Gasy

Gasy Jazz Project is the meeting between Jazz and Malagasy music ("gasy"), two worlds in which the Franco-Malagasy bassist Gabrielle Randrian Koehlhoeffer easily plays. Very appreciated for his solid and rhythmic accompaniment, Gabrielle has been playing for several years. years with many musicians of the jazz scene in France but also big names.

“Strut continues its essential compilation series of Indian Ocean sounds with ‘Alefa Madagascar’, the first compilation to document the unique culture of salegy, soukous and soul on the island during the ‘70s and ‘80s. Originating as far back as the 15 th Century through folkloric ceremonial music and an a cappella chanting style called antsa, salegy emerged as a fast- tempoed local dance style based on 6/8 and 12/8 rhythms. By the ‘60s, radio was bringing in new sounds from the Congo, Mozambique, South Africa and Kenya and Jean Francois de Comarmond’s Discomad label championed a new generation of artists breaking the mould with their own new fusions of styles as electric instruments replaced the traditional.

Presenter Ian Wright travels through Madagascar, ‘the red island’ 250 miles off the east coast of Africa. It’s the 4th largest island in the world, with landscapes ranging from rainforest to arid desert, and animal and plant life found nowhere else in the world.
His journey begins in Antananarivo (Tana), the capital of Madagascar. Here he learns about the unique history and culture of the Malagasy. The earliest rulers were the highland ‘Merina’ tribe, and the first king Andrianampoinimerina united the island by marrying one wife from each of the 12 tribes. His granddaughter, Queen Ranavalona, came to power in 1828 and became the most notorious ruler – she threw foreigners out of the country, banned Christianity and slaughtered her own people in the most brutal ways.