Jamie Carter didn’t know much about Chicago when he moved here in 2001 at age 20. “I didn’t even know how big the lake was,” he says. “In the beginning of the Oprah show there would be a shot of lakefront buildings, and I always assumed they took that photo from the other side of the lake.” He didn’t know anyone in Chicago either, but he doesn’t hesitate when asked what brought him here: Touch and Go, Steve Albini, and Thrill Jockey. “If those things all existed there, then it must be a decent place,” he remembers thinking. Carter says he had enough cash in his pocket to last ten days at the Arlington Youth Hostel, and he figured that if he didn’t have any luck he would leave himself enough for a bus ticket back to San Diego, where he’d relocated the year before after spending most of his first 19 years in New Zealand.
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Five years ago Carter flew to Niamey, Niger, to record a band he’d never heard. “The details were just to come record an album,” says Carter, now 32. “They would pay for the plane ticket and they would take care of everything. For me that was all I needed to know. I was up for whatever.” Today he’s more consumed than he ever would’ve imagined with Tal National—an ebullient guitar-driven band that cleverly fuses a variety of West African styles, among them Congolese soukous (Cuban-influenced music with its roots in African rumba) and Senegalese mbalax (Westernized dance music, popularized by Youssou N’Dour, that incorporates traditional sabar drumming). For the past two weeks he’s been serving as driver, tour manager, and sound man on Tal National’s first U.S. tour. Earlier this year—thanks in large part to Carter—Fat Cat Records issued the band’s third and best album, Kaani, its first to be released outside Africa. On October 17, Carter will get to sleep in his own bed after the group plays at Martyrs’, but then he’s back on the road for some east-coast shows.
In a way, Carter’s journey to Niger began in October 2008, when he met guitarist Hamadal Issoufou Moumine (better known by his nickname, Almeida). Almeida was in Chicago to participate in the Chicago Calling Festival; multi-instrumentalist Dan Godston, who organized the festival, had crossed paths with Almeida two years earlier in Lisbon, Portugal, at the UNESCO Conference on Arts Education. (In addition to being a musician, Almeida teaches music and drama at an orphanage in Niamey and works as a judge.) At Godston’s urging, Almeida participated in the first two iterations of Chicago Calling telematically, then flew to Chicago for the 2008 installment to perform at Heaven Gallery with jazz guitarist Bill MacKay and percussionist Jamie Topper, who was then Carter’s bandmate in Judson Claiborne.
But recording the band proved tricky. The studio in Niamey—part of a government-run arts complex—was in disarray, covered in dust, and equipped with an inoperable half-inch eight-track deck. Carter used some mike stands and drum mikes from the studio, but otherwise he relied primarily on the minimal gear he’d brought along. His visit to Niamey lasted just six exhilarating days, with the band tracking the album in three daylong sessions sandwiched between its marathon nightclub performances.
The band celebrated Kaani‘s release with a July 2011 show, selling 4,000 tickets at $10 each—an exorbitant price in Niger. But Carter wasn’t having much luck bringing the band or the album to the States. That summer he began seeking out other African musicians playing in Chicago, including Niger’s Bombino and Tuareg singer Khaira Arby. At a performance by the latter, he met Chris Nolan of Clermont Music, who manages many African artists and releases their music.
When I spoke with Carter during the third day of the tour, he said he didn’t know what would come next for him and Tal National, but he’s almost messianic in his devotion to them. “I hope more doors will start to open for the band,” he says.
Thu 10/17, 9 PMMartyrs’3855 N. Lincolnmartyrslive.com$8, $6 in advance
