Album review

Baaba Maal

Back to His Acoustic Roots

Paris 

13/04/2001 - 

While Baaba Maal's last album Nomad Soul found him experimenting with fusion and musical crossover, the Senegalese star's new opus Missing you (mi yeewnii) marks a clear return to his acoustic roots. Filled with nostalgia for nights in his native Fouta, spent telling family stories by the light of the moon and ideals of pan-African unity, Missing you (mi yeewnii) is a work that celebrates the best of African culture and tradition.

RFI Musique: Baaba, your new album Missing you (mi yeewnii) seems to mark a return to your first love – that's to say, an extremely simple pared-down form of acoustic music. Does this mean you've decided to move away from the urban fusion sounds we heard on your last few albums?
Baaba Maal: No, it doesn't. On the contrary, in fact. I'm absolutely certain I'll go back to experimenting with fusion and musical crossover – the kind of stuff people like to describe as 'modern music' – at some point in my career. But on this particular album, what I was interested in doing was going back to my roots and finding myself again. What I wanted to do this time round was write songs where there was a real complicity between myself, my voice, my guitar and Mansour Seck. I wanted the music on the new album to be much more natural and I wanted to feel a lot more laidback and relaxed when it came to preparing the new album and recording it. The other thing that was really important in recording the new album was that I wanted the songs to be a lot easier to adapt for live performances.

RFIMusique: Does this mean you didn't really feel that Nomad Soul - your previous album released in 1998 - represented the real Baaba?
B. M.: I'm aware that Nomad Soul opened a lot of doors for me in the music industry and it helped further my career in the States, for instance. But with several of the songs I've reworked on my new album - such as Fanta , for example - I'm much more in tune with the new acoustic version. The songs I've reworked on Missing you (mi yeewnii) sound a lot more genuine to me.

RFIMusique: You've been busy in the studio recently recording a track for a forthcoming collective album recorded as a tribute to Fela Kuti. Was Fela someone who counted a lot in your own life?
B. M.: Yes, Fela was hugely influential in my life. Fela touched a whole generation of young Africans and African musicians in general. You know, when you listen to the music of the Senegalese group Xalam - a group that sadly no longer exists - you realise the enormous extent of Fela's influence.

RFIMusique: Were there any other African singers or musicians who've made a major impact on you in the course of your career?
B.M.: Yes, Myriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela have both acted as major role models for me in their own way. I especially admire the way they perform on stage and the image they present to the world. Then, of course, there's the Bembeya Jazz band from Guinea. When you listen to the kind of thing Salif Keïta, Mory Kanté and myself are doing you really see how we've all been influenced by Bembeya Jazz. We grew up totally immersed in their music.
And there's another musician from Guinea I really love called Kouyaté Sory Kandia. I listen to his work with the same emotion today as I did right at the beginning. In fact, I'd say Kouyaté Sory Kandia is the artist who's inspired me the most when it comes to my own music. His vocals were really amazing and I love the things he drew from traditional music. A lot of musical combinations you hear on modern records are actually thanks to him. It was Kouyaté Sory Kandia who came up with the idea of putting together all these different instruments from different countries and experimenting with combinations that had never been used in traditional music before. Kouyaté would go off on tour with the Guinean Ballet and bring back all these songs he'd picked up on his travels. I remember hearing him sing these amazing songs from Tanzania once. What I love most about Kouyaté's music is that he was always open to new sounds and new horizons. He really felt himself to be a 'musician of the world'. The great thing about Kouyaté is that he had this very exceptional voice, an amazing way with melody and a very keen sense of the role songs play in African music.

RFIMusique: And what exactly is the role of songs in African music?
B. M.: The way African music works, everything is based around songs. Songs are a way of getting a message across. People can always get something out of the lyrics, whether it be in terms of history, education or finding out what 'great men of culture' thought about things. Songs play an important educational role in African music. The role of singers is to uncover what people are thinking and feeling inside, to put their finger on what's going on in society, then use this material as inspiration in their songwriting.

RFIMusique: One of the people you've often referred to as a 'great man of culture' is the Senegalese writer Cheikh Anta Diop…
B. M. : The way I see it, Cheikh Anta Diop was a lot more than a 'man of culture'. He wasn't just a writer, he was also a great historian and scientist who knew how to express his thoughts in a clear, accessible way. It's a shame people haven't really made good use of his research. If they'd taken a closer look at what Cheikh Anta Diop had to say it would sort out a lot of confused ideas people have about origins and the role African populations have played in the history of global civilisation. The way I see it, Cheikh Anta Diop is an absolute reference - and it's not too late for people to go and take a closer look at his work. Actually, I was recently involved in promoting his work in a way. I guested on a song on a cassette album by a group of rappers called Golongal which was specially dedicated to him.

RFIMusique: Your new album finds you returning to one of your favourite themes - African peace and unity. Do you still believe in that as a real possibility?
B. M.: The reason I decided to call my new album Missing You – mi yeewnii - which is an African expression meaning 'nostalgia' or 'homesickness' - was because I feel a very real sense of nostalgia for the idea of African unity. It's something people have talked about for ages, that remains very much alive in people's minds, and maybe their hearts as well. It's a deep-seated desire in all of us. That's why I have this very real sense of nostalgia for the idea of African unity - it's something I've not actually seen or experienced in my own life but it's something I still hold out hope for in the future. I firmly believe we have to learn to say 'no' to anything that could split and divide us as a people. I think the future lies in the hands of the new generation - I'm convinced they're the ones who can really change things!

RFIMusique: On your new album you evoke another kind of nostalgia, for the nights in your home village when you all sat round chatting under the full moon...
B. M. : That was a very special period of my life, when I lived in Fouta (northern Senegal) before I ever went off on the road travelling. On nights when there was a full moon, we'd all sit up talking and I learnt an enormous amount about my parents and what they'd lived through, especially my father who'd sit there and tell us his life story. And it was listening to our father's life story that helped us get a clearer idea of who we were. I remain strongly attached to my native region and head back there every time I get the chance. In fact, I've made quite a few trips back home over the past four years. They're really trying to boost regional tourism there right now, setting up all kinds of festivals and cultural events. One of the most successful examples of the new scene is the "72 heures culturelles" (72 Hours of Culture) in Podor. It's a festival which brings together musicians, artists and craftsmen from all over Senegal.

RFIMusique: How do you feel when you sing?
B. M. : When I sing I feel I'm using my voice to express the things Africa wants to communicate to the world. I reach deep inside myself and pull out all kinds of feelings and emotions. And I feel that the things I express belong to everyone around me, not just me!

Baaba Maal Missing you (mi yeewnii)  (Palm Pictures - Naïve)