Malika Zarra, a Moroccan-born vocalist and songwriter, has released her latest album ‘RWA (The Essence)’ featuring collaborations with more than a dozen musicians from all over the world. Zarra has recorded and/or performed with John Zorn, Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Gretchen Parlato, and many others, earning her rightful place as an important world-jazz artist on New York’s multicultural music scene.
Zarra moved back to Paris in 2019 but is heading back to New York City for the release of her latest recording RWA (The Essence). In an interview with WBGO, Zarra talks about her love for music and art, her journey as an artist, and the making of her latest album.
According to Zarra, the album is a tribute to all the people she met in Morocco, France, Europe, the U.S., and New York, without whom she wouldn’t be who she is today. The album features a mélange of musicians from different continents, and Zarra explains that the title ‘RWA’ is the expression in the Amazigh or Berber language that a tribe or group of people get together to help somebody from the tribe by extracting an essence of an oil. By extracting something together, you are able to produce something together.
Zarra talks about the process of organizing the recording, which took her a while because she really took her time. She started with a residency at John Zorn’s Stone and composed the songs in Morocco. The first time that she played the songs was in duet with Amino Belyamani, the piano player who is on the recording. They performed the songs, and then Zarra thought that maybe a trio or a quartet would really give much more power to the songs.
Zarra speaks French, Berber, Moroccan, Arabic, and English, and she sings in all these languages. She explains that when she sings in her mother tongue, she can see the audience reacting differently. She doesn’t stop herself from singing in other languages because as a singer, she’s interested in the openness of different songs and different languages. Even in this recording, she sings in Malagasy which she doesn’t speak.
Zarra wrote most of the music on the recording and collaborated with two writers from Morocco, two ladies. She wrote, texted, and asked them to rewrite. They also rewrote a completely different text from scratch, and it was a very interesting experience. Zarra explains that for this recording, she really forced herself to start with the lyrics instead of the music, and it was very, very interesting to do it that way.
Zarra’s latest album ‘RWA (The Essence)’ is a beautiful tribute to all the people she met in her journey as an artist. It is a mélange of musicians from different continents, and it exemplifies the proverb from Sub-Saharan Africa about the old man who only lived in his village and therefore has only one intelligence. Zarra has lived in many villages and traveled through many, so she is extremely intelligent.
