Baaba Maal

HE’S AS HIGHLY REGARDED AT HOME AS HE IS ABROAD AND HE’S A TIRELESS SPOKESPERSON FOR ORDINARY AFRICANS.

For over ten years, he has been creating magical compositions ranging from the purest traditional sounds to exciting, innovative fusion.

In March and April 2004 Baaba will bring his unique sound to American and Canadian stages on a 34-date tour, beginning in Los Angeles and stretching as far as New Hampshire, Texas, Montreal and Hawaii. The tour will feature the acoustic ensemble from his latest release Missing You... Mi Yeewni (Palm Pictures).

Missing You is a virtual aural odyssey that transports listeners to rural Africa. Recorded mostly after dark in the open air of Mbunk, Senegal, with the assistance of producer John Leckie (Radiohead and The Stone Roses), the result is a masterpiece that captures "Acoustic Africa."

Baaba skillfully interweaves his guitar and vocals with the sounds of village nightlife to create compelling tales of African life.

His politically conscious lyrics range from an ancient cry for African unity to a progressive critique of the traditional family structure.

Baaba's previous two releases Firin' in Fouta and Nomad Soul earned critical acclaim worldwide and reinforced his role as a seminal artist in the world music arena.

With constant touring he has honed and enriched an already phenomenal stage show. Touring nearly every continent, the overwhelming response has been utter awe.

Baaba is more than just a remarkable musician he's a musician with a social conscience. Baaba represents the United Nations Development Program as a UNDP Youth Emissary and he's a spokesman on the issue of HIV/Aids in Africa.

He has been a featured performer on fundraising projects for the HIV/Aids awareness group The Red Hot Organization. Releases include Red Hot and Rhapsody, a tribute to Gershwin, and Red Hot and Riot, a tribute to Fela Kuti.

Music was an integral part of Baaba's childhood on the banks of the river Senegal. Born to the Hal Pulaar people (known to the English speaking world as Fulani), his mother used her original songs to educate young Baaba. She instilled in him the value of intelligent and thoughtful lyrics, and encouraged him to pursue music even though he was not born a griotâthe traditional caste of musicians.

Thanks to experience, travel, and education, Baaba has developed a profound self-awareness, allowing him to deliver the message of empowerment, enlightenment, and peace.

Baaba began his formal education in St. Louis (the original French colonial capital), but soon won an art scholarship in Senegal's modern capital, Dakar.

There he joined Asly Fouta, a group of seventy musicians, and began studying local instruments. He later embarked on an extensive tour of West Africa with longtime friend, Mansour Seck.

They traveled from village to village, interviewing the oldest person in each location about the history of the village, the country, and the music.

Baaba completed his studies at the Conservatoire des Beaux Arts in Paris before returning to Senegal, where he formed his band Daande Lenol, "Voice Of The People."

Exposure to Black American singers of the 1960's such as James Brown, Otis Redding, and Wilson Pickett complemented Baaba's extensive knowledge of traditional African music.

He later discovered Jamaican musicians such as Toots Hibbert, Bob Marley, and Jimmy Cliff when they toured Senegal in the mid 1970's, which further influenced and diversified his expressive sound.

Using his music as a vehicle to express his concerns and empower his people, Baaba Maal sings and speaks for Africa with unprecedented authority.The address information below uses fields. The values of the fields can be changed in the project properties dialog.

§ Became a singer even though he came from a family of fishermen, as opposed to the traditional 'griot' (or praise singing) caste

§ He was brought up in the Fulami Muslim faith · While still a teenager he was a member of the Dakar's 70 piece orchestra, Asly Fouta

§ He spent 2 years studying musical theory and composition at the Paris Conservatoire

§ Always takes a cook on tour to prepare his chep u jen (fish & rice), Senegalese-style

§ DJ John Peel described hearing the album Djam Leelii as been like "listening to Muddy Waters for the first time"

STOP PRESS

Pictures of his London gig are now available…

Baaba surveys a sea of issues and problems, then he sets about uncovering the root causes. He does this by getting out of Dakar and into the villages and the furthest reaches of Senegal, Mauritania and darkest Europe.

He talks, he sings but it is obvious that this is a man who listens and learns. “We Fulani have a saying, ‘misunderstanding does not exist. Just people who don’t talk’.”

sometimes I want to come back to the purity of traditional music for the generations that love that music — because I belong to these people and I grew up like them, discovered music like them and believe in music like them

But let’s rewind a bit. I am trapped in an underground room until 5pm and during a quick break I get word that the interview has been pulled forward a day.

In fact it will be at 7 that evening. Shit, no tape recorder, no questions and one of the most important voices of Africa waiting for my sorry arse to turn up. Not good.

Fortunately, there was just time to hurtle around London on a scooter and pick up everything and get to his record company’s offices in West London.

It turns out everything is running late.

A TV crew is in there filming a segment of a six part series on Africa coming out this summer on BBC Four, two very young journalists from the New Statesman are discussing how they are going to make a killing on buying pharmaceutical shares, Robin Denselow (who wrote a wonderful piece about his adventures in Mauritania with Baaba) drifts in and, all the time, Mambo Gerry, the press maestro, holds this circus together.

I’m the last one of the night before he heads off to Bush House for an interview on the World Service.

He looks tired and slight compared to the image his lion’s roar of a voice conjures up.

Time is ticking away fast but it seems worth a little small talk to settle things down and show a bit of respect. We trade stories of this bloody cold that is going round and stopped him from talking at the British Museum a couple of weeks before.

I am not going to say it is going to be finished soon. It will be finished when it is ready. I can tell you it’s not going to be like Missing You, it’s going to be something else

It has been said that there are two Baaba Maals: a hip Western remix kid and a traditional African singer.

When I ask him if he recognises his reflection in that description he agrees warmly, “that description makes sense. It depends on where I write things or play music or produce music.

In general, I try to make a mix between the two with instruments from the West and Africa or a style from Africa and the West but sometimes I just want to come back to the purity of traditional music for the generations that love that music - because I belong to these people and I grew up like them, discovered music like them and believe in music like them.”

Later on, his eyes light up when he describes the great enthusiasm for mixing up music there is in Senegal.

Be it jazz, hip hop, reggae, traditional, Senegalese folk will have a bit of everything please. “In Senegal, we listen to every kind of music.

We are a very open country - that’s Senegal and you can see it in the evolution of Senegalese music from before independence right through to the rap music of today.

It’s so open that any kind of music that comes to Africa, even if it is not African, the people can make it Senegalese.”

I start to think that the remixing and the roots are all trademarks of a truly African soul and that the remix versus traditional argument is like arguing whether a carrot is orange or crunchy.

As Baaba says, “something can be contemporary without losing its traditional qualities.”

His last album Missing You has to be one of my favourite albums of all time.

It was certainly a big seller outside of Africa but Baaba made it for the people back home that had loved his music for twenty years.

“It was not like Firin’ in Fouta, it was a very different album, very calm.

A lot of people in Africa said, ‘at last! We thought we were going to lose him to this Western mix style.

He is coming back to do something that we know.’ A lot of people were missing it.”

Young people have to break some laws like I did. I was not a griot…

So what’s next? He is excited by the music he is working on with his band but will he tell me? No chance.

Mischievously he laughs when he says that I will just have to wait and see what he has been up to.

“I am not going to say it is going to be finished soon. It will be finished when it is ready.

I can tell you it’s not going to be like Missing You, it’s going to be something else,” he says pointing at my copy of the album on the sofa between us. My bet is that he has been working with the incredible array of hip hop talent in Senegal, but like everyone else, I’ll just have to hold on.

Although Baaba is single now, he has a son from a previous marriage who now lives in Belgium working in fashion.

As he points out though, African families are very large and an obvious source of strength.

His own father was a Muezzin, calling the faithful to prayer and if his voice was like his son’s there would have been no need for amplification.

“He was very important for me for two reasons, he gave me a love of singing and he helped me with spirituality.

He would always say that if you have success in life without a strong belief you can’t organise things; the foundations have to be strong.” Contrary to some interpretations of Islam, Baaba believes “every belief needs music — but some people are very extreme.”

This 52 year old (who looks like he is in his late twenties) has a mutual love affair going on with the youth of his country.

He is adored the length and breadth of the country by all ages and touched by the many young people who look to his example of breaking out from his pre-destined role as a fisherman to become the most loved (if honorary) griot.

The following night, at the British Museum he says to cheers that just as women are the heart of Africa, their rights are the basic building block of progress towards ending poverty, dealing with HIV/ AIDS and better government.

When asked how that could happen with patriarchal religious views holding such sway, he says simply, “Young people have to break some laws like I did. I was not a griot… We want to see an African woman lead the government. They can’t stop it.”

When Tony Blair and others want to do things they have to go directly to the people who are in need and not the governments

It is said that in 2000, the hip hop generation forced a peaceful change of government in Senegal and it is clear that Baaba sees in this generation the courage to break out of ways of thinking that have held their people back.

“In Togo now or in Senegal’s elections, the people said, ‘No. This is what we want. When you listen to the rappers, they are saying what they want and even an 80 year old can see that they are speaking the truth.”

Baaba Maal could easily stay in Dakar to Paris, but he regularly gets out to the furthest reaches of the country to play gigs that see fans walking days to attend.

Often the people will stay a few days and inevitably there is time for people to meet and talk and discuss solutions to their problems in what he calls the African way.

“I go to small villages to play concerts and to meet people and we stay with families. They (the local people) can meet us. I can assure you that the Africans know what is going on on Earth.”

As important as music is, Baaba along with other great West African musicians including Youssou N’Dour and Salif Keita has pledged to discuss big issues.

“Sometimes we have to leave our instruments and go and talk to the people. People listen to us because of our position and it is necessary to talk about HIV/AIDS because some people think it is a joke or it will never happen to them.

If you say it in a song, it is fine, they are going to dance to it but they are not going to take it seriously.”

Baaba knows that it is not enough to talk to his own people when Africa’s problems are not entirely of its own making and solutions are not exclusively within its grasp in this interconnected world.

“When I saw Nelson Mandela talk about the deaths in Africa, when he was in England, I said, ‘Thank God’.”

Awareness and good intentions are not enough though as previous failed attempts to help Africa have shown. “Talking is nice but what is more important is to see they are sincere.” There must be follow up on each and every project and sustained commitment.

“When Tony Blair and others want to do things they have to go directly to the people who are in need and not the governments

They have to make sure the money gets to the school and the African people who are going to make it happen.

It is not the first time people have tried to help Africa but in the past the people in the middle stopped the help from getting to the people and spent it on guns, war, their families or just sent it back to Switzerland.”

when you get tired of being tired, you start to think about solutions