This interview features Didier Mary, a man doing some seriously great things for the cultural richness of the world at large.

1. Can you introduce yourself? Where are you from?
I wont enter into too many details as I’ve already lived a few different lives. Spent 8 years at Microsoft (in France and in the USA), as an engineer/technical product leader, in charge of all the technical and support aspects of games, hardware, multimedia, productivity software (incl. MSProject and PowerPoint) for the French market.
Left in 1997 and founded Cybear, a marketing communications agency. Did many web and print projects, got a few awards and prizes. After I bought a music catalogue in 2003, I added Sound & Music design as well as supervision to my offering (through my subsidiary CybearSonic).
Went back to school for an Executive MBA in 2005/6 (HEC + Babson), focused on Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and later did an in-depth program focused on Media & Entertainment that led to the creation of another subsidiary focused on artist booking and management, festivals, and concert production.
While in school, I did my first presentation on the evolution of the music business, that later turned into a project called the “unLabel” aka “disruptive ideas for the everyday music business.” It’s under this project that I work mainly with African artists, offering coaching, training, A&R, publishing, digital distribution, booking, and any innovative ideas we can develop in West Africa. My African network is mainly sub-saharan and goes from west to east to south… As the English speaking countries tend to be more visible and offer better dynamics to artists at the moment, I concentrate on the French speaking ones (easier for a French guy too…).
2. How are you connected to Africa? What is the history of KoToNTeeJ?
To make a long story short, when I met music that pleased me when I was 13 years old (born in the 60s, I already could listen to Soul, Rock n’ Roll on the radio), I fell in love with Jazz while listening to Art Blakey and African rhythms, percussions and brass while listening to Osibisa. Discovered them the same week, listening to vinyls by an uncle who had a great music collection. For years, I bought vinyls, tapes, and CDs (too many…) and always bounced between Jazz and African, and mixes of both such as Acid Jazz or innovative uses of great music samples.
My first “physical” contact with Africa happened at the beginning of the 80s where I helped create a newspaper in Senegal, shipped typewriters and schoolbooks to Madagascar and Guinea for UNESCO.
In 2008, I decided to start blogging, and it was a natural approach to try to push the music I liked. I did it in French on KoToNTeeJ.com (“de la musique au fond des oreilles”) as many blogs already existed in English, but not so many in my “natural” language.
This blog opened many opportunities (went as a journalist to a festival…) and many direct contacts with African artists/bands. At the same time, I was developing the unLabel project, I then produced a few albums in 2009/10 and other projects (tours, festivals in Benin…) I’m helping an NGO too to help children who can’t afford to pay for school in Benin and who then can learn the basic (writing, counting, reading…) as well as music (instruments, singing) and dance.
KoToNTeeJ the blog is still alive, although I had to stop posting (and working in fact) for a while due to health conditions.
You can find me and my activities on various platforms, as I try tools to check what’s useful/easy to implement in a strategy: I did playlists on Spotify, manage many (artists) pages on Facebook, Twitter, or Soundcloud. My digital presence is now mainly on Google+ where I manage many pages too and a nice community: the “African Music Forum" that grows quietly.

3. Who are your favorite African artists at the moment?
First, Africa is a continent with many different cultures and languages. Across the continent, there are many different music styles. Then, there’s no “African Music,” there are African musics, traditional, tradi-modern, or heavily influenced by the west. There are jazz musicians. There are Hard Rock bands. There’s a lot of Hip Hop/Rap/Soul/RnB at the moment of course. I then like many different styles from various regions. I love Mandingue music from Guinea/Mali. I love brass bands from Benin. I love Assiko & Makossa from Cameroon. I love traditional polyphonic music from the rainforest (Baka). Sometimes, in one country, there are various, very different music styles depending on which part of the country or which ethnic group it comes from. For example in Mali, there’s no Malian music, there are many styles. And Malian musics are not the only kind of music in Africa. Same in the South of Africa. There are many styles and variations. South African music contains what you could listen to with Paul Simon and Johnny Clegg. But that’s not the whole stuff. That’s a tiny part. Listen to Kwaito (a mix of traditional rhythms with Deep House and Rap) to Electro Shangaan and old Shangaan music and so on…
And don’t forget the influence of salsa and rumba in many African countries.
Choosing is difficult. In the old bands/artists, my favs are Osibisa (from Ghana mainly) and Manu Dibango (the godfather) from Cameroon I met a few times. But there are many many very good ones, Ali Farka Touré from Mali, Fela Kuti from Nigeria, Hugh Masekela from SA, Franco from Congo.
Contemporary or tradi-modern, there are very interesting people to follow: Fredy Massamba, Baloji, M.anifest, Wanlov the Kubolor, Assi-Ki, Just a Band… Check the AMF Community on G+, there’s plenty to choose from!
4. What are your plans for the future?
I’m working on various projects in West Africa to try to create a sustainable environment for artists: to empower them, to allow them to work and get paid properly, to connect the word (e.g. through social media when internet connections and mobile phones, and electricity, work…) to understand their rights as artists (publishing anyone?) so that they can evolve in the new digital environment where we all live now.
Getting visas to have them travel becomes an everyday nightmare. Traveling abroad (to Europe or USA )are big costs too. Festivals and venues pay less and less, and take less and less risks. There’s a bright future for artists if we’re able to invest in culture (and music) as part of development. I’m trying to help.
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