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The diatonic accordion is one of the key instruments of traditional Malagasy music. Its "panting" and spinning melodies have blended in for nearly two centuries into the practical music of Grande Ile where it is often used to incite trances. Nevertheless, following the poverty that has stricken the country and its musicians, the instrument is becoming ever more rare: the Malagasy accordionist - a species prone to extinction.
With respect to this sad situation, Régis Gizavo is the exception. At the age of forty, ten of which were spent in Europe, this accordionist from Tuléar presents himself not only as a defender of the traditions of his region (where the ethic groups, Vezo, Masikoro and Mahafaly, co-exist), but also of modern, original music, absorbing like a sponge diverse influences with perfect ease. His experience in the country (immersion from his early childhood in trance music, performance of popular music with various variety groups, and pure research in collaboration with the guitarist D'Gary…) have all gone to make him an accomplished musician who, in 1990, was awarded Radio France International's "Discovery Prize".
Ever since his arrival in Europe the same year, he's been seen by the side of musicians of every tendency: jazz, Oriental, African, variety… It was thanks to the Corsican group, I Muvrini, with whom he's been performing since 1993, that his name became a household word. But it is in his own concerts and albums, as a duet with the percussionist, David Mirandon, that he expresses his true identity: that of a musician with his ears open and his heart irremediably Malagasy.
Photograph: Mephisto © Mephisto.
Régis was barely six years old when he played at school parties with his fathers diatonic accordion, the most common in Madagascar. When Regis is twelve, his father acqires a chromatic accordion with piano keys, on which the son learns immediately. With this instrument, he creates a varied repertory for himself at once traditionaI and modern. Already, his interpretation of tradition is off the beaten track : he plays on the chromatic accordion music made for the diatonic. When at age nineteen, he begins a professional career, it's with an old friend’s chromatic accordion with buttons-again : a new technique, a new learning experience. During his journey across Madagascar, he performs in each town in rented instruments, all kinds of accordions as well as valihas and guitars. As for his voice, it has an original quality, both vibrant and velvety, which did not go unnoticed neither by the jury of RFI nor the leaders of I Muvrini. How to marry all of this talents? For this first aIbum, Régis has made a minimalist choice, that of duet with the percussionist David Mirandon. "We both made steps toward each other, I didn't impose the Malagasy style of percussion", he explains. The compositions are his own, those of a young artist of the world with eclectic tastes and not the traditional repertory.
Tuléar, 1971. In a hut in the Mahavatse neighborhood, a group of kids. armed with makeshift instruments, perform songs they've heard on the radio-French or american tunes, South African or Mozambican music, according to the waves that reach this forgotten land, in the extreme southwest of Madagascar. In a neighboring hut, there is a woman in a trance. Surrounded by relatives, she is prey to the caprices of the spirits which shake and transform her. Suddenly she perceives the sound of an accordion behind the wall, and she is taken over by a frenzy of dancing. The accordion is an instrument of trance par excellence; in this region, accordeonists are part of every rituat, of every celebration. Quickly, they send for the providential musician. Surprise, it's a twelve-year-old child, Regis Gizavo, who fiees at the sight of the posseded woman! He's caught and brought back by force; He will play with his eyes closed, terrified, but will succeed little by little in calming the spirits and freeing the woman. The ambivalence of Régis Gizavo's talent is entirely shown in this anecdote.
The son of a teacher with modern ideas who played the accordeonist musette and taught it to five of his thirteen children, Régis pursued management studies right through to university, and played all kinds of music on his island and in europe, where he has lived since 1990. But in his ethnic group Vezo (fisherman of the southwest coast of Madagascar), and all those which inhabit the Tuléar region (Masikoro, Mahafaly...), the accordion has a religious connotation far too strong for Régis not to have somehow been permeated by it. Every summer, he returned to his mothers village, Tampolo, on the other side of the Mangoky river where he listened to traditional accordeonists; and even if he didn't1earn the trance music, he grew up in their vibrations; their driving grooves emanate naturally forth from his fingers.
His first band is to be the Flibustiers, a group that entertains at local soirees. When he leaves the group to return to his studies, he is barely fifteen. After that he is hired by a more professional group, the Sailors, who accompany the singer Angeline in concert and on the radio. The accordion belongs to the boss, as is often the case in Madagascar; Régis doesn't get his own instument untill 1990. At age twenty-five. after his studies, he undertakes a journey across the island which gives him the opportunity to play with numerous traditiona! and modern musicians. Beginning in 1989, he starts to record his own compositions with Landy, a singer from Tuléar living in Tananarive.
He a!so founds the group Jihé with the guitarist D.Gary, whom he knows from Tuléar. In 1990, Régis is the winner of the "Découvertes" (Discoveries) musical competition organised by Radio France Internationale. He leaves for Europe where the music scene greets him with a warm welcome and he is encouraged to persue an international career (Manu Dibango, Ray Lema, Geoffrey Oryema, Lokua Kanza...). The drummer Francis Lassus invites him to join Bohé Combo, the group he is putting together. Régis accompanies Graeme Allwright, plays on the albums of Zao, Higelin, les Têtes Bru!ées, etc.. and occasionally joins up with his old friend D'Gary, and the group Jihé. In 1993, he becomes the regu!ar accordionist for I Muvrini, replacing the jazz musician Daniel Mille. The 330-odd concerts and sessions given in the span of two years at their side doesn't stop him from working on his first soIo album, which he records around Christmas 1995.
Contacts
Tourneur
Country: France
Name: Corinne Serres / Mad Minute Music
Tel: 01 40 10 25 55
Fax: 01 40 10 17 37
E-mail: corinne@madminutemusic.com
Website: www.madminutemusic.com
Adress: 5-7 rue Paul Bert
93400 Saint Ouen
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