By Richard Burnett for Curtains Up
@bugsburnett
When Africa’s iconic roots-reggae legend Alpha Blondy returned home to Ivory Coast in 2011, the post-election violence in that country had spread to the political capital, Yamoussoukro, as well as Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan, where security forces loyal to incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo were fighting the supporters of his rival, Alassane Ouattara. Blondy cancelled his world tour that winter to be home with his family.
Ivory Coast has since stabilized, his family is safe, and this summer Blondy returns to Montreal for a much-anticipated intimate concert, July 4, at Club Soda as part of this year’s edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
Blondy has headlined Montreal many times during his 32-year love affair with Montreal, notably in 2004 when he was recovering from breaking his foot. Doctors inserted a screw, but that didn’t stop him from performing a sold-out concert at the 2,500-capacity Metropolis. “My foot has healed nicely,” Blondy told me on the eve of his 2011 concert at the same venue. “Now I can move around the stage!”
Dubbed the Bob Marley of Africa (“I’m not Bob, but I am a disciple”), Blondy still mourns the senseless October 2007 murder of South African reggae icon Lucky Dube. “I was devastated. He was a great talent and had such a beautiful voice.”
Today there are few roots warriors – like Burning Spear and Jimmy Cliff – left living.
“Of course there was always Bob Marley. But I discovered reggae through Jimmy Cliff when I grew up in Ivory Coast. Then it was Burning Spear. They were my real champions; they were real songwriters.”
With Bob and Lucky gone, though, I suggest that leaves Blondy as perhaps the world’s greatest living one-drop reggae performer. “That’s a great compliment, but it’s a responsibility and honour, and I must work for it.”
Alpha Blondy and The Solar System headline Club Soda (1225 St-Laurent) during the The Montreal International Jazz Festival, July 4 at 7 p.m. Click here for more info and tickets.
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Photo courtesy Alpha Blondy
