Oli olé, Oli Olà
Here come
Our friends from Africa
With their music
Come dance
Dance is the oldest art
The body is not of wood
Oli olé, Oli Olà
- Lyric from Tusques’ Les Amis d'Afrique
I saw the 1965 classic movie Battle of Algiers the other day. It is based on events undertaken by rebels during the Algerian War of Independence, which lasted from 1954 to 1962.
The film is an example of Italian neorealism, a major mid-twentieth-century film movement that mixed art and politics to help bring about social change. The soundtrack for the film was composed by the great Italian composer Ennio Morricone.
Battle of Algiers was directed by the renowned Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo. It was co-produced by Pontecorvo’s Italian team and the new Algerian FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) government, whose representative was Saadi Yacef, who also stars in the film as the character Jaffar.
Interestingly, Saadi Yacef was an actual Algerian revolutionary leader, who fought for his country’s liberation from French colonial rule.
The movie reminded me of French musician François Tusques, who served in the French Army during the Algerian War. When asked about his military service, Tusques admits:
I went to Algeria to fight in a nameless war. After dabbling in “the Left” for a while, I was finally formally exposed to Communist ideas here, and that’s the only positive thing I can say about it. I’m lucky, I was in the Signals and Communications Corps, not on the field. Still, what a mess… The only problem is that while we rank and file were doing our best to make it a surrealistic (drunken) experience to keep our sanities, people were getting murdered by the thousands.
In the same way that Gillo Pontecorvo used his film Battle of Algiers, Tusques used his music as a form of cultural opposition. In this regard, we must view Tusques music in the light of the politics of his time. Tusques came of age in the wake of France’s collapse as a colonial power.
After the end of World War II, the dismantling of “greater France” by national liberation movements was accelerated by France’s humiliating defeat in Vietnam in 1954. By the beginning of the 1960s, most of France’s African territories had cast off the yoke of colonial rule. In 1960 alone, Togo, Mali, Senegal, Madagascar, Niger, Upper Volta, (Burkina Faso), Benin, Ivory Coast, Congo, Gabon, and Mauritania declared independence from France. The speed of decolonization in French West Africa was shocking; however, it was the struggle in Algeria that had the most impact and gave birth to the Music of Decolonization. Tusques was at the heart of this musical movement.
I do not know Tusques’ current political views; however, it is well known that he was a Marxist in October 1965 when he recorded Free Jazz, his first album as a leader.
Free Jazz was released in 1966 on the Disques Mouloudji label by Algerian actor/singer Marcel Mouloudji. It is a landmark recording in the history of Free Jazz in Europe and a stunning debut.
From the album, here is Description Automatique D'un Paysage De´sole´:
Although Tusques claims to have not heard Eric Dolphy’s 1964 Out To Lunch before recording Free Jazz, I hear similarities. It’s interesting to note Tusques’ approach to making the album:
I think it’s also important to remember that Free Jazz was not a live recording. In his own words, Tusques describes the process for that album, “So we recorded this average record – great playing, but not much of an interesting structure – and I slashed my way through the material at the mixing desk. Scissors, glue, careful layers, I took the whole session apart and reconstructed it with the band’s assent… It’s just – we wanted to build from these blocks the music that we envisioned rather than the music we could actually do. And at which we got better and better afterwards in live situations. I gave us the pattern. This is Dada. I love collage. I’ve played such tricks numerous times. A record is a record, it doesn’t have to be the truth. Imagination is important to me.
It’s also interesting to read his interpretation of the meaning of the term Free Jazz:
I have no doubt it is something. That it took its name from a record is somehow confusing, but my understanding of it has never changed: it is first and foremost political. I can’t forget we were collectively putting out a fight against many a form of discrimination, against apartheid, we were showing we were a force to be reckoned with. So naturally we had to question the form(s), whether we could keep this or that building block. Were standards, chords, harmony, things we could relate to, or were they just another manifestation of domination, capitalism?… We kept some, rejected some, the idea was to constantly debate it.
In 1967, Tusques released Le Nouveau Jazz with Barney Wilen. You can read more about Barney Wilen here:
This was his second album as a leader and was again released on Disques Mouloudji.
However, it was after his third album as a leader, the 1971 Intercommunal Music, that Tusques started to move away from Free Jazz toward more politicized music.
Two hints signaling his Leftist philosophy are found in Intercommunal Music. First, the title itself - a direct reference to Black Panther Huey Newton’s Intercommunal Theory, which Newton introduced in 1970 at a speech at Boston College:
…and second, the photo of Erika Huggins on the back of the album:
Huggins was a former leading member of the Black Panther Party. In May 1969, Huggins and fellow Party leader Bobby Seale were arrested on conspiracy charges and spent two years in prison awaiting trial before their charges were eventually dropped.
Ironically, after the release of Intercommunal Music, Tusques not only drifted away from Free Jazz, but also distanced himself from the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party. This was mirrored by a rebirth in social activism in France after 1968. The void the African American struggle filled in French musical and political consciousness was replaced by their own internal political upheavals - perhaps foremost the post-colonial marginalization of sub-Saharan Africans. It was during this time that Tusques formed the Intercommunal Free Dance Orchestra.
Tusques founded the Intercommunal Free Dance Orchestra in 1971. It comprised emigres from France’s former African colonies and members of France’s own regional minority groups. In his own words, Tusques describes the project:
Through political circles and friends, I had met Africans, Algerians… You see where I’m going. Synthesis, like in Marxism. I wanted a flexible band to play in factories to workers, in the fields to farmers, that would appeal to other people, music to dance to, to mingle with other bands from other musical horizons. Everything could and would go in there. Folklores – fanfares (we crashed a visit from the President to the Larzac, a famous anarchist commune: we welcomed him with the Internationale, of course) – traditional singers from Brittany – Tanguy and Jean-Louis of course – Algerian percussion – African drums and trombone (Ramadolf, Togo) and sax (Jo Maka, Guinea)….
Their first two albums were released in 1974 in two volumes on Tusques’ Le Temps Des Cerises record label: Vol. 1 - Concert A Prades Le Lez recorded at Moulin de Prades-Le-Lez in the south of France on May 28, 1971:
and simply Vol. 2, also recorded at Prades-Le-Lez a few years later on January 25 and 26, 1974:
From Vol. 2, here is Relaxation:
Perhaps of all Tusques’ music, I find his Intercommunal Free Dance Orchestra music the most compelling.
Here’s one more for the road. From a live performance at the Festival des tombées de la nuit in Rennes, France on July 10, 1982, this is the Intercommunal Free Dance Orchestra’s Les Amis D’Afrique (Friends of Africa)
Next week, on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles in and explore the waters of the great composere Ennio Morricone.
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Until then, keep on walking….