Senegal artiste records album at Tuff Gong

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Meta Dia, whose first name gets prime lead singer's billing in the band Meta and the Cornerstone, did not come to reggae until after his first album got him stonewalled in his native Senegal.

And he took a detour into reggae's outside child, rap, before learning English and settling into rockers in New York, where Meta went to live after his music hit a political dead end in Senegal.

"I grew up hearing my mother playing a lot of music. I heard a lot of Bob Marley and Gregory Isaacs," Meta said. Then, in 1993, hip hop hit Senegal and Meta caught the rap bug. The situation in Senegal was also bugging him and Meta duly put his feelings on record.

"I was totally against the government. I noticed the books we were reading in school, if you went back to our great-grandfather it is the same book. They gave us a lot on the French and French history, but they don't teach us about our own country. We want to learn our own history," he said. Coupled with that was a trio of social ills - unemployment, corruption and poverty.

However, Meta's hip hop and R&B based musical protestations did not go over well with those who have the power to play or not play music on radio.

"I was banned because it was political. That is one of the reasons I left. It was hard to push my music after that," Meta said.

When he migrated to the Big Apple in 2003, Meta could not speak English. Then he learnt enough to understand that rap was not the substance of what he wanted to put on record. There were few persons he could relate to, such as KRS-One, most artistes were in gangster mode.

Multinational 'Cornerstones'

"I started to listen to a lot of reggae," Meta said. He also started playing the 'one drop' on his guitar and visiting live music venues in the East Village. In short order he found the multinational 'Cornerstones' of his band - Aya Kato, Shahar Mintz, Raja Kassis, Sierra Carrere, Daniel Serrato and Larry McDonald - which spans Chinese, Isreali, Lebanese and, of course, Jamaican.

The direct Jamaican connection was made in 2004 when Meta and the Cornerstones opened for Steel Pulse and Luciano in New York. McDonald stoked the fire of comments that Steel Pulse's Sydney Mills had been hearing about Meta and the Cornerstones and a meeting was arranged.

Meta took recordings with him - lots of recordings, two CDs with about 19 tracks each. "They call me 'Meta and the ProTools'," he laughed. "I am always making music."

Ancient Power

He did not get to play many of the tracks for Mills. "When we played the first song Sydney got up and said 'who did that?' I said 'me'," Meta related. "He said 'we have to do this'."

'This' has led to Meta's two trips to Jamaica to record the Ancient Power album, produced by Mills, at Tuff Gong on Marcus Garvey Drive. In January, he laid tracks with a stellar cast of musicians that includes Dean Fraser and Danny Axeman. Then, since he got into Jamaica on March 14, he has been doing vocals, part of which is hosting guests such as Capleton and U-Roy.

"When we got to Tuff Gong, the first person I saw was Damian Marley. They introduced me and we started talking, but it was like a dream. It is a good sign," Meta said. "The energy in the studio is good."

When his emotions at recording in Bob Marley's studio were apparent, Meta said Damian told him "I know how you feel. The first time I went to Ethiopia, is the same feeling."

While he has made the physical connection with Jamaica, Meta Dia is also making links between countries on Ancient Power. Overall, he said, he wants to pay respects to the ancient power of the Mayans. Then there is 'Bahia' for Brazil, making the link through reverence for the ocean. And in one song he writes about Kingston.

Kingston will get a chance to see Meta Dia on Sunday when he performs at Studio 38, Trafalgar Road, New Kingston. After playing a weekly gig at Lava Gina in New York's East Village for years and now doing a monthly performance at Tribeca, Meta has had lots of stage time. Still, he says "Sometimes you get scared. It is like, how are they going to accept the music? The music comes from totally here. To play a show, that means a lot."

And he hopes that more of the reggae artistes from 'here' will visit 'there' - Senegal, where Capleton and Peetah Morgan, among others, have performed. "Reggae is so big in Senegal now. Lots of people are doing reggae, learning English," Meta said. "I want to make the link bigger."