How this Creole jazz band’s visit to Mumbai saw a reunion of cultures, languages and genres

A Creole jazz band’s visit to the city this week to celebrate World Music Day marked a reunion of cultures, languages and genres

What does it mean to be a world musician? Ask Valérie Chane Tef, a Réunionese pianist who formed a band in Bordeaux, France and recently rocked out a jam-packed concert in Mumbai. As winding as her journey might sound, when you ask her what’s driving it, she has it straight. “I carry my culture and the history of my people with me. Music is my way of putting the spotlight on my origins,” she shares.

Braving Mumbai’s erratic monsoon on a working day, crowds gathered at a Lower Parel venue earlier this week to catch a glimpse of Tef performing alongside percussionist Eric Perez and bassist Thomas Boude at the World Music Day celebrations organised by Alliance Française de Bombay. “Having played a show in Mumbai once in 2023, I knew the crowd would be a delight to perform to. Bringing Fete De La Musique [World Music Day] to the city with my band Akoda this time was no different,” the artiste reveals.

Thomas Boude

While jamming to the band’s Creole jazz presentation, a deeper realisation might have eluded the audience — they were experiencing a part of their own culture that has evolved in a different environment. Stéphane Doutrelant, director, AF Bombay, explains, “Réunion Island, owing to waves of immigration, is home to a lot of Indians. The presence of Indian languages like Tamil and Hindi in Réunion Creole is a living proof of a unique cultural fusion and shared heritage; this must be celebrated.”

Tef admits that the island’s multicultural history continues to play a major role in her journey and purpose as an artiste. “Growing up on the island, I was exposed to Chinese, Indian, French, and African cultures. When I started out as a musician, the first step was understanding how they overlap, and what being Reunionese really means,” she elaborates.

Valérie Chane Tef

This assortment of cultures reflects in the band’s compositions that take from native styles of Reunionese folk music and blend it with contemporary jazz arrangements using Western jazz instruments to shape a unique soundscape. The perfect concoction of tradition and modernity, believes Doutrelant. “Fusing the genres, while keeping the soul of their native island alive through Creole truly embodies what Fête de la Musique stands for,” he remarks.   

For Tef, the visit marked her first step towards a different kind of cultural exploration. “I spent my initial years as a musician exploring the Creole world. But it’s one of my goals to retrace my own roots. My paternal grandmother was born in Pondicherry,” she reveals. We nudge Tef about her plans to return to India to continue this exploration.  “Indian music is so rich that I’d have to take time out to fully immerse myself in it. I’d need an artistic residency to do that,” the artiste hints as she signs off. 

Eric Perez 

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