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Afro trends at Womex
Issa Bagayogo and l'Orchestre Baobab
Paris
06/11/2001 -
Africa was particularly well represented at this year's Womex thanks to two groups who kicked up a major storm. Malian singer Issa Bagayogo brought the house down with a vibrant Afro-electro outfit, while legendary 70s Senegalese group L'Orchestre Baobab look set to stage a memorable comeback thanks to Nick Gold (the British producer behind Ali Farka Touré and Buena Vista Social Club).
Bagayogo and L'Orchestre Baobab, both Francophone acts, have been snapped up by Anglo-Saxon labels – which leaves us wondering whether, in fact, Paris can still lay claim to its status as 'capital of world sounds'?
Issa Bagayogo Afro-electro fusion has been hot on the 'world' scene for a few years now, the real precursor of this sound having been Manu Dibango with his seminal album Electric Africa(released on the UK label Island). Recent attempts to come up with a new Afro-electro fusion for the 21st century have proved far from successful, but musicians from Mali have played an instrumental role in developing the concept. Neba Solo, for instance, spent a while mixing the haunting sound of his balafon with the hypnotic beats of French DJ Fréderic Galliano. (However, the mix failed to gel and Galliano, owner of the Frikiywa label, moved back to Paris to fuse his techno beats with vocals from the Malian diva Hadja Kouyaté).
Meanwhile, over in Bamako, two French entrepreneurs were honing the fusion sound of the third millennium in a studio they'd set up with Ali Farka Touré. Philippe Berthier (a pioneering record-shop owner from Lyons who has lived in the Malian capital for 18 years) and Yves Wernert (former bass-player with the group Double Nelson from Nancy), were looking for a singer to lay the vocals over the top of their Afro-electro mix and happened upon Issa Bagayogo.
The 40-year-old Malian singer has an amazing story to tell. A peasant labourer from Wassoulou, in the Nahawa Doumbia region, Bagayogo learnt to play the kamalé n'goni (a traditional six-stringed harp) at an early age. Ten years ago, however, he moved up to Bamako to work as a bus driver and try his luck at launching a professional music career. Bagayogo's first cassette albums (recorded in '91 and '93), failed to take off on the local music scene. But then he ran into Berthier and Wernert who asked him to mix his traditional African sounds over the top of their electronic samples.
Overcoming initial reservations about new-fangled contraptions such as rhythm boxes, Bagayogo accepted the French duo's proposition and set to work with Moussa Koné (Ali Farka Touré's former guitarist). The resulting album, Sya, released at the end of '98, proved to be a huge hit in Mali. The album also went down a storm in Europe (following its release on the Cobalt label) and Bagayogo earned a whole new following of fans who dubbed him "Techno Issa".
Following the success of Sya, Philippe Berthier set to work trying to find a record company interested in investing in Bagayogo's long-term career. Berthier approached the American label "Six Degrees Records" when they attended the Midem record fair in Cannes earlier this year. Six Degrees snapped up the rising Malian star and Bagayogo spent the spring of this year locked away in the studio recording Timbuktu (an album scheduled for release in February 2002).
Extracts from Timbuktu were presented to the notoriously difficult-to-please audience of professionals gathered in Rotterdam – and the Bagayogo magic worked a treat! Laying his rich, deep vocals over electro backing played by two former members of the Parisian combo, Malka Family (on bass and samplers), "Electro Issa" got the Womex crowd jumping to his catchy fusion sound.
Interestingly enough, the vogue for this style of "Afro feedback" has been taking off over the Channel of late, with acts like Kékélé, the legendary 60s Zairean group building up a huge following of fans in the UK. As for veteran "Soul Makossa" man, Manu Dibango, he'll be releasing an album featuring his favourite 70s compositions on the marimba (the traditional African xylophone) next month.
Meanwhile, L'Orchestre Baobab, - a salsa band who were absolutely legendary in Senegal in the 1970s – are all set to make a major comeback thanks to pioneering UK producer Nick Gold (the man responsible for discovering Ali Farka Touré and reviving the careers of veteran Cuban salsa stars, Buena Vista Social Club).
For those not familiar with the Baobab story, suffice to say they were the leading lights on the Senegalese music scene before Youssou N'Dour was crowned 'king of world'. Cherished by the Senegalese intelligentsia towards the end of the Senghor era, L'Orchestre Baobab ended up going their own separate ways. But the group's music lived on on bootleg cassettes exchanged on the black market. Modern-day Senegalese rap groups also paid tribute to Baobab, covering their salsa classics.
Although L'Orchestre Baobab no longer existed as a collective, individual members of the band continued with their career, playing on the tourist circuit in luxury hotels. Sound reminiscent of the Buena Vista rags-back-to-riches story? Well, it should, because the story looks set to have the same happy ending! In actual fact, what happened in L'Orchestre Baobab's case was that a Senegalese producer who owned the rights to a batch of cassette recordings made by the group back in '82 offered them to Nick Gold for release on his World Circuit label. The only problem was, no-one actually bothered to inform the group themselves!
Much to their surprise, L'Orchestre Baobab found their original cassette turned into a double CD album entitled "Pirates' Choice". Balla Sidibé, one of the group's trio of lead singers, appears to have kept a sense of humour about the whole affair, however. "It's lucky we got pirated in the first place," he says, "because that way our music ended up getting through to the international scene!"
As for whether Baobab will follow the same route to late-life fame as Buena Vista Social Club – well, only time will tell!
Pierre René-Worms
08/11/2007 -
29/10/2002 -
