Over Seas of Memory_A Novel by Michaël Ferrier

Author:Michaël Ferrier [Ferrier, Michaël]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biographical, Fiction, Literary, FIC019000 Fiction / Literary, FIC041000 Fiction / Biographical, General
ISBN: 9781496216045
Google: m4eRDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Published: 2019-06-15T04:00:12+00:00

She is not very tall, but the low-cut neck of her blouse shows a slender neck, and her slow, elegant walk does the rest. The people of Mahajanga say of her that she has the walk of a zebu with perfect hooves: the tracks left by the front hooves are followed naturally by those behind. As she passes in the morning, everything changes, everything grows more beautiful. The flowers rise up, the sun grows stronger. At the end of the day, on the other hand, after her the temperature freshens, the air is sharper. It is as if her walks are cuts on the fabric of the days: Pauline frames the days, brings them into sharp relief, exfoliates them. She is a landmark on the contour of the evening.

*

Then, from the first breath of nighttime, there is music. There is the father, Francis, the leader of the orchestra; the mother, Ascension, who has a superb voice; Aunt Émilia on the violin; and Uncle Pierre on the trumpet. The sisters make up the choirs; the girl cousins sing the hymns. Pauline is the youngest: she is on the piano. All of this merry crowd comes together in a Mahajanga hotel-restaurant run by the aunt, Chez Nuñes, which was to become over the years Chez Nénesse, then the Nouvel Hôtel, 13 rue Henri-Palu, not far from the town’s Grand Market. Late into the night the musical notes fly around, and the young people from the town come to dance. You hear whispers and promises uttered in the shadows of the terrace, under the bougainvillea trees. Maybe it was there that they met, Maxime and Pauline, in the midst of the sharp notes, the quavers, the double-quavers, and the sighs and silences of the nights with their dotted rhythms . . .

According to the seasons, the group grows from three to five, six, seven, and sometimes even twelve people: a veritable musical flotilla. A group comes together, randomly, sometimes a trio, sometimes a quintet, between a dance and a concerto. On the program you have jazz, beguine, tango, rumba . . . The rhythms from Europe or elsewhere, which travel by boat or by radio, are quickly taken up and transformed, played on local guitars, drums, and the valiha . . . They replay the hits of Louis Armstrong, who has just hit the big-time in Chicago with the famous Hot Five, and the names of Johnny Dodds, Kid Ory, and Johnny St. Cyr swing through the brass and over the piano keys. There are also the standards of Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra, such as “Carolina Stomp,” from time to time a little detour through “Lucy Long” or Blanche Calloway, but it is Armstrong who has the lion’s share, with “West End Blues” and “Tight like This,” or hits with their vowels flying and their dentals dancing: “Georgia Grind,” “Heebie Jeebies,” and “Cornet Chop Suey.”

Aunt Émilia plays along grudgingly. She plays the violin like no other but prefers waltzes to jazz. If pushed, she will play the tango and the paso doble.

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