobab et AfroCubism, deux groupes qui allient les musiques de l'Afrique de l'Ouest et de Cuba, négocient le mélange musical de part et d'autre de l'Atlantique noir. En examinant les frictions entre les différents sons et sens musicaux, j'examine la manière dont les musiciens ré-imaginent et reconstruisent l'Atlantique noir et leurs propres identités, en combinant avec créativité les musiques fricaines et cubaines. J'avance que les musiciens sont tacticiens lorsqu'ils combinent musique et significations sociales ; idéalistes quant à leur sentiment de relier les gens et les musiques de part et d'autre de l'Atlantique ;et pragmatiques lorsqu'ils discutent des hmites du mélange musical et de la collaboration.
Discussing the Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab's incorporation of Cuban music, guitarist and band member Latfi Benjeloune told me, "The music didn't come home and influence African music. Cuban music is already African. These are African sensibilities that are being expressed ... in some ways we felt like parents with this music ... it came from us" (interview, October 25, 2011). Here, Benjeloune justifies his musical mixing by positioning himself in relation to the black Atlantic and African and Afro-diasporic peoples. Making musical and cultural connections across the black Atlantic is not a new phenomenon. African and Afro-diasporic musicians have long shared and taken up each other's musics, be it funk, jazz or rumba. The dynamics of musical mixing, however, have varied widely and have been affected by power relations, histories, cultural understandings and misunderstandings, as well as by access to technology, the workings of the music industry, and distribution networks.
In this paper...