Tinn Tout
Buda Musique (73 mins)
Danyèl Waro has spent the past 45 years becoming the international ambassador of maloya, the revolutionary roots music of the Indian Ocean island La Réunion. He also possesses one of the most outstanding voices in African music today, sounding somehow both fragile and powerful in equal measure. On Tinn Tout, he continues to do what he does best: a sparing, traditional version of maloya, with occasional small innovations – a Gnawa rhythm here, a Jaco Pastorius-like melodic bass there – that serve only to heighten the music’s emotional range.
One of those innovations comes on ‘Daniel Singaïny’, which explores maloya's often hidden connection to South Asian music. It starts with a short section of morlon narslon music, a shawm-and-drum style of La Réunion’s Tamil-descended Malbar community. The rest of the song is in Waro’s usual style, but that introduction changes the context in which it is heard; South Asian colours blossom forth. It’s not hard to conceive the massed vocals of maloya as distant cousins of qawwali.
Waro’s voice has a way of hitting the ear that directly touches the soul, and his respect for the past and future of maloya and La Réunion is just as clear and just as earnest – to listen to Tinn Tout is a pleasure and a privilege.