Generous Youssou N'Dour

Going Back to His Roots.

Paris 

31/10/2002 - 

In his new album, Nothing's in Vain, Senegalese Star Youssou N'Dour pays a tribute to his country. Wolof, his mother tongue, and mbalax, Senegalese sound par excellence, have a major place in this beautiful CD where we still can hear Pascal Obispo, the French duet the Nubians and a cover of a Georges Brassens song.

Senegalese world music star Youssou N'Dour is an artist who transcends the need for categories and labels, refusing to bother himself with the eternal question: "Is this African music?" Mixing a variety of styles, languages and musical influences, Youssou is guided by his passion and instincts – and if that means collaborating with French pop star Pascal Obispo, then he's quite prepared to let critics think he's committed the cardinal sin of selling his soul to the mainstream! On his new album, Nothing's In Vain, Youssou defies pigeon-holing critics once again, unexpectedly returning to his roots and working with traditional African instruments. RFI/Musique catches up with Dakar's mbalax king, a musician who's always there where you least expect him!

RFI Musique: Listening to your new album, it appears that you've chosen to give priority to traditional instruments this time round. Is that because there's a vogue for acoustic music amongst African music-lovers in the West?
Youssou N’Dour: I think it's more a case of when you travel a lot – and I'm talking about travelling a lot, musically speaking, in my work – you sometimes forget what you've got at home, what's sitting there right under your nose. I've always tried to open myself up to other sounds, other voices and other music vibes in general. And that's been a wonderful experience for me. But there just came a point when I opened my eyes and realised there were so many things I had close to hand that I'd never used in my work. This time round, I decided it was time to let African instruments take centre stage – because, let's face it, there are some extraordinarily talented musicians where I come from! Right from Tan bi - the opening track on my new album – you hear the riti, a traditional African violin together with the kora, the xalam and the balafon.

When did you get this sudden urge to go back to your musical roots?
I think it all began when I was working on the soundtrack for the film Kirikou. I'd specifically been asked to use traditional instruments for the music – and that was a totally new experience for me! Anyway, while I was doing the music for Kirikou I spent time working with a bunch of traditional musicians and that made me realise the true value of their instruments and appreciate the incredible musical possibilities they offer. It was at that point that I turned round and said 'OK, one day I'm going to make an album using traditional instruments' – and that's the moment the concept of my new album started to take shape!

Your new album contains more than its fair share of surprises. Besides featuring an unexpected contribution from French pop star Pascal Obispo there's also a cover of an Aragon poem - Il n’y a pas d’amour heureux - or rather a cover of the musical adaptation recorded by Georges Brassens…
Well, I happened to be in France when everyone was commemorating Brassens's death. One day I switched on the radio and I heard Brassens singing the Aragon poem. I fell head over heels in love with it on the spot! For me, Brassens represents an idea of complete and utter simplicity. He was someone who had this very natural, direct and immediately accessible way of getting powerful messages across in his work.

Talking about putting powerful messages across, you're someone who's chosen to show your own commitment by getting involved with humanitarian causes such as the fight against AIDS…
Yes, I got involved with Live For Love United, the song footballers put out at the time of the World Cup to raise funds for the organisation "Ensemble contre le sida" (All Together Against Aids). It's important to try and raise as much money as possible so that everyone can have access to medical treatment. Medical treatment for AIDS patients is exorbitantly expensive and that means entire sections of the population affected by AIDS are barred from using it.
Pascal Obispo happened to be involved in Live For Love United too. I met him when he came to Dakar to work on the project. I was already hard at work on my own album by that point and, as I've always appreciate Obispo's songwriting talents, I asked him if he'd consider working on a couple of tracks for me. After that I pushed the boat out even further, asking him to actually come into the studio and sing with me. We ended up duetting on So Many Men, one of the three tracks he contributed to my album. I knew I really wanted to work with Obispo on my album. He's a French songwriter who, through his work, is capable of reaching a much wider public than the circles he's known in. And if I can go some way towards helping him branch out and work in a totally different sphere, then I'm delighted!

And what about your other humanitarian work? Are you still working as an ambassador for Unicef?
I support the vaccination campaigns Unicef are currently working on worldwide and I'm always involved in the Christmas card projects at the end of the year. Needless to say, I take every opportunity I can to mention Unicef and their work every time I meet the media. Whenever I'm off on tour local branches of Unicef contact me when I'm passing through and if there's anything they need me to talk about in interviews I do it without a moment's hesitation.

Are there any particular messages you try and get across in your songs?
Well, I've always tackled the subject of African society – and Senegalese society in particular. And I've always paid particular attention to the role of women in our societies. After all, they're always the first victims of wars and conflicts! I spend a lot of time talking about issues close to home. And I'm always inviting listeners to treat the past as a mirror, you know. It's like take a long, hard look at the mistakes we've made in the past and use this as a way of not repeating the same errors in the future!

Do you ever stand back and question your own motives and decisions?
Yes, of course I do! There's always an enormous amount of things you regret in life and wish you'd done differently. But then again, it's pretty difficult to stand back at times and analyse what appears to be good and what appears to be a mistake. I've recorded a lot of pretty 'modern' albums to date and sometimes I doubt whether that's always been a good idea. Sometimes I start thinking it would have been good to have gone about things differently. There's one thing I'm 100% certain of never regretting though – and that's my decision to have kept my home base in Senegal throughout my career!

Besides making your own album Nothing's In Vain, you've also been hard at working the studio co-producing Orchestra Baobab's new album, Specialist In All Styles. The group, who was huge in the '70s, have just come out of retirement and relaunched their career. Would you have liked to have been the one responsible for kickstarting their comeback?
Well, I was actually! What happened was, one day Nick Gold - the British producer behind the success of Cuban veterans Buena Vista Social Club - got in touch with me and asked me whether I'd be interested in trying to get Orchestra Baobab up and running again. He'd been a huge fan of the group when he was younger. I turned round and said, 'Yeah, sure, so long as you're going to organise the comeback with the original musicians!' Anyway, to cut a long story short, I sent someone off to look for the group's old guitarist, Barthélémy Attisso. He's an absolute key member of the group and there was no question of reforming Baobab without him. Anyway, we got him back from Togo and then set about getting the rest of the group together. Nick had a lot of his own ideas for the Baobab project too. So in the end I suggested we produce the album together – which is exactly what happened!

Why were you so keen on orchestrating the comeback of a group who ended their career so long ago?
It was a personal thing really. I felt like when I emerged on the music scene in Senegal I sort of chased Baobab away. Suddenly, Senegalese music fans turned away from Orchestra Baobab's music and started getting into mine. But I really loved Baobab – and I don't feel it's my role to step in and take anybody's place! So I guess you could say I owed it to them. I mean, I'd have loved for Baobab to go on existing when I launched my own career.

Baobab plays an African fusion sound, which is heavily marked by Latin rhythms. Interestingly enough, Latino sounds are all the rage in Europe right now – but there's not a hint of them on your new album…
Well, when I started out in the music world Latin-style sounds were really taking off in Senegal. But I was interested in forging my own style with mbalax and traditional Wolof rhythms. I love Latino music, but the thing is I didn't grow up with that culture. What's more, I'm not used to singing in Spanish! And if there's one thing I hate, it's when people turn away from their own music and start dishing up Latino sounds just because it happens to be the 'big thing' of the moment!

Youssou N'DourNothing’s In Vain (Warner 2002

Patrick  Labesse

Translation : Julie  Street