Music

African Guitar Summit launches 6-city tour of Alaska

Donne Roberts wasn't sure what to expect when he got a call in 2004 from producer Todd Fraracci, asking the Madagascar-born guitarist to participate in a special recording project for Canada's CBC Radio.

Fraracci's brainchild brought together nine of Canada's foremost African musicians and featured an enormous array of styles, from the nomadic West African sound of Alpha Yaya Diallo to the Malagasy-inspired blues of Madagascar Slim.

Any uncertainty Roberts had quickly turned to enthusiasm as the project -- dubbed the African Guitar Summit -- not only produced a Juno-winning album, but has also forged a decade-long partnership among the musicians.

"(Fraracci) knew all of us separately, and everyone from the band had their own solo project," Roberts said. "He called everyone and said, 'Are you interested in getting together with the finest African guitar players that lived in Canada?' It happened organically. Everyone just found their pocket and did their thing."

African Guitar Summit, featuring five of those nine members, has seven upcoming tour stops in Alaska, including a two-night stand at the Discovery Theatre in Anchorage on Friday-Saturday, March 6-7.

The project developed quickly. The band performed for CBC's "On Stage" show, using songs they'd workshopped in the group during a brief three-day practice stint.

"Todd said, 'Bring a couple of your own songs,' " Roberts said. "We all just started jamming and everyone said, 'Feel free to join and do whatever you want to do.'

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"People always ask, 'How many guitarists do you have?' But somehow magically we don't step on each other's shoes."

Despite the name, the group is not composed only of guitarists. Ghana drummer Kofi Ackah provides rhythm for the group and Guinea native Naby Kamara plays the balafon, a wooden instrument similar to a xylophone.

African Guitar Summit's initial performance was almost immediately followed by a slapdash recording session, with all of the songs recorded live in just one or two takes over the course of a few days.

The parties went their respective ways and in November 2004, their self-titled debut album was released.

"The funny thing was, we all rehearsed and played and recorded and that was it," Roberts said. "Everybody went home and played on their projects. No one talked to each other after that. It was just viewed as a (one-time) project -- a good gig."

That was until they received notice the album had been nominated for a 2005 Juno Award, Canada's version of the Grammys.

"That's when everything started," according to Roberts. "We were all invited to play the Juno gala. That's when it got exciting."

The release won the award for World Music Album of the Year and in a matter of weeks, the barely weeklong summit went from "a good gig" to a nearly full-time project.

"We were all in the bathroom together (at the awards gala) and a guy asked us if we had an agent," Roberts said. "We traveled and played a lot of festivals."

Bob Geldof, known for organizing benefit concerts Live Aid and Band Aid, asked the band to play Live 8, which raised funds to combat poverty in Africa in 2005.

The new opportunities allowed the band members to form a more cohesive group, and in many ways, to develop a new genre of world music, with influences from each country the musicians hailed from.

"What makes the songs unique is that we all add our culture," Roberts said. "When I play a song, I have a Kenyan guitar player and another guy from Ghana and they all put their input into my song. It's not 100 percent from Madagascar, which makes it unique."

The group released African Guitar Summit II in 2006 and the album was nominated for a Juno in 2007 but this time did not win.

Each of the artists took a different path from Africa to Canada. Madagascar Slim attended Seneca College in Toronto, studying music and accounting. Rwandan/Burundian musician Mighty Popo was a refugee of that war-torn part of the continent. Roberts, the son of a diplomat, grew up in Russia before moving to Toronto.

Eastern Canada and many West African nations share a French history, language and culture stemming from the colonial era, which Roberts said has helped established a fertile ground for African music to thrive.

"There's a fairly big African community here in Toronto," Roberts said. "There are all sorts of organizations like Music Africa."

Other projects and geographic separation -- the group's members are now more far flung -- have limited the group's activity in recent years. But Roberts said there's still excitement among the players when they get together.

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"It's up and down," he said. "We also live in different cities. That's another factor in getting everyone together. African Guitar Summit opened up a door for all of us … There's a lot of respect on the stage."

African Guitar Summit in Alaska

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, March 6-7

Where: Discovery Theatre, Anchorage

Tickets: $40.25-$53.75 at alaskapac.centertix.net

Also performing at:

March 8, Denali Arts Council, Talkeetna

March 10, Valdez Civic Center, Valdez

March 12, Community Activity Center, Fort Greely

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March 13, Hering Auditorium, Fairbanks

March 14, Tri-Valley School, Healy

Chris Bieri

Chris Bieri is the sports and entertainment editor at the Anchorage Daily News.

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