BBC World Service Online

Music Extra

Music

Selected BBC music documentaries drawn from across the world.

Music Extra: Paradise Blues

Discussion & Talk

Percy Yiptong

01/10/2016 GMT

Paradise Blues

BBC World Service - Music Extra, Paradise Blues

How the lost stars of Mauritius' Sega music are winning fans - on and off the island

How the lost stars of Mauritius' Sega music are winning fans - on and off the island.

Ever since the music of East African and Malagasy slaves became fashionable at colonial parties in early 20th Century Mauritius, Sega, with its distinctive 6/8 rhythm, has provided the beat for constant experimentation by the island's musicians.

Sega's evolution has always had one eye on international trends, and a pop synth strain of Sega now dominates the island's airwaves. But outside Mauritius, the re-discovery and re-releases of a trove of recordings from the 1970s is belatedly introducing the world to a golden age of Sega.

Inspired by these re-discovered classics, one Mauritian is planning to reunite the stars of that golden age on stage - and wake all Mauritians to the value of their own unique musical heritage.

Percy Yiptong, has spent his life in Sega music, discovering, mentoring and managing artists, promoting gigs and tending to the music of his island. Now he is preparing to stage a grand reunion concert.  But are the audiences of today’s Mauritius ready to take the stars of the 1970s to their hearts? Can singers in their 70s and 80s still command the stage? In Paradise Blues, we will find out.

Along the way, Percy Yiptong tells the story of Sega, taking us to visit a suburban bungalow jammed with a lifetime's collection of African and Madagascan percussion instruments, introducing the preacher and masseur who invented soul Sega, as well as remembering the lost creator of Sega reggae (or Seggae).
On the beach where the music originated, we meet the young Mauritians trying to learn the oldest form of Sega, while on stage, we find the creators of the newest forms of Sega, who blend jazz and Indian classical music with that unstoppable Sega beat.

(Photo: Percy Yiptong (with mic, centre) Ti Lafrique (with mic, right) on stage at the JJ Auditorium, 21 May, 2016. Credit: Luke Clancy)

BBC World Service

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Music Extra

Paradise Blues

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service