The permanent exhibition of the Center for Black music will develop on nearly 1000 m2 the incredible odyssey of the world Black Music. The adopted viewpoint is that of a thematic set taking into account the geography and the history through thousands of musical styles, of sound and audio-visual documents, films, photographs composing more than one hundred of interactive, spectacular and sensorial interfaces.

The installations will represent the diversity of Black Music in the world: Afrobeat, Rumba, African Blues, Gnawa Music, Ragtime, Be-bop, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Reggae, Funk, Rock'n'roll, Samba, Samba-Reggae, Zouk, Calyspo, Brazilian Popular Music, Jazz, Creole, Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Cumbia, Apartheid songs, Hip-Hop, Sacred musics, Ska, Slam, Disco music, Zouglou.

You are invited to follow an exhibition organized in five great chapters divided in fourteen thematic sequences : The Sacred Monuments of Black Music, Mama Africa, the Nave, Black Americas, The Global Mix.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 / THE HALL OF FAME / The "Sacred monuments" of

 

Black Music

 

 

 

Involved musicians and artists, free creators, natural chiefs and charismatic protagonists, the impact of their work made them icons, building our popular culture, nourishing our imaginary, sometimes our understanding of the world and men.

 

The 40 biggest black artists – the legends, the myths, the black music idols from around the world... A tune from Louis Armstrong, a chorus from Stevie Wonder, songs from Prince,Jimi Hendrix, Angelique Kidjo , Salif Keita, Miriam Makeba, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson,Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, James Brown, Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Pixinguinha, Cartola, Clementina of Jesus, Gilberto Gil, Ali Farka Touré, Public Enemy...Legendary Bob Marley and Fela Kuti. cretisms and rhythmic traditions of an amazing richness. Whereas since the Fifties, the black pulsation was within the foundations of the contemporary popular musics, from Bamako to Lagos a frantic modernity was created. With it, immense artists emerged. Fallen under their charm, Europe created a broad concept: “world sound system”.

 

 

 

 

 

2 / MAMA AFRICA Mother Africa

 

 

 

A tribute to Mother Africa. A wealth of traditional rhythms and freedom songs, both ancestral and contemporary, from Cairo to Johannesburg and from Dakar to Zanzibar.

 

Africa : a continent of mystery and legendar characters, with different languages and etnias. From syncretism and rhythmic traditions of a singular richness. Since the 50th, the black rhythms had been the pillar of contemporary popular musics, from Mali to the Nigéria had been invented a frantic modernity. With it, great artists had appeared. Seduced for its charm, Europe had created a general concept to define it : the " world music".

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 / The NEF / The musical expression of the slaves’

 

harrowing journey

 

 

The path of transition, from suffering to rebirth: in the face of the abominations of deportation and slavery, artists sung of despair and hope. Rituals and sacred music: Candomblé in Brazil, Gospel in the United States…

 

The space is divided into two parts :

The cross
The black trade lasted 400 years. Organized by Europeans between the XVe and the XVIIIe century, it deports towards the shores of America 30 million of Africans. There, under terrible conditions, the slaves contributed to build the fortune of the New World.
 

Sacred rituals and rhythms

Plunged into the night of slavery, the African prisoners did act of resistance. With Christianity, they mixed their animists pantheons.To  the oppressing puritanism, their rhythmic traditions. Vodou, candomble or gospel was born inside the secret. They contributed to maintain hope. And to preserve a spiritual bond with Mother Africa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 / THE BLACK AMERICAS : a musical journey through the

 

Black Americas

 

 

Black music developed across the American continent: the United States, Cuba, the Caribbean, and Brazil. From New York to Rio de Janeiro, a myriad of musical genres emerged: Blues, Jazz, Cuban Salsa, Merengue, Cumbia, Afro-Brazilian music – music that resisted against discrimination.

 

 

The afro-Brazilian music

It is a bulimic nation. Rhythms, of artistic swing and pile-up. Contrasts. From Bahia to Rio, carnival glowings are mixed with bossa nova impressionism. African roots with modernity. Traditions and innovations overlap. Brazil is a mixed race. Its character is daring. Its inheritance is eternal.

 

 

 

 

The Blues and Jazz odyssee

Blues is the founding element of the American black soul. Jazz, the perfect cultural expression of the United States. Born at the crossroad with American identities, these arts resulting from despair and urbanity have expressed the wish of freedom of the Black-American community. And upset in-depth the popular music of the XXe century.

 

 

 

Rhythm’n’blues, soul, funk – The civil rights walk

It is not itself a genre. Rather the popular musical expression of contemporary black America. Following the example of blues, the rhythm'n'blues is a matrix. Within it, a myriad of styles were to develop. And to go with, if not to document, the black contemporary experience in the United States.

Caribbean

The Caribbean. A mosaic. Rhythms, cultures and ethnos groups coming from slavery. But also from cultural exchanges between Africans and Europeans. From these encounters, original musical genres were to develop within the confines of seemingly colonised islands. And for some of them, were to captivate the Occident for a long time.

 

 

 

Salsa and Cuba

Cuba : a crossroad, of cultural influences coming from Europe, the United States and the Caribbean. Mother of the sound, of rumba, birthplace of foreground artists, the island has also influenced the development of salsa founded by the Latin diasporas in New York during the Sixties.

 

 

 

Apartheid

The segregationist law was imposed in South Africa in 1948. The black musicians entered then in resistance. In forced exiles, for some. Their south african jazz as a weapon and platform, Miriam Makeba or Hugh Masakel promised the death of apartheid. They were fulfilled in 1991. Three years later Mandela took up his destiny.

5 / The GLOBAL MIX : Black music is planetary


From reggae to rock, from disco to hip-hop, the final room is dedicated to the black roots of global musical movements. Diasporas, Pan-Africanism and globalisation, black music’s influence extends from Kingston all the way to the major metropolises.

Reggae and jamaican musics

Island of legends, ground of musics, cradle of contemporary icons and fantasies of a mythological Africa, Jamaica developped its art with a glance directed towards the American jazz. Fascinated, impetuous, innovative, its influence on the emerged genres in Occident during the last decades has been decisive.


The worldwide adventure of the Hip Hop

At the same time street culture, urban afro-american folklore, ghettos chronicle, lifestyle and artistic movement, the hip hop became in three decades the privileged artistic expression of a underprivileged international youth. From Brooklyn with Dares Salaam, from Alger to Jo' Burg, the hip hop is combined between boldness and poetry.

Black Music Machine

Of a secular musical tradition, the black pulsation became a virus. Fever. During the XXe century, its pulse has been registered with the foundations of the dance musics among the most popular. That they are electric styles (rock, etc) or genres related to the evolution of technologies of studio (techno or kwaïto).


Producers & frontier runners

Without these actors of the shade, artists, sometimes musical trends, could not have touched the general western public. Without their contribution, also, testimonies of a world threatened by modernity could not have reached us. Without them, finally, the odyssey of "Black music” would had been incomplete.