THE SOUND OF FULFILLMENT
"Each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it" —Frantz Fanon
Laika Fatien is an artist, not a politician, neither a sociologist nor a psychiatrist. As an artist she is some of all the aforementioned and greater than any of those professions because as an artist she offers honest and insightful vision of the here and now without illusions or pretensions, while at the same time providing inspiration to push into unknown, but not unknowable, futures.
The emphasis in this collection is on Laika the lyricist rather than the vocalist. This set is not simply an emotional outpouring of song but also a meditation on contemporary life. The assertive opening selection, “Essence” (based on Howard Brooks’ “Isle of Java” musical composition), sets the tone for a fearless forward march that never retreats into sentimentality or melodrama.
Unlike far too many contemporary offerings, Laika thankfully does not emphasize unrequited love. Constantly bemoaning what was lost does not befit an artist who is striving toward future gains.
Notice, I identified Laika as an artist, not as an entertainer. If she were simply an entertainer, she would only be concerned with the here and now, with the anesthesia of momentary feeling good, or the panacea of temporarily feeling no pain.
If Laika’s goal were merely to make her audience smile and laugh and forget, Laika would not be concerned with the sources of discomfort and disorientation, and she certainly would not be concerned with how to change distressing conditions.
Laika has decided to share her views and values, and thus has created a recording that is both bold (most vocal jazz records stick with the tried and true and seldom fit new lyrics to jazz standards) and reassuring (although it is definitely a break from the ordinary, we can easily hear where Laika goes). This work is firm in its convictions and fluid in its expression. The mark of all meaningful artistry is going beyond common boundaries.
Ms. Fatien has rejected making entertaining, pleasant music. Entertainment is a surrendering to the status quo, an acceptance that since we can not control our lives, we must find ways to painlessly endure our social conditions. Surrendering to the status quo is the central position every true artist refuses to occupy. Artist point outward, away from the center of acceptance and towards the uncertainty of creating one’s destiny.
Fate is what happens to us beyond our control. Destiny is what happens to us as a result of the choices we make. We are fated to be born where and when we are, our destiny is determined by what we do with our fate.
Laika had no maps to tell her how to proceed, how to sort out her sanity amid the confusion of daily disorientation—I know, I know, this does not sound like musical commentary, but what else is music but self-expression?
The most potent music comes from the search for self and the honest reflections of the twists and turns of that journey, as well as the unfettered announcement of was found on that journey.
The old order is one of binaries (black, white; old world, new world; male, female; native, foreigner; etc.), our new existence rejects easy categories. Today is a disordering of yesterday; where previously there were definite identities within which we attempted to fit ourselves, currently there are no certainties. The new world is one of hybridity.
Is Laika a jazz artist, or a popular artist? To even ask for a specific category based on previous assumptions is to misunderstand. Her music is a recognition of change and contradiction, an embracing of both merger and separation.
Listen, you are not hearing simply one thing but rather a multiplicity of realities, with diverse elements coming to the foreground at different moments, and different textures providing the background as she moves from song to song.
She does not sing in her first language. She speaks a French hybrid and sings an international English.
For some of us, this mixed expression is too chaotic to cope with; we prefer something that comforts us rather than confronts us. But if one is an artist, one’s destiny is found in how one deals with the hand fate has dealt. To fully actualize our futures requires both bravery and imagination. We must be willing to search for the unseen and forge forward even as we might fear we are stepping off into an abyss.
Artistry is flying when the ground of old certainties falls away. Perhaps that is why I love Laika’s interpretation of Jackie McLean’s “Appointment In Ghana.” Laika calls it “Watch Your Back.” There is always some high sheriff sent to arrest us and return us to the restrictions of normalcy. But we have an appointment with the future—and some of us have vowed we will not be late.
THE NEBULA
Is all the chaos & contradictions
Within which we were spawned
A mother from here, a father from there
Siblings scattered everywhere, are we
Supposed to simply end up where we started
No, our lives are what we make
Despite what others try to shape
When we are sure we don’t have to shout
Our calm will be perceived as a storm
On the wings of our self-directed struggles
We will be borne to worlds leagues away
From where we were born
If we raise our eyes and look high
Above where we are, deep into the depths
Of our existence we will see
—kalamu ya salaam