Music as medicine ✨ interview with ESINAM

Belgian-Ghanian Esinam Dogbatse surrounds her flute playing with electronics. South African singer-guitarist Sibusile Xaba had Zulu guitar master Madala Kunene as a mentor and continues the vocal tradition of Shazula Max Mntambo.

Together they made 'Healing Voices' for W.E.R.F. records, on which they fuse their very different sounds into something new. We spoke to ESINAM about their special collaboration.

Can you tell me how your musical story began?

I wanted to go to music school when I was four, but as that was a bit too young, my mother enrolled me in the children's choir. The academy was also only a ten-minute walk from our home, in Sint-Joost-ten-Node, near the Botanique. I had a great time there.

Nobody in my family played music, but my mother had a friend from Burkina Faso, Emilien Sanou, and through him I started playing drums in a children's group. Gradually, I also started playing the piano.

My love for the flute has a lot to do with the freedom it holds. When the question arose whether I would go to the conservatory, I decided not to, and went for self-study despite my classical background.

I learned a lot mainly by playing in different bands, and around 2015 I started my solo project.

That's a first, though: most Belgian jazz musicians I talk to are somewhere on the conservatory-trauma spectrum anyway.

If you don't go to the conservatory, you have to find other places to meet fellow musicians. Back then, jam sessions were my way of building that network.

As a result, it may have taken a bit longer to get a life as a professional musician on track. On the other hand, that search for my own path was also a beautiful journey.

The flute is also not an instrument commonly used in jazz today.

What I wonder: as a Ghanaian Brusseleir, what did the soundtrack of your childhood sound like?

My father was a big fan of Bob Marley and my mother loved Tracy Chapman. She took us to Couleur Café, to see Zap Mama. But there was also a lot of classical music, French chanson and Ghanaian highlife.

From summers with my grandparents, I remember the loud sounds of Accra. At funerals, you could hear music in the streets there for three days. I myself had my own talking drum by then, and our whole house was full of shakers and small instruments: those things were part of our toy collection.

In recent years, you often went to Ghana to study your musical roots.

I have been to many different countries in Africa. In Ghana, I specifically researched traditional music and rhythms. I also made recordings of that to use in my own music. My family comes from the Volta region and is part of the Ewe people.

Can the influence of those tours be heard on 'Healing Voices'?

Those Ewe rhythms, meanwhile, are deep in my subconscious. There's a lot of question-and-answer in Ghanaian rhythms, and polyrhythms that make up a whole melody. This is certainly reflected on the record. For example, in the loops, which are reminiscent of traditional repeating rhythm patterns.

I recently spoke to Frank Rosaly and Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti. They also went in search of their roots, including in Bolivia. It took a while before they were accepted, because of their mixed roots. How was that with you?

I have light skin by Ghanaian standards, but since Esinam is a typical Ghanaian name, it went very smoothly. Ghanaians are also usually happy when they notice that I am seeking connection with my roots.

I do always travel with people I know or who know people in the places we go, which also helps. But generally, people in Ghana are very open to people from the diaspora.

I find it a special combination: your rhythm-based solo work and his tactile and hushed guitar playing.

I think we have found a nice balance. It's hard to explain, but we're just on the same wavelength.

Do any other musicians play on the record?

No, there is a sample of a traditional Zulu choir on it, and of my cousin's voice, but otherwise Sibusile and I did everything ourselves.

Although: Jérémy Michel, my sound engineer also made an important contribution. It was nice to see him and Sibusile getting along so well.

You are now going on tour with the music. Are you also going to play in Africa?

Yes, definitely in South Africa, but we like to do other countries as well. We are in full swing working on a tour for next year. I'm really looking forward to bringing the record live. Because we have all the material, but we are going to use the freedom of the moment to grow the music.

By touring in Africa, you take jazz back to the continent where the music originally came from.

Actually, I never think about things like genre or how to name something. Everything arises from a natural creative process. But it is true: I think we are connected to our roots mainly through rhythms.

You often talk about spirituality in interviews.

I think it's because I've always used music to express myself, and to control my emotions when I was feeling a bit weird. Or just to make myself happy.

McCraven comes from Chicago's politically engaged scene, around the label International Anthem. You yourself once said in an interview that you don't see yourself as an activist musician.

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