When Afro-Jazz is the call, African Jazz is the response: A Dialogue With Xisseve Langa

I met Mozambican singer/songwriter Xisseve Langa or, simply, Xixel in April 2014, three years before this April 2017 interview. I was new to Maputo and was accompanying a visiting band to play at the now defunct music venue Mafalala Libre. Xixel comfortably mingled with the early birds, while my team set up the space. And when the performance started, her engagement with the music was visible. She and I (as well as a young, backpack-wearing freestyle rapper) were the only women in the crowd. Xixel and I spoke briefly and exchanged numbers. I saw her and Isabel Novella perform live shortly thereafter. And a week later, I got a text from Xixel that read something along the lines of “I just want to give what I have to the world. All I have is music.” And just like that, she vanished.  It would be a year before I would see her again at another staple of the Maputo music scene, Gil Vicente. She was about 8 months pregnant, waddling alongside her husband. This time I told her I’d keep in better touch. It would be months of “hope you’re doing well,” texts that would escalate to “when are we getting together?” messages and finally we marked a date in late 2016.

The 2016 Xixel I sat down with for this interview had become a wife and mother, twice over. Over our many subsequent coffee dates and girl talk sessions, I learned a lot about Xisseve Langa, the writer, the daughter, the young mother, the vulnerable woman, behind the music of Xixel. Her new family roles gave her sea legs, but her music was an anchor. Being born into a well-established family of local musical legends was once a frustrating curse for Xisseve. Only recently has Xixel accepted it as a blessing. Since “accepting the spirit,” as she called it, she has also accepted the great responsibility of spreading her version of Afro-jazz to the world.

Our conversation charts my curiosities into her childhood, the early development of her career in South Africa, as well as her growing family. These intimate glimpses into her past and present, show just how strong Xixel believes that her career is a calling. The inheritance of music, passed down from generation to generation, is finally at her mantle. Much like a griot or sangoma, she takes the responsibility of crafting her words very seriously. She not only thinks of those in her bloodline who have handed her this legacy, but she gives musical voice to the regional connection among southern Africans and the spiritual connection amongst people of African descent around the globe. In the African tradition of call and response, she sees her music as a Mozambican response to the call of jazz from the Americas.

Shortly after her first album “Inside Me” was released in the beginning of 2017, Xixel took the stage at Mozambique’s Azgo festival and quickly started a slate of international shows that have kept her busy well into this year. She has dubbed her music “Pop-Afro-Jazz.” We both agree that what she does is both modern and traditional. Her album transcends genre and language. And remains authentically Mozambican. This brief interview [in English translation] gives a glimpse into the three decades of life, inspiration, and spirituality that gave rise to Xixel’s debut album “Inside Me.”

The interview presented here began as an informal conversation between friends. Over lunch at Sagres restaurant overlooking the Maputo bay.

Xixel: My life has been a complicated life, but the music made it uncomplicated. In this country, where we live, everything is complicated. But, when we have music in our blood and it is already in your family, things can change. We turn our attention to music and it does our soul so much good that it distracts us from the difficulties of life. It is well known that here in Mozambique, musicians have a very difficult life. People think it is almost impossible to make a living from music.

I was inspired by father [Hortêncio Langa] and my uncles. My uncle, Milagre Langa, was with Orquestra Marrabenta. Pedro Langa, my uncle, was part of the group that founded Ghorowane. And my father, even now, is still a great musician. I have had great examples in them and their friends, like Stewart Sukuma, José Guimaraes, Elvira e Pacha Viegas, among others. There are so many.

I grew up in Maputo city, in a nice area – Bairro da Polana B. And I grew up with these kind of people with other lifestyles and full of very pleasant surprises. People were very interested in music and they attached themselves to us because of the music. Some learned to play the guitar with us, others drums. It was a very interesting lifestyle. I wonder had we lived outside of town if we could have had those opportunities.

Nafeesah: But your family is not from Maputo?

Xixel: My father is from Manjacaze in Gaza, but he came to Maputo for his studies. His father was also a nurse. It’s this thing where families transferred jobs and cities. Parents went with their children. Also, the children who were already grown had to go into the army. In this whole process, my father got to know my mother. My mother was a dancer. She danced a lot and liked to sing. Her name was Yolanda Tajú. She grew up in Maputo in the suburban areas and a bit in the city. She and her sisters were the queens of marrabenta. What influenced me at home, yes, it was marrabenta – smooth Mozambican music. But it was a mix. Also jazz influenced me – like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, etc.

Nafeesah: How did these jazz musicians enter your experience here? As outsiders, we think Mozambique was so closed and that it would be impossible for international musicians to be heard here.

Xixel: Yes, it was true, you would never imagine it. But, it came into my house, because there were people who were studying abroad and who had jobs where they shared different styles of music. And people started falling in love with jazz and started recording it. So, that’s how it came into my home.

But, as a child I did not want to know about music at all. I was traumatized by the way that musicians suffered through life. They were very frustrated. Yet, my father taught me that we can not live our lives frustrated. That’s why he was one of the founders of the Mozambican Musicians’ Association. He wanted to give another perspective to music. He wanted to show that music is not just for people who have no other life path or for ignorant people, who we would call “molwenes” [vagabonds].

Mozambique is full of artists and artists are incredibly valuable. Maybe that annoys some people, because an artist is free. The best thing about being an artist is the freedom. And some people do not agree with this. They ask why the artist is not formalized, trained, indoctrinated like the others. Why don’t artists wear a uniform? An artist does not work that way. The artist wants his hair the way he wants it. She wants to dance the way she wants. He wants to sing the way he wants. An artist sees how society is and sings their own way. Other people do not have the courage to say it straight, to critique. So, people make an artist’s life hard, to avoid certain kinds of uncomfortable situations. The artist can create a revolution.