>>PREVIEW
MIGHTY POPO
Afrikadey!
August 13 and 14
Prince’s Island Park
OK, you’ve got us. His name isn’t really Popo.
"As (Rwandan) refugees, my family lived in a neighbourhood (in Burundi) full of immigrants and refugees," Popo says. "There was a Congolese man who lived in my neighbourhood who nicknamed me Popo, and it just stuck."
Born Jacques Murigande ("I hate the name Jacques," he confides), Popo wanted to be a guitarist for as long as he can remember. Growing up in the multicultural neighbourhood of Ngagara (also the name of his current album), he was surrounded by music.
"My neighbourhood was full of musicians from everywhere," he says. "The musical culture was so rich – plenty of African superstar musicians started out playing in Ngagara. I had no choice but to love music."
Then in 1987 at the age of 19, Popo landed in Ottawa, alone and with an optimistic $20 in his pocket. When he arrived, the only instrument he managed to bring with him was an inanga, a stringed instrument native to Burundi, which sadly did not survive even its first Canadian winter. Prophetically, though, he describes the inanga as a blues instrument — "its strings are tuned in a blues key," he says. The first instrument he bought in Canada was a harmonica. "I spent all my time my first year here trying to play like Sonny Boy Williamson," he remembers.
He also spent all his time and money going to see live music. After awhile just watching the bands wasn’t enough for the budding musician, and because of his constant presence, the bands began to notice him as well. "I’d end up jamming with all these great blues bands. I jammed with Dutch Mason, with B.B. King’s band, with Buddy Guy’s band. It was great."
Now a resident of Canada for several years, Popo was working as a backup musician, playing and travelling regularly. But his love affair with the blues was beginning to fade.
"In 1996 and 1997 I started working on my own music and gave up playing the blues. I just found it to be too much of a macho-man thing – it just wasn’t me."
At an appearance at the Calgary Folk Music Festival a couple of years ago, Popo was thrilled to play with such diverse artists as Michael Franti, Olu Dara, Corey Harris and Stephen Fearing and Colin Linden. Such experiences were indicative of the new musical directions Popo had been already searching out.
"When I started playing folk festivals, it was a revelation to me. I met all these people who loved the art. You’d find yourself playing with artists you’d never expect to share a stage with in a hundred years."
Last year, Popo was invited to be part of a unique recording session called the African Guitar Summit, in which six Afro-Canadian musicians got together at the famed Glenn Gould studio and recorded an album which went on to win a Juno Award last year. The AGS played at the Canadian arm of Live 8 earlier this summer. To Popo, the most important part of that event was the opportunity to add his voice to the growing number of people calling for change.
"It was good to be part of a larger community speaking out for change. Those of us who are African, we scream about the need for change all the time, whether we’re talking about apartheid or poverty or war, so I guess nobody listens," he jibes gently. "When the Madonnas and the Britneys start screaming, maybe people listen a little more closely, hmm?" |
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