Rasinn - Rasinn Rasta

Very good song from the album "Valer La Vi".

Ras Ricky - Bonjour Jah Jah

Blakkayo - Confians

Kaya & Racintatan - Racin Pé Brilé

Released in the mid-eighties this is the original recording of Kaya's most popular song. This song refers to the lack of identify of Mauritians more precisely the Creoles that are often obsessed with the European culture rather than focusing on their own cultural background. Kaya is trying to empower his community by denouncing the lack of vision for the future by singing "amizé aster taler to pu sofer" which means you can have fun now but later you will struggle which refers the community drinking and fun culture which as a consequence affect the entire family life and progression of the community. This song marks the beginning of a change in the Mauritian musical landscape which before Kaya never existed. Mauritians have never heard such powerful lyrics as Sega traditional songs are often based on theme with a sense of humour. This trend of using music to give a message known as "messaz" is now used by the most popular artists on the island in their music like Blakkayo, Dager Killa and others.

Kaya & Racinetatan - Lam Sacrifice

Rare video from the King of Seggae

Kaya & Racine Tatane - Kiltir

This song is one Kaya’s masterpiece where he delivers powerful lyrics urging the creoles people to look at Africa for inspiration as a cure against the so called “malaise creoles” which is a lack of identity from the black and the mix population. This identity crisis which has created confusion and division amongst the Mauritian people is seen as a cancer that creoles has inherited from slavery which is spreading on the island in the eyes of Kaya and the only remedy is through a greater understanding of the African History. This is a rebellion song and the band does a good job in providing this hypnothic riddim in true Seggae style. Ethiopia here is seen as the sacred land once run by King Solomon and Queen Sheba and their direct descendant Haile Selassie described here as the savior against Babylon. In this song he rejects the Sega dance and songs seen as a product of slavery and urge creoles people to have more belief and self esteem about their heritage as creoles once came from a land of kings and queens.




P.S: Only 70 people signed up for the Kaya petition for comemoration. Your vote can make a difference please sign up today. Also I would like to apologise for not posting this on Kaya 12th anniversary on the 21 Feb hence why i have decided to give out a track.


click here

UPDATE: SINCE SOMEONE TOOK TIME TO GET THIS SONG REMOVED HERE IS THE VIDEO.

P.S. NOTE THAT WE DIDN'T CREATE THIS VIDEO AND THE CONTENT ON YOU TUBE DOESN'T REFLET OUR OPINION ON THIS SUBJECT.

Ras Natty Baby & The Natty Rebels - Nuvel Vizion

Recorded at the Studio Oasis (Reunion Island) in August 1990 Ras Natty Baby and the Natty Rebels released an album like never heard before on the Island. Both musically and lyrically this album is a masterpiece of Mauritian music and one of the greatest Seggae album ever released. This album took the genre that Kaya and Racin Tatan pioneered to different heights.
Born in the island of Rodrigue (700 km from Mauritius), Ras Natty Baby is the other great seggae artist of the nineties. He draws his inspiration from the Rastafarian philosophy, local Sega rhythms, reggae and the harsh social and economic realities that surrounded the singer and the creoles community. In the Petite Rivière community where he lived, he set up his Natty Rebels, a band that enjoyed widespread success as a modern expression of the Creoles people which has felt marginalised and repressed for decades.
Ras Natty Baby musical career was shattered when in 2004 he was arrested, accused of smuggling heroin in the local community. In 2007 he was arrested again for the same crime which he pleaded guilty to the court in 2009 and was incarcerate for 30 month in prison.
However Nuvel Vision has all the ingredients to make a classic album. The first track that gives name to the album “Nuvel Vision” that means “new vision”, he introduce Mauritian people to the seggae that is a meltdown of local sega and Jamaican reggae stating “nouvo lamizik/ nouvo vibration/ nuvel vision/ couler larc en ciel/ Mauritian ek zamaikain/ fin zoin ensam/ nu apel sa seggae/ sega-reggae/ zot kouma deux frère/ nu ti separe/ zordi zot fin zoine”. This means that seggae is for everyone and sega and reggae were once brothers and were separated and now they have joined again referring to black people as Africans that were separated during slavery and now have met again through music.
The second track “Rastafari” I remember was playing out loud in the citée where I grew up in the nineties when the album first came out and was a hit amongst the youth. The Seggae imprint is profound on this track with the hypnotic chords of the keyboard alternating with the guitar followed by the deep bass and the drum in up-tempo fused with the Natty husky voice. This is an ode to Jah and the Rastafarians where he says“ croire dan so mystere/ croire dan so lamour” which means believe in his mystery and his love.
The Third track must be his most popular song “leve mo pep” where he hails the Mauritian to raise and stand up against all forces that are working to destroy Mauritian culture and divide the Mauritian people.
Overall this album is complete with songs that will put anyone in a good mood and bring the Mauritian sunshine to your living room, your car or your i pod. This album is a milestone of Mauritian music that every Mauritian artist should listen to before attempt to make music ensuring that the standard of their music match or surpass this album as too many young artists fail to do their homework before recording and often their final results is very poor. Only few artists have managed to take Ras Natty and Kaya's music tradition to the next level.




Credits:

Vocal: Ras Natty baby
Solo Guitar : Cledio Pierre Louis
Rythmique Guitare : Daniel Colidor
Acustic Guitar: Ras Nutty Baby
Syth: Richard Augustin
Keyboard: Benjamin Lallsing
Bass: Sylvio Magdeleine
Drums: Berty Pirogue
Congas & Bongos: Ras Levi
Bruitage: Eddy Joseph
Backing singers: Joe, Eddy, Ras Levi
Mixed by Sullivan Vally
Cover Design: Christian Messin

Tracklist

1. Nuvel Vision
2. Rastafari
3. Léve mo pep
4. zom
5. Mo la mosik
6. Nu zwen ansam
7. Linzistis
8. Mwin p'ti mazambik

Kaya - Gran Ter

This is a powerful song with a rich rhythm section fused with great lyrics of empowerment to the Creoles taken from the album Zistwar Revoltan.

Bob Marley - Survival

Released on 2 October 1979 this is an album with an outwardly militant theme. The album front cover despicts 48 flags of African countries including Mauritius (in row six), between Zimbawe and Mauritania as Mauritius is geografically part of the African continant.
Song like "Africa Unite" proclaims the the African solidariety and the song "Zimbawe" is a hymn dedicated to later-independant Rhodesia. In South Africa the album was partly censored by the then apartheid government.
Bob Marley & The Wailers music had a big impact on Kaya who took his name from one of Marley's song.  Kaya and his band will take a sample from the song Africa Unite to create the famous anthem "Racin Pé Brilé". Kaya & Racintatan created Seggae which is a fusion of Reggae with the local Sega that will give the artist a vibrant musical platform where he delivered messages of peace, love & unity.

Berger Agathe

Many thought, when they heard the song “Zom Ki Faim” that it was Kaya as the song had the same passion. However it wasn’t Kaya it was this new seggae singer Berger Agathe, originally from Rodrigue Island, who lived in Roche-Bois. He became a close friend of Kaya that was also responsible for naming his band Ovajaho.

The band released the album “Vanite” that also included the hit “Pena Pu Kui” that means “nothing to cook” symbolising the state of poverty the people of Roche-Bois and other areas in Mauritius. He was also responsible for introducing the band “Zot Sa” that had a huge impact on his albums such as “Nou tou ensam, en chantant La vérité”. His last album was entitled “Non La Violance” that means “No to Violence”.

Berger Agathe was shot dead by the police in February1999 as Riots broke on the Island following the death of musician Kaya while in custody.

source

Ras Ti-Lang

Ras Ti-lang (small tongue) was the natural successor of seggae after the death of Kaya (king of seggae). His popularity was based on the fact that his music was about the Mauritian people every day struggle.

The singer was victim of a car accident where he had his tongue cut. Everyone around him thought that his career as a singer was over as he couldn’t speak for several days. However driven by his passion and determination for music everyday he would play his djembé (African drum) by the river while practicing his vocals which he would regain successfully. Ti Lang used of music was the only way he could express his emotions as he couldn’t read or write. His music was loved by all communities however he speaks to the Creoles about the value of education, friendship, injustice and the poverty faced by many.

In June 2004 he was arrested and jailed on allegation of theft. In July he was transported to hospital after complaining of chess pain in prison, he died in hospital and the coroner confirmed that he died of natural causes. His two albums Evolusion and L’édikasyon remain seggae classics.

Jean-Claude Gaspard

Jean-Claude who is now among the doyens of Mauritian séga singers, said he has séga in his blood, being the son of another séga great, late Roger Augustin. He has graced the international stage in cultural shows in Vanuatu, New Zealand, Canada, Austria, China and Australia.

George "le colonel" Corette - RIP

George “le colonel” Corette died at the age of 58 on the 21st of August 2010 after a battle against cancer that lasted for months. However he leaves a long lasting legacy on the Mauritian music scene. He was a demanding character when it comes to his music and as he confirmed himself, he was never a person that could take any type of criticism, as he was confident in his choices which attributes is also characteristic of his regimented character that earned him the nickname “le Colonel”.

He always trusted his own instinct when it comes to the artists he worked with which would immediately recognised his unique talent. Many of those artist he worked with rose to stardom such as Otantik Street Brothers (OSB), Blakkayo and many more.

He was a man that was always researching for the perfect sound. Not happy of the musical development in the country he left Mauritius at the age of 42 with the group Blue Star to venture new musical and cultural horizons which led him to France where he would join the musical school of Saint Ouen and where he also joined the army. Still eager to contribute his knowledge and experience acquired to the local scene he travelled back to Mauritius. At that time their was a buzz in all the citée about Kaya who was the new local sensation fusing the local sega with reggae delivering lyrics of peace and unity. George thought he could work with him to develop the sound in terms of the recording, mixing and production and he proposed Kaya to work together which led him him to arrange and produce the album L' Experience, which was a re-mastering and re-recording of some of Kaya's hits. Despite this effort L’Experince lost some of its originality that had gained Kaya and Racin Tatan their fame on the island. However George would continue to work with young artists and helped to shape the Reggae and Seggae sound on the island that influences can still be heard in today's music.

Check George Corette on percussions on the Ras Ricky performance

Jean Paul "Bluey" Maunick

Jean-Paul 'Bluey' Maunick, born 19 February 1957 in Mauritius son of Mauritian Poet Eduard Maunick and Armande Mallet, is a guitarist, bandleader, composer and in-demand record producer. Since 1979, he has led the British band Incognito, being one of the pioneers of acid jazz, and releasing thirteen studio albums, three albums of remixes and two further albums by bands largely made up of the members of Incognito. Bluey was also a founder member of the group Light of the World.
As a record producer, his credits include, among others, household names such as Paul Weller, George Benson, Maxi Priest and Terry Callier.

Ti Frere

 

Jean Alphonse Ravaton, alias Ti Frere, was born on April 29th, 1900. His father was Madagascan ( Ravaton is a Madagascan surname) and a sega artist too, the art form being characteristically passed on from father to son, and groups often made up of members of the same family. A coachman to a well-to-do-family, his father not only performed the sega but also conducted a dance band, the kind prolific at the time with accordion, banjo, percussion, and sometimes violin. Such orchestras performed European dance repertoire like the "cottish", "mazok", "lavalse" and "quadrilles", dances which, although they have disappeared in Mauritius, are still popular on Rodrigues, the neighbouring island. Ti Frere learnt to sing the sega and ballads too through accompanying his father. Later he would sing with his own dance band, playing especially for " zarico" (z’haricot) (bean) dances. "Zarico" dances were Saturday night country affairs put on in the courtyards of homes and during which a cake containing a bean was shared out: whoever got the bean had to put on the next Saturday’s dance. These dances would always finish with a few segas, something that still happens today at marriages or parties and that harkens back to the time when the sega, frowned upon and sometimes forbidden, was only danced as the night would close and restrictions eased up a little.
The segas marginally never threatened its existence: Ti Frere has performed it all his life. He would be called upon for parties, beach picnics, drinks after shooting parties which he himself would participate as a beater and sometimes as hunter. His sega artist reputation was firmly established through veritable tournaments, "pariages sega", contests with no prize and no jury, put on from village to village, which would last all night long, even today into the next day with only judges being the dancers and their audience.

Although Ti Frere was reputed locally, he had to wait until 1964 to achieve fame on a national scale. On October 30th of that year occurred the famous " Night Of the Sega". Held on Mt. Le Morne, it was a musical and theatrical happening which Mauritians still remember. In some ways this happening was the official reinstatement of the sega and the first step towards an awareness of Afro-Mauritian cultural identity. Four years away from independence and cohabitating with Indian, Moslem, European, Chinese ethnic groups, the Afro-Mauritian, so called Creole community felt the need to assert its identity through a rediscovery and conservation of its roots. On that night a sega contest was organised after which Ti Frere was crowned " King of sega". From then on, he was in the public eye and recorded a series of 45’s which are unobtainable today. To the traditional ravanne, maravane , and triangle, Ti Frere would sometimes add the accordion, influenced by his father  (and his own) dance band instruments. Like other sega artist , Ti Frere has never been able to live from it. He has had many different trades: wood cutter, cane-cutter, " casseur roches" (boulder breaker), bus conductor, forester.

Ti Frere has artistry that is totally unique. This is in part due to his strong artistic personality but also to what has influenced his make-up. Ti Frere was initiated by his father, but the latter had already been triply influenced by the Bohjpuri language, his Madagascan birth ( Ti Frere still remembers the Madagascan songs his father taught him) and by his contact with the European dance music performed by his orchestra, music and in other towns no doubt also influenced his father. According to A.Pitot (1910), vestigates of this music still live on in the sega , just as in new Orleans, Blacks were imitating bands on parade.

This unique situation made Ti Frere a synthesis of African and European roots, and able, by assimilation away from the structure of African-inherited classical sega ( drumcall, soloist, choir), to adopt a form inspirited by European models: Sega’s with verse and a refrain sung from beginning to end by a soloist where melody counted above all. The " drawing room sega" followed similar lines but Ti Frere remained traditional without losing any of the rhythmic intensity and inspiration of the original rhythmic framework and ravanne sega instrumentation.

American bluesmen too left far behind them the songs of their ancestors, especially work songs, opting for newer European forms and instrumentation and creating unique new forms of expression- the old songs lived on nevertheless and evolved quite naturally into Negro Spirituals. Ti frere, without losing any of the rhythmic intensity and inspiration of the original sega art from has written superb melodies. This is how segas were born, even if their repertoire is now well-known to all Mauritians. Simple everyday things would take them off: words of advice to a drunkard, for a neighbours child, domestic rows...
Ti Frere tells great stories but then a sega artist cannot help but be a storyteller, a kind of chansonnier, piecing together over the years a musical patchwork of the events, the characters and the ups and downs of an entire community.

The Instruments

The ravanne: a goat skin drawn taut over a circle of wood to form a flat drum. The maravane: a kind of hanging rattle; branches of sugarcane flowers or a metal leaf perforated with tiny holes are fixed to a wooden rectangular frame. Grains or little pebbles are placed inside the rattle and sounded by moving it from side to side. The triangle: the classical instrument, a little iron rod which strikes the three sides of the triangle.

The Dance

The rules of sega dancing are quite specific. The dancers take short lateral steps with a suggestive swaying of the hips. They dance in couples, the man facing the woman. Sometimes, he turns around her or moves off seeming to have lost her, only to come close together again, brushing against one another without ever touching. Sometimes another man moves in between the dancer and his partner: this is called "cutting". The woman goes on to dance with him until it is her turn to be cut. The couple periodically crouch down before each other with a constant "shimmy of the pelvis": their bust meet and they lean over onto each other, taking it in turn to dip over backwards, until they touch the ground only to come back up to lean over their partner. This step, called "en bas en bas" ( down low), symbolises the sexual act. An act sublimated and transcended since the bodies never actually touch. Musicians and dancers communicate all the time, intense excitement being highlighted by the rhythm, onomatopoeia and short, snappy interjections ( alaila, mo vini, bouze to le reins, en bas et toi, bouze..... move it, get down there, go for it, your turn....)

Kaya King of Seggae

Kaya, alias Joseph Reginald Topize was a committed artist and much loved amongst the Mauritians. On 21^st February 1999, this popular singer and Seggae creator died tragically in a Mauritian jail. Both the music world and the whole country were deeply shaken by his death. Every year, numerous events are organised all across the Indian Ocean in order to pay tribute to him.

This artist wanted a better world...He fought for human rights and against injustice by exposing the lies of the government at the time, corruption and racism...

Among his hitss were "Seggae Man," "Simé la lumière," "Chante l'amour" and "Fam Dan Zil."