Abel Selaocoe: Forces of Humanity

The cellist and singer Abel Selaocoe sums up the theme of his playlist for Apple Music Classical with an ancient, pithy Bantu African word: “Ubuntu—I am because you are!” He then explains: “I chose this title, Forces of Humanity, because of the understanding that there is a universal humanity that exists no matter the nation. It’s there in communal singing, dance, comedy and love. The selected tracks show the inspiration of artists who often turn tradition or ancestral wisdom into new and refreshing take on our current lives.” The tracks offer a wonderfully rich variety of music, though all clearly speak from the soul of the composers and their performers, whether we are hearing the meditative and beguiling sounds of Paolo Pandolfo’s solo viola da gamba playing Marin Marais, or the grit and spice of fellow cellist Yo-Yo Ma and his ensemble’s performing Piazzolla. Selaocoe himself highlights yet another track that illustrates this, describing Ravel’s String Quartet as “the epitome of poetic conversation between instruments”. He then explains: “The simple ascending line in the cello creates the most beautiful relationship with the melody in the violin. Quatuor Ébène are special group of French musicians who have likely grown up with this style of playing and writing.” Selaocoe’s playlist also presents some of the wide range of works that has inspired his own. There’s one of American composer John Cage’s pioneering sonatas for prepared piano, in which the instrument’s strings have had various items fixed on them to modify their sound. In “Dinaka”, a track from Selaocoe’s album Hymns of Bantu, you may hear, amid the jangling rhythms of the percussion, the gurgling sound of a prepared piano played by his colleague Fred Thomas. Selaocoe describes the track as “an Ancestral dream, meeting those who you once knew in another world”. He recalls that “Dinaka” was “a one take improvisation”, then adding, “I played cello and voice including throat singing” while colleagues played African percussion, with Thomas on prepared piano. And then there’s Bobby McFerrin, whose singing set some example for Selaocoe’s. “Improvacio”, he explains, “celebrates the miracle of the voice. Bobby McFerrin makes it feel as though there is more than one voice, weaving between styles of chant and groove music.” Another singer included is French American jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant. Selaocoe describes her “Mélusine” as “the most beautiful and honest story telling and account of solitude I’ve heard in a while. Listen out for the relationship between lyrics and harmony.” Selaocoe also highlights a feature of the performance which brings Salvant’s art close to his own: “Cécile voice and style of singing sits in comfort around the Baroque idiom, allowing us to enjoy old sonic spaces without forgoing our current perspective.” You can hear this shared characteristic in Selaocoe’s beautiful interpretation of Giovanni Sollima’s gently hypnotic “Igiul”, which opens this playlist. Fittingly, the playlist also ends with Sollima, with the composer musician himself performing his own increasingly frantic “When We Were Trees” which builds from a sturdy Baroque-style ground bass to something extraordinary ferocious.