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Youssou N’Dour moves beyond mbalax
Back to Youssou’s traditional roots
Paris
02/11/2007 -
Youssou N’Dour: Well, there’s more to Senegalese music than mbalax, you know. Mbalax is actually Wolof, whereas my new album was inspired by music from northern Senegal, from the desert region that borders on Mali and Mauritania. Even though I decided to carry on singing in Wolof on my new album, the compositions, the musical mood, in fact just about everything on the album (apart from Bàjjan and 4-4-44 which are both mbalax tracks) is from the North and based on wango, the traditional rhythm of the Tukulor [Ed.:Baaba Maal, the best-known Tukulor artist released an album called Wango in 1988.] Senegal’s traditional heritage presents some quite extraordinary musical possibilities. There’s an extremely wide range of rhythms and sounds to draw on.
And you decided to invite a number of Tukulor artists to join you in your new musical venture?
The idea for this album came about as a result of an encounter with Bah Mody, a singer from northern Senegal. Bah lives in Dakar now and I happened to spot him on a TV show one night. He’s Tukulor and Mauritanian too, in fact, as he grew up in Mauritania and spent most of his life there. There’s a traditional saying in Senegal that when you enter someone else’s territory, you ask permission first. And that’s what I was doing with Bah. A lot of songs on the new album were written in collaboration with him. Bah’s in his fifties now but he’s never recorded anything. I have a project on the go with him right now, in fact – I’m going to produce an album by him. It’s set for release on the Nonesuch label some time next year. I got another Tukulor singer called Ousmane Kangue involved on my new album, too. We’ve already produced him on our label Jololi.
Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take) also features another singer from the North, although admittedly a bit further afield than Senegal. You had a huge hit with Neneh Cherry - Seven Seconds, taken from your album The Guide (Wommat) - in 1994 and the pair of you vowed to record together again at some point. You’ve kept that promise now on your new album with Wake Up…
Seven Seconds showed me just how magical a song could be, how one song could launch an entire career. That song was a real turning-point for me. It brought me a much, much wider audience [Ed.: and the commercial success of The Guide gave Youssou the capital to set up his own CD-manufacturing plant and his own record label, Jololi, as well as the money to renovate Le Thiossane, a club in Dakar where he performs on a weekly basis.]
Neneh’s like a sister to me. When our paths crossed again, we always said we’d do another duet. This time round, though, it was Neneh who crossed over onto my territory. The idea wasn’t to do another big hit. Wake Up has much more of an African feel to it because we made full use of instruments like the kora.
Seven Seconds was a song against racism and other forms of hatred which corrupt the innocence of childhood. What message are you trying to get across on Wake Up?
This time, we’re saying "Africa’s calling! Wake up!" Africa has a message to convey to the rest of the world and it’s an extremely positive one. The title of my new album says it all really. I’m saying, "Give me something and I’ll give you something in return!"
You’re known for your campaigning work and your support of humanitarian causes, but Youssou N’Dour also seems to be a bit of a romantic who enjoys penning gentle love songs like Létt ma (a track on the new album)…
Beyond all the militating and the political activism, beyond all the problems I’m trying to denounce, there’s love - and life! So for me it’s essential to keep writing love songs.
Rokku Mi Rokka features a number of traditional African instruments. Is this your way of marking your return to traditional sounds, a direction you’ve actually been moving in for some time now?
You know, when you spend so much time travelling around experimenting with music from here and there, sometimes you forget what’s actually right there under your nose. I’ve always been open to other sounds, other voices, other vibes in my music. And that’s been great, it’s been an extraordinary experience. But I reached a point where I suddenly realised that there was so much stuff going on in my own backyard and I’d never even touched on it. I suddenly realised I needed to leave a bit of room for instruments where I come from, where I have to say we have some quite extraordinary musicians.
When did this desire to go back to your roots begin to take shape?
It started with the music I composed for the soundtrack of the film Kirikou. When I was commissioned to do the soundtrack they specifically asked me to work with traditional instruments. And that was something totally new for me. Anyway, while I was working on the soundtrack I got to hang out with traditional musicians and I really came to appreciate the value of the instruments they were playing, the musical possibilities those instruments open up. And I vowed to myself that one day I’d do an album based on traditional sounds. That’s where the concept of my album Nothing’s In Vain [Ed.: released in 2002, before Egypt (2004)] came from.
In concert at Le Bataclan, Paris, on 5 November. U.S. tour (13 - 23 November) includes New York dates on 21 & 22. In South Africa on 24 & 26. In Egypt on 26.
Patrick Labesse
Translation : Julie Street
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