San Salvador comes to Savannah to share music, create community in fest's final night
The music of San Salvador harkens to a time far removed from cell phones, ring cameras and smart cars. The voices of three women and three men wrap around harmonies and rhythms that conjure moments from fire-lit, North African Bedouin camps to low-slung Eastern European prayer sanctuaries. Their sparse percussion, two bass drums and tambourine, sound in counterpoint to their shifting polyphonic vocal rhythms sung in Occitan language. The music mesmerizes in how so few players and instruments can create such force and rich complexity of tone and cadence.
San Salvador brings their dynamic, vocally driven music to the Lucas Theatre for the Arts this Saturday at the Savannah Music Festival.
The ensemble’s six members grew up in the small village of San Salvadour amidst the agricultural communities of southwestern France. There, they began singing together when they were a mere seven-years-old. Steeped in traditions of the countryside and Occitan, the region’s one-thousand-year-old, Latin-infused language, the young friends embraced what was once the preferred tongue of poets and troubadours.
“We sing in Occitan,” explained vocalist and percussionist, Thibault Chaumeil.
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“It was spoken all over the south of France, Italy and some of Spain, near Catalan, and is still today in rural areas, even though the language was banned in France in the 1950s. Our grandparents speak Occitan. And we sing in Occitan. We take traditional texts and adapt them to our own melodies and perform them.”
In ten years working together professionally, the ensemble has refined its sound based in unusual melodies, tight harmonies and polyrhythms. Their 2021 release “La Grande Folie” garnered critical international acclaim opening doors to a slew of world music festivals across the globe, including performances at this year’s WOMADelaide 2023 in Australia.
The album “La Grande Folie” stands as testament to the group’s high-level musicianship. In the track “San Josep,” six-part harmonies weave between portions of frenetic percussion, integrating hints of Spanish Flamenco rhythms and scales sung in the ancient Occitan.
“When we write and compose, we are considering works of oral tradition and other music passed down in books and recordings,” said Chaumeil. “We take these and consider melodies that complement or work in tension with the Occitan words.
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The music of North Africa and Eastern European influence our songs, plus many more, and we find them resonating with audiences across the world.”
The album concludes with title track “La Grande Folie,” an epic 13-minute minor key odyssey exploring polyrhythms of voice and percussion. In this track, the ensemble’s Eastern European influences shine through as fast-paced shifting harmonies and repeating lyrics create a high-energy trance-like experience for the listener.
In early 2020, the ensemble was invited to perform at the Kennedy Center. It was the first time they’d been to the United States.
“The Kennedy Center was incredibly exciting. We were impressed by the amount of people and their reception to us,” recalled Chaumeil. “We were busy touring before, but that experience seemed to increase our traveling through present day. The last two years we’ve been very busy, and this year I think we are touring nine out of twelve months.”
When the members of San Salvador aren’t on the road, they are faithfully at home in their rural village where they’ve transformed a barn into a theater and community space named, “Lost in Traditions.” Here, children from the nearby countryside participate in dramatic productions while adults gather, learn about and play regional folk music.
“It is our passion to share music and create space at home for people in our community to explore music,” emphasized Chaumeil. “This helps keep the language and traditions of Occitan alive, and it begins at home. It is our launching point for sharing this music with the world. We have never been to Savannah, but we are looking forward to being there. We are looking forward to being surprised.”
IF YOU GO
What: Cecile McLorin Salvant / San Salvador
Where: Lucas Theatre for the Arts, 32 Abercorn St.
When: Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: starting at $37
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah Music Festival: San Salvador joins Cecile McLorin Salvant
