Hilaire Penda

Music:

Member Since: 4/27/2008
Band Members: HILAIRE PENDA
Influences: HILAIRE PENDA by Kevin Le Gendre: The Makossa is one of the original broken beats. A stuttering, staccato rhythm from cameroon that has been immortalized on wax by the West Africa nation's titan saxophonist Manu D'Bango.The Makossa greatly insipred his compatriot Hilaire Penda in his formative years. "It's kind of up in the air", says the 42 year-old from Douala who started playing guitar as a teenager before swapping six string for four. "It jerks and jumps sometimes so there is scope for lots of syncapation on the bass. You end up with some lovely, big rounds notes that you can phrase in a really interesting way." Listen to Hilaire Penda, in full flight, as a rapt audience did when he showcased his intriguing solo project in London earlier this year and you can hear him using the intricate rhythmic syntax of this "Terre d'origine" to create a form of expression that is strongly marked by Jazz and soul sensibilities. We're talking western and non-western syncopation.Given the way Penda has deftly straddled the worlds of Jazz and African music as a sideman - credits include heavyweight improvisers such as Laurent Clugny, John McLaughlin and John Scofield to celebrated Malian and Ivory Coast singers like Salif Keita and Mory Kante - we might be forgiven for thinking that he has an Afro-jazz mission statement. But that wouldn’t be quite as accurate a summary of his aesthetic as he’d like. “I’d say that it’s African music with a real love of jazz,” opines Penda, a graduate of the renowned CIM school in Paris.Jazz has been in African music for a long time, for me it’s a question of taking a road to get to it without sounding clichéd. The improvisation, the solos can be totally African but you can use a jazz template to set them off. You can take an American approach and stay African..”Although he was initially influenced by the fizzing, rapid fire lines of fusion legend Jaco Pastorius as well as the warm pulse of Osibisa’s Cameroonian bassist Jean Dikoto Mandengue, Penda has now crafted a distinctive signature both in his playing and writing.“My style of bass is such that I can’t have a loud drummer so I have two acoustic guitars, voice, percussion and me on bass. It’s lighter and more intimate, it’s not just about bluffing with really complex rhythms. I’m trying to get to the essence of my music."