Baka Beyond are coming to the Vale – Martin talks

“If there has to be a definition of world music, this is it!” Andy Kershaw

Originally inspired by the music of the Baka Forest People, Pygmies whose music and dance have been celebrated since the time of the Pharaohs, Baka Beyond use the Baka rhythms to fuse music from the band-members’ Celtic and African roots. The resultant music is highly infectious and crosses boundaries of genre, age and ethnicity.

We managed to track Martin Cradick down and have a chat about his music and the background to the band. 

Good Morning Martin and thank you for speaking with me. Your band, Baka Beyond, is coming to the Vale in Mossley on 18 October. The band started, by yourself and Su Hart, after a 6 week visit to the Baka Pygmy people in the Cameroon rain forest. It is now celebrating 25 years. Please can you tell us more about the first trip to see the people.

We went there to meet them and find out about their music. We’d seem a documentary on Channel 4 and decided we had to go there. We traipsed into the forest with guitar, a mandolin, a sack of salt and a sack of M&S knickers which were told were all really good presents.

When we turned up, unannounced, they asked why we had arrived. We said that we liked their music and they liked that explanation. They then took us under their wing and started to teach us how to survive in the rainforest. They showed us off like their pet monkeys, the Pygmies being hunters. We didn’t know how long we were going to stay or how long the emerging band would go on, 25yrs this year.

From your earliest beginnings you have evolved into a multicultural dynamic live show with world-wide album sales. How did the band evolve?

We jammed a lot with the Baka people. At the time I had a walk-man and I recorded everything. Previously, I was in a band called Outback as a didgeridoo player and we released a song called Baka years before we went out to the forest. I had an idea to record the song again, but with the people, whilst I was there. When I got back I recorded the track in my back bedroom. It got picked up by a UK record company and another in America and they sold hundreds of thousands of records. We then started a charity up with the monies raised.

We were then asked to play at a festival. So I quickly pulled together friends who could recreate the original idea of the Outback band. It’s changed over the years. In 1998 we were asked to go to Brazil, we took 2 percussionists and a drummer. The band’s been pretty stable for the last 8-9 years.

You send royalties that are earned from your music back to the Pygmies. Can you tell us more about this?

They’ve helped us write the songs and so they have a share of what is made. Sadly, the people don’t seem to get their share of monies within the country and are discriminated against.

They asked for a music house, so we built them one. Since then a village has grown up around it which is entirely Baka. They now have nice houses. Their farming is in the forest and isn’t granted rights by the Cameroon Government, so they go without quite a lot.

The latest project of ours over there is called the ‘forest voices tour’; they have their own band , which we’ve helped, called Baka Gbine. They’ve been on Cameroon TV and are particularly known amongst the Baka population. When the band plays, it causes a great gathering of the people which is ideal for immunisation programmes as often the people are sparse in the villages because of their life style. I’m going back to see them after the tour.

What can people expect of the show at the Vale?

It’s not horribly loud but dancey. All ages love it. It seems to seep in and you find your body moving. We project a video during the performance of scenes from the forest, we play live and the video stays in time with us – clever technology! People who’ve seen us over the last 5 years will be pleased to hear that Paddy Le Mercier will be playing with us.  You can sit back and chill or you can dance your socks off.

Baka Beyond are not recreating other people’s music. They use the spirit of the Baka’s music to present their own musical heritage, whether the Rhumba rhythms of Kibi’s native Congo, or the Celtic melodies of Martin’s Cornish/Welsh heritage, seamlessly combined as can be heard in their latest album, “After the Tempest”, Baka Beyond’s eighth studio album.

Baka Beyond’s live show includes song, dance, percussion, musical virtuosity, videos and big smiles all round. 18 October 19.30 at The Vale. Book tickets through The Vale’s Facebook Page. 

. . if you are not dancing, maybe you should have someone check your pulse

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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