Gino Sitson

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Presentation

 

Gino Sitson figures among the pioneers of this new generation of African performers who have come under many different influences. These are performers who integrate into their work the experiences of a life at the crossroads of North and South, tradition and modernity, and the 20th and 21st centuries.

This musician from Cameroon combines amazing vocal acrobatics and “corporal” percussions with rare creativity and the greatest of ease. Through this use of voice and the human body, which offers a new musical dimension and unlimited resources, he creates a foreign language and at the same time one that is universal. Gino Siton’s music actually overcomes barriers of language and culture without difficulty. Sharing all its forms, therefore, seems to be the impetus for this “musical UFO.”

In his lyrics, Sitson describes a world where dear ones have been dispersed across continents. So, for this nomadic musician, where you really feel at home is always defined more by those who people it than by the actual place.

 

In the Press

 

Gino Sitson has proven himself to be among the most talented African singers when it comes to jazz. He’s a virtuoso in bringing into association pygmy polyphonies, polyrhythms and diverse polytonalities and jazz improvisation. He has been successful in defining a project that is truly original... Sitson has kept the promises of “Vocal Delira” and “Song Zin.” He is very responsive to the thoughts and examples set by remarkable men (Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Charles Mingus), and he conveys his messages of freedom, tolerance, justice and creativity in the Médumba language, (...) which are conveyed by subtle and playful vocal acrobatics...

Francisco Cruz / Jazzman

 

Everything comes from this voice; its inflections, its tremolos. Those who are familiar with the digitalized universe of modern music and the new influences of jazz understand why Gino Sitson, right from the beginning of his career in 1996 in the musical microcosm of Cameroon very quickly was defined as an “unidentified vocal object (UVO).” I caught up with the UVO by phone during his American exile. The breaks, the rhythm, and the tempo of his voice all ring like notes of the sublime and are his tools of trade in their own right and should be protected. In his recent album “Bamisphere” (Polyvocal Records 2005), he collaborates with «those who represent the best on the New York jazz scene» Sprinkled in, too, are a few assiko airs, some bikutsi and a gospel that’s literally divine. “My work ethic is to find the thing that’s true deep within me and not to make music that tries to please the audience,” affirms this former ethnomusicology student at the Sorbonne.

Alain Tchakounte / [19/04/2006] / Cameroon Tribune

 

The French release of Bamisphere is the third album from the Cameroon native now living in New York. Virtuosity and freedom are the master words here. Africa and jazz serve as a pretext for a final number of vocal acrobatics with an absolutely uninhibited, clear message.

Soeuf Elbadawi / RFI musique

 

To listen to excerpts of the CD of Gino Sitson, click here.
To access the website of Gino Sitson, click here.