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Post your comments about Youssou N'Dour
(reviewed by Samuel Fassbinder)
This album was released in France in 1984, and so it came at the right time for Youssou N'Dour to be "discovered" by Peter Gabriel, and so thereafter Youssou N'Dour sung on Gabriel's song "In Your Eyes," and the Youssou N'Dour sound later began to sound more like Peter Gabriel music. Listen, for instance, to the middle songs in Youssou N'Dour's fairly recent album titled Joko (2000), you can hear the Gabriel influence loud and clear (not to mention his guest appearance on one of the vocal tracks). Immigrés, on the other hand, is the recording that attracted Peter Gabriel to Youssou N'Dour in the first place. So it can't be reviewed mainly for its Gabriel influences.
N'Dour, to be brief, is a Wolof (the main ethnic group) from Senegal (a nation of west Africa); somebody on amazon.com claimed that his band "Le Super Etoile De Dakar" derived its percussion style from Sabar drumming, once esteemed of Senegalese royalty. Now there's something to research; one of the drummers is credited with "Sabar" on the credits. There is also a tama, a Senegalese talking drum, in the percussion section. It sounds like a drum; it also sounds a bit like the sound you hear when a big bubble of air surfaces from under a large body of water: BLOOBLOOP!
This sort of music (Senegalese pop) reflects African tradition fused with traditional and modern instrumentation. Senegalese popstars often incorporate things they've heard from northern music (note, of course, that Senegalese pop is "Western" music, Senegal being geographically west of any country in Europe except if we count Iceland as part of Europe). So it might be important to review a lot of this stuff, to give the prospective listener a clue as to what they're getting. Guitars, bass, electric keyboard synthesizers, and modern drumset are all here. (Well of course guitars and drums are all properly African instruments, tho' keyboards are a Euro invention...) The melodies on "Immigrés" are more complex than the average northern pop melody, yet they all belong in the mainstream of pop music.
The first piece, "Immigrés/ Bitim Rew," rocks like nothing you've heard in the English-speaking world. Seven minutes of joy, from the opening notes: BEEP BEEP mBEEP BEEP BEEP mBEEP. Play it full volume, listen for the elaborate backbeats coming from each drum (of every variety) and the speeded-up time at the end, it's exhilarating in its collaboration of polyrhythms. It's also great pop, filled with hooks. boomCRASH! boomCRASH! TweeweedledeedleboomCRASH! The chorus goes "Waaw Senegal/ Moisu mu pleo" (or something like that -- it's all in Wolof, I'm guessing). Main melody from the lead guitar in dialogue with the saxophone. The singing is a duet (and maybe a dialogue) between Youssou N'Dour and another singer, against a clapalong section. Youssou's vocals are very strong, but the percussion wins the competition in the end.
The lyrics to the next song, "Pitche Mi," are supposed to be an allegorical fable that's really about imperialism; I really can't say more because I don't know any Wolof. The lead guitar curls smoothly and repetitively around the melody (speed: andante), while the hand drums trot like horses. During the bridges, a horn section moves in while the guitar plays arpeggios. The synthesizer moves in and out in the background to set a mood of ponderous reflection, though not as thickly as what you'd hear in a Peter Gabriel song. An occasional piano note can be heard to accompany to the guitar's stroking of the main melody. It's an African pop music orchestra. The melody is slow and sonorous. At the end, a vocal chorus sings a verse over and over again against Youssou N'Dour's forceful lead while the lead guitar arpeggios up and down and the cymbals crash.
Next we have "Taaw," an upbeat song, but one in a minor key, with a prominent drum circle playing on and on for eleven minutes. This time the tenor saxophone, in dialogue with the bass, commands the main melody, the lead guitar retreats to the background, eventually re-emerging for a small solo. The whole album concludes with "Badou," a pretty song with a roaring drum section, drums of all types (the occasional crashing of a cymbal to good effect), a smooth and 100% cheese-free horn section, a suave guitar accompaniment, Youssou's singing in and out. The whole mixture of the last song just fades out abruptly after 5 1/2 minutes. This album is a great way to find out about Senegalese pop.
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