Moussu T e Lei Jovents - Home Sweet Home (2008)

«Co-founder of Massilia Sound System, Moussu T, returns with Home Sweet Home, the third studio album recorded with Lei Jovents [Blu on guitars, banjo and Ciotadin viola, Zerbino on drums, washboard and percussion, and Jam de Silva on percussion and berimbau]. As with previous recordings, this new album features several Moussu T tracks with more personal themes [La Cabussada, Le Divan, Il fait beau…]. It's a safe bet that had Jali, Gari and Lux B not left the group this summer, the name of the album would not be what it is. Calling it Home Sweet Home in English marks this album out from Massilia productions, but the lyrics and the music hold true to the original spirit of the group. The rhythm may be more discreet, more minimalist and it does flirt with the blues, but the feel is the same. Massilia played with their whole neighbourhood in mind, whereas here, the focus is just the road, Moussu's road 'the one we leave to head for the horizon, but since the world is round, we end up right where we started!' he sings in the intro to Ma Rue N'est Pas Longue. As always with Moussu T the local and the global dance together. A dance with clear African-American influences, a dance which pays tribute to the Marseilles of the 1920s, the Marseilles of Banjo – the novel by Jamaican author Claude McKay. This Marseilles, which before its love affair with ragga and hip hop began, had long absorbed the music of the new-world sailors, largely descendants of slaves, who came ashore and passed their time in the old part of town, by Panier. A Marseilles which embodies all the passion of Moussu T, the free-spirit who has chosen to live in La Ciotat, all the better to gaze upon Marseilles, his beloved city.» (Mondomix)

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