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A tasty blend

Prague's hottest world beat band is brewing a musical revolution
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By Darrell Jónsson
For The Prague Post
December 12th, 2007 issue

United Flavour

When: Tuesday, Dec. 18, at 9
Where: Lucerna Music Bar
Tickets: 99 Kč at the door

COURTESY PHOTO
United Flavour's multicultural makeup and sound have found an eager and growing audience in the Czech lands.
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With their infectious song “Revolution” on regional airwaves for more than a year, and the brisk sales of their 2007 CD Unity, United Flavour has much to be thankful about. Founded in 2001 by Spanish singer Carmen Morejon and Ivory Coast-born bassist Djei (aka Jean Michel Francis Gogo), United Flavour has risen from humble café origins to having a national top-10 hit and stadium-size gigs.
Morejon sees this as part of the post-1989 expat band phenomenon. “United Flavour was born in Prague, and many of the musicians, bands and Djs who cooperate with us are also ‘made in Prague,’” he says, naming Henry D, Navigators, Yellow Sisters, Burama Badji, Ales from Al Yaman, Vincent from Svihadlo, Cocoman, Susha, Doctor Kary, General Kryshpeen and many others.
Still, there is one thing that separates the late ’90s Prague musical community that Morejon lists from its early ’90s counterpart: Most of the non-Czech players do not belong to the Anglo-American demographic that previously dominated the city’s expat music scene.
Setting the foundation of United Flavour’s sound are the crucial bass lines and leadership provided by Djei. Whether onstage or in conversation, the well-humored and cosmopolitan Djei has the easygoing demeanor of a benevolent urban African chief. Such personality traits, combined with a professional background in audio production, no doubt have gone far in catalyzing a band that over the years has counted members from Spain, Zambia, France and the Czech Republic.
The mix of personnel reflects the band’s broad appeal, according to Morejon. “It is a great motivation that Africans and Hispanics appreciate and like our music, but I should say that the Czech crowd it is a very open one,” he says. “They fully enjoy the concerts by dancing, singing and taking a full part in it all. This has been said not only by us, but by many other international artists who come to play here.”
After hearing Djei discuss the melodic and rhythmic similarities between reggae, ska and polka, the warm reception of Jamaican sounds in the Czech Republic and Slovakia since the late ’70s seems natural. Yet there is a contemporary freshness that United Flavour brings to the local world beat landscape. The band’s sound is seasoned with a post-’90s Euro-urban thread that incorporates hip-hop, R&B and Latino sounds as part of its musical lingua franca. United Flavour also taps reggae influences from the east side of the Atlantic Creole Diaspora, with shouts toward United Kingdom’s Steel Pulse and Ivory Coast’s Alpha Blondy. Adding to the band’s hemispheric crossovers are Morejon’s vocals, which effectively switch between Spanish and English.
This global reach has found United Flavour jamming on stage and in the studio with Big Family from Martinique, El Condorsito from Chile, Brother Combs from Gambia, Kuko from the Spanish crew Canaman and U-Cee from Germany’s King Banana. Many of these artists were present at Lucerna Music Bar last June, when United Flavour christened its long-awaited debut CD Unity (on the Subpub/GMP label). The energy unleashed during those proceedings was more than your typical CD release concert, as the charged atmosphere merged émigré and European worlds in a celebration of musical, spiritual and economic survival.
Such excitement and international cooperation is to be expected with United Flavour, whose aptly chosen moniker invokes the unity they demonstrate every time they take the stage. For those who want to hear and see for themselves, the band’s upcoming concert at Lucerna Music Bar should be danceable fun.
In support of United Flavour’s superb musicianship and positive vibe, King Kalabash and Baron Black from Martinique, along with Henry D from Zambia, are rumored to be making guest appearances. Reflecting the promise such efforts bring to 21st-century European world beat, Prague’s newly formed African/Czech collaboration Barakaba will open the show.

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (12/12/2007):

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