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The Beat on the Street

Youssou N’Dour gave his first public performance in 1972, aged thirteen, at the Joseph Gaye Stadium in Saint-Louis. He sang ‘Mba’, a homage to the eminent saxophonist Papa Samba Diop, alias Ali Mba, who had recently passed away. Many singers took part in the memorial concert, but when radio presenter Francis Cheikhna Ba introduced the young Youssou he delivered these prophetic words: ‘This evening a star is born before your very eyes.’

Although most people outside Senegal can barely pronounce the word or dance to its polyrhythms, mbalax (which means ‘accompaniment’ in Wolof and is pronounced ‘mbalagh’) has become, thanks to Youssou’s success, one of the most famous genres of modern African music, as representative of Senegal as soukous is of the Congo, makossa of Cameroon, or mbaqanga of South Africa. Mbalax is a syncopated music propelled by the sabar drums which are specific to Senegal and the Gambia and which, whether drummed by hand or struck by sticks, offer a thrilling variety of tonal colours and percussive rhythms. With its roots in popular culture, the new-style mbalax reflected the feelings and sentiments of a post-independence generation. Nonetheless, the process of integrating sabar drums into modern dance bands was gradual.

Latin dance music had been popular in Senegal since the 1940s, when visiting sailors first brought Cuban Grabación Victor (GV) records through the port of Dakar.1 Salsa in particular enjoyed huge popularity and was interpreted with unique grace and sensuality on Dakar’s dance floors. Nearly forty years after salsa first reached Dakar’s shores, Laba Sosseh, from neighbouring Gambia, affirmed his reputation as West Africa’s leading salsero when he gained a gold disc for his 1980 album Salsa Africana, which sold more than 100,000 copies. An intriguingly cool mix of Latin and African music later became the hallmark of the Dakar-based Orchestra Baobab, one of the most celebrated bands in West Africa.

In the late 1960s, Ibra Kassé (1927–92), owner of the Miami nightclub, where most of Senegal’s popular musicians and singers started their professional careers, took the bold step of regularly drafting in sabar drummers for his resident groups, Diamono and the seminal Star Band. Often referred to as the father of modern Senegalese music, Kassé had lived in Paris before returning to Dakar to open a restaurant called Le Bon Coin in the Avenue Malick Sy; the restaurant then became a nightclub, the Miami, one of the hottest spots in town. Legendary musicians such as Johnny Pacheco performed there when visiting Dakar, and government ministers and foreign dignitaries came to dance the salsa, the tango, bolero, waltz and cha-cha-cha. Gradually, Zairean and Guinean music became popular in Dakar, and in the same way that Nigeria and Ghana had developed their modern highlife, Kassé set about promoting Senegal’s own popular music. Gradually, salsa became salsa mbalax and Spanish lyrics were replaced by native Wolof.

In 1975 Kassé announced on the radio that he was recruiting musicians for his resident Star Band. When a gangly youth called Youssou N’Dour presented himself, Kassé told him he was too young and that he should only come back when he had his father’s permission. With some difficulty Youssou persuaded his father Elimane, a local car mechanic who owned a garage in the Medina, to allow him to join the Star Band for a nightly fee of just 500 West African CFA francs (about £2), and Kassé knew immediately that he had found a golden voice. Many people have told me how Kassé, a strict disciplinarian who drank only kinkeleba (the local herbal tea), kept a small mixing desk by his side as he served behind the bar. If one of the musicians on stage faltered, he would simply mute their microphone. Youssou told me: ‘Ibra Kassé taught me rigour. It is like the army; it is difficult, but I learned a lot and it helped me afterwards, for it is not easy to head up a group.’

Youssou found Cuban music rhythmically acceptable but harmonically foreign, and of course he and his contemporaries wanted to sing in their own language. He was not the first to promote mbalax, nor the first to sing in Wolof (Aminata Nar Fall and Kounta Mame Cheikh had begun the trend in the early 1960s), but he knew best how to integrate the sabar drums, combining them with a modern drum kit, electric guitars, keyboards and horns.

Sabar drums

Elsewhere in Africa there are male and female drums, but nowhere are they deployed together as in the ensemble of Senegalese sabars. These drums – there can be up to eight in the traditional line-up – produce strong, distinctive rhythmic patterns and combine to produce three basic rhythms: the mbalax (which gave its name to Youssou’s overall style), the touli and the talmbat. The goblet-shaped mbeung mbeung bale and its smaller counterpart, the higher-pitched mbeung mbeung tungune, each play a different mbalax rhythm. The egg-shaped lamb, the primary bass drum, plays the touli rhythm while the gorong talmbat, the accompanying tenor drum, plays the talmbat rhythm. The thiol can be tuned to play either the touli or the talmbat. The nder (a solo drum shaped like the mbeung mbeung but taller, sometimes as much as three feet tall) can produce a wide range of tones from a deep bass to a high-pitched stick tone, and then of course there is the little tama, the ‘talking drum’. While Youssou’s percussionist Babacar Faye plays up to four different sabar drums and Assane Thiam plays the tama, the guitar tends to replicate the part of the mbeung mbeung and the bass guitar the thiol. Counted in subdivisions of three beats, Youssou’s ternary mbalax contrasts with the mostly binary rhythms of Western music. Written in simple 4/4 time, it is nonetheless played in 6/8, as if it were ternary. While Western pop music generally accentuates the first and third beats in a bar, mbalax emphasises the second and fourth beats in the same way that reggae does. The music is thus different to international standards; its inverted beat is unique, and its open forms and cyclical structures leave room for jazz-like improvisations.

The Étoile de Dakar

Back in 1977, while still a member of Kassé’s Star Band, the eighteen-year-old Youssou was keen to advance his solo career and decided to form his own band. He took with him six musicians from the Star Band, including his childhood friend, percussionist Babacar Faye, Alpha Seyni Kanté (rhythm guitar), Abdou Fall (timbales), Matar Gueye (congas), Assane Thiam (tama) and animateur Alla Seck. He then enlisted Badou Ndiaye (guitar) as bandleader, Kabou Gueye (bass guitar), Rann Diallo (saxophone), and vocalists Eric Mbacké Ndoye and El Hadji Faye. The manager and financial backer for the group was Kabou Gueye’s uncle Mohammed Ablaye Sow, known as Sow Sabor, who worked for the Dakar branch of ASECNA, the African air traffic control agency. A keen musician himself, Sow was able to provide instruments and equipment for the group.

Kabou Gueye describes the early days of the Étoile de Dakar as being fairly inauspicious. The group rehearsed at Youssou’s place and made live recordings using a tape machine and microphones placed near the speakers. In this way they produced no fewer than seven cassettes in just two years. Griot El Hadj Faye sang with them (‘Jalo’ was one of his songs) and Eric Mbacké Ndoye, a friend of Badou Ndiaye, came with a collection of Cuban songs which inspired new tracks. Rann Diallo joined to play saxophone and sing backing vocals. The group were young, carefree and open to innovation. As their repertoire quickly expanded, audiences began to take notice.

Recorded at the Miami Club in 1979, ‘Thiely’ (‘The Bird’) was the first song featuring Youssou’s voice to be played on the radio. Originally sung by Pape Seck and the Star Band, it was based on a melody by Puerto Rico’s El Gran Combo, but Youssou’s version became the song that all Dakar was talking about. ‘Xalis’ (‘Money’), a song proposed by Badou Ndiaye and recorded at the Jandeer Club, was the first major hit for Youssou and the group Étoile de Dakar. It still retained a strong Cuban element, including the theme from ‘Soy El Hombre Misterioso’, but it kick-started Youssou’s career and marked the transition from Cuban music to mbalax. ‘Étoile’, which presented the new stars in the group and became their theme song, still had Cuban overtones due to the continued presence of toumba and timbales, but the growing importance of sabar drums was unmistakable; even Kabou Gueye played his bass guitar like a traditional sabar drum.

Though timidly at first, dancers took to the floor with traditional Senegalese dance steps. ‘C’est pour les tarés’ (‘It’s only for fools’), some scorned, but Youssou’s mbalax was soon to become the most popular dance music in Senegal.

The song ‘Thiapathioly’ marked another stage in the growing popularity of mbalax. Thiapathioly can mean an only child, but it is also the name given to a person who is successful in their life and career, a model citizen. Here Youssou sings about Pape Thioune, owner of the Damel butcher’s shop in the Rue de Thann in Dakar, a well-known victualler who supplied major outlets like the University of Dakar.

Pape Oumar Ngom replaced Alpha Seyni Kanté on rhythm guitar, and when Kabou Gueye was injured in a motorcycle accident, Jimi Mbaye was enlisted as bass guitarist and Gueye turned to directing the band, paying particular attention to the song arrangements. Remarkably, as hit followed hit, including ‘Ndakarou’, which celebrated the attractions of Dakar, Youssou was convincing even the intellectuals and the noble classes – who had hitherto despised the sabar – to follow his music. Soon they were forsaking those languorous Latin rhythms to join in the often quite suggestive mbalax dances proposed by Youssou and his band on the stage of the Balafon, the Sahel or the Jandeer Club. Étoile de Dakar’s musicians were themselves inspired by the movements and impulses of the Senegalese dancers.

Hailed at first as the ‘Prince of Mbalax’, Youssou was subsequently promoted to the ‘King of Mbalax’. His reputation as a clean-living, serious young man was to change forever the image of musicians in Senegal, previously perceived as drunkards and womanisers.

The Super Étoile de Dakar

16. Super Étoile de Dakar and fans in Gambia.

As if to confirm those prejudices, some of the Étoile de Dakar musicians started drinking while others had let success go to their heads. In 1981, therefore, Youssou decided to set up a new group, the Super Étoile de Dakar, with Jimi Mbaye, Alla Seck, Pape Oumar Ngom, Babacar ‘Mbaye Dièye’ Faye and Kabou Gueye. The remaining musicians formed a new but short-lived group called Étoile 2000.

17. Super Étoile de Dakar cassette covers.

18. Youssou at a Super Étoile de Dakar rehearsal in Castor, Dakar.

There had never been a music company in Senegal until Youssou created one, and Kabou Gueye played an important role in organising an administrative structure that was viable enough to support a superstar. Indeed, one of the attractions for the Super Étoile musicians was that they were now salaried and therefore had a guaranteed monthly income paid by SAPROM (the Société Africaine de Promotion), the company Youssou formed with accountant Abdoul Aziz Dièye and which was based at the new band headquarters in the Avenue Malick Sy. Feeling financially secure, the musicians were able to simply enjoy making music. Jimi, Pape Oumar and Kabou Gueye made a great guitar trio. Mbaye Dièye Faye changed over entirely from toumba to sabar, while Boy Gris came from Louga to play timbales.

Youssou and the Super Étoile recorded four cassettes in quick succession. They regularly performed at the Firemen’s Ball on New Year’s Eve, at private parties for bank officials or customs officers and began touring, playing regional towns like Kaolack, Tambacounda, Saint-Louis and Dagana. Their songs, which emanated from every courtyard and market stall in the country, felt relevant and topical.

Youssou once described the Super Étoile de Dakar as his greatest achievement – and indeed there are few, if any, African bands that have retained the same core personnel for thirty years. Performing, recording and touring together, the group’s founding members came to know each other’s musical abilities and strengths, and even if there were minor changes in personnel along the way they remained a well-oiled machine. The Los Angeles Times praised the ‘joyous precision’ of their Senegalese roots music.2 Percussionist Mbaye Dièye Faye has spoken of the Super Étoile as a close-knit family with the kind of team spirit that is rare in football, let alone the music business. As a backing group they were the envy of other African stars.

And yet the ultimate success of the group did not come about without some early difficulties. In 1984, after living in Paris for several years, where they had forged an international career, Senegalese band Touré Kunda decided to return to Dakar to stage a huge concert. The trio of brothers from Casamance invited as their special guests Super Diamono led by Omar Pene, and Youssou with the Super Étoile. Already one of the most popular groups on the local scene, Super Diamono received rapturous applause, but when Youssou and his band followed them on stage, they were booed. Youssou N’Dour booed! How could that be? For Youssou this was a defining moment. He realised that he needed to reinforce his line-up, and decided to do so by bringing the brothers Adama and Habib Faye into the band straight away. However, this decision was not an immediate success. Kabou Gueye recalled to me how, in the process of changing their style, the group almost lost the plot:

19. Touré Kunda in Paris.

20. Best of Touré Kunda.

I remember the first concert Youssou gave at the Sorano Theatre following the arrival of Adama Faye and Habib. They opened the show with ‘Africa’, a dreamily impressionistic meditation on the plight of our vast continent, once united, then carved up by colonialism, now free but splintered. Youssou’s compassionate vocals, Issa Cissokho’s tender saxophone solos and Adama Faye’s sensitive piano accompaniment combined to produce a veritable masterpiece. Yet in the theatre people looked at each other and said, what is that?

‘Africa’ was indeed destined to become a timeless and classic track. It was one of the songs I heard and loved on my first visit to Dakar in 1984, and it ushered in a golden age for Youssou’s music. For the next thirty years, Youssou and the Super Étoile moved forward and never looked back.

Many of Youssou’s best-loved songs did not at first catch the imagination of his fans, yet each one revealed its subtle secrets over time. He himself told me once, ‘I love it when an audience at first doesn’t understand the music, and listens, and is converted.’ Lamin Minte, owner of one of Gambia’s busiest cassette shops, told African music expert and journalist Dr Lucy Duran how, when Youssou released a new cassette, people made a fuss and criticised it:

They will give this reason and that for why they don’t like it but still they hang around the shop listening. They say he’s gone too far over to a European style, or not far enough. And still they listen. Then all of a sudden everyone starts buying it. In two weeks I’m totally sold out of originals and I hide my last one so I can run off copies. That’s Youssou’s music every time.3

Super Étoile de Dakar’s musicians

Adama Faye (keyboards, arrangements, composition) was known by some as the Mozart of Senegal, so exceptional was his talent. He became a teacher at the age of nineteen, having gained his CAP (Certificat d’Aptitude Professionelle) certificate when he was sixteen. The Faye family’s house was at 9 Rue Diourom in the area of Dakar known as SICAP Rue 10, where many other well-known musicians lived. Jacob Desvarieux, who lived opposite the Faye family and later became lead guitarist of Caribbean supergroup Kassav, learned his first notes from Adama, who enjoyed playing versions of Jimi Hendrix or Carlos Santana songs.

Before he even owned a piano, Adama would practise on a piece of cardboard mapped out with black and white keys. With his special gift for transferring traditional rhythms and instruments to the keyboard synthesiser, he recreated the sound of the balafon, inventing a style called Marimba Mbalax that became a musical phenomenon in Senegal. His brother Habib used the marimba sound on Youssou’s tracks, notably ‘Sabar’, while another brother, Lamine Faye, promoted it with his group Lemzo Diamono. The simulation of traditional African instruments on the keyboard was further elaborated and perfected by the French musicians Loy Erlich and Jean-Philippe Rykiel, who often recorded and toured with Youssou’s band.

Prior to Adama joining the Super Étoile, Youssou’s style of singing and his repertoire were quite traditional, but Adama, who was influenced not only by the Rolling Stones and the Beatles but also by Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, introduced rock, jazz and blues riffs to great effect. He also attracted a new audience for Youssou’s music, especially among young people and intellectuals. Adama was an extremely generous musician, but he was also very self-effacing: when he died too young, in August 2005, the press found it difficult to find a photograph of him.

Assane Thiam (tama) is a ‘Walo Walo’ from Walo, the northern region of Senegal, who has a natural sense of humour and a wide knowledge of Wolof proverbs. He comes from a long line of tama players who in former times performed at royal coronation ceremonies which the chief griot opened with seven ritual drumbeats. The tama players accompanied the recitation of epic stories and on the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad played a special drumming pattern called ndond-u kere.

Babacar ‘Mbaye Dièye’ Faye (percussion) grew up in Medina, near to where Youssou lived. While his father, Vieux Sing Faye, and Senegalese sabar master Papa Doudou Ndiaye Rose inspired him to become a percussionist, it was Alla Seck who most influenced him in terms of showmanship. Along with Youssou, Mbaye Dièye played at kassak circumcision ceremonies, baptisms and mbappates (night-time wrestling matches), and they both were members of youth theatre group Sine Dramatique, which won first prize in the Semaine de la Jeunesse (National Youth Week) competition, beating the much-fancied Cercle de la Jeunesse de Louga (the Louga Youth Circle). Along with Youssou, he joined the group Diamono 1, before moving on to Star Band Number One, finally becoming a founder member of the Super Étoile de Dakar.

Mbaye Dièye says he gets the energy to play drums by drinking bissap (a sweet drink made from hibiscus leaves) and ginger. His sure-fire solution for attracting a girl is to caress the tam-tam while staring at her constantly!

21. Babacar ‘Mbaye Dièye’ Faye

Habib Faye (bass guitar, keyboards, arrangements and composition) collaborated with Youssou on many albums. The pair shared a house in the residential area, Cité Biagui, and together created a company called Youbib as a label for their compositions. Habib marked Youssou’s repertoire with notable contributions on numerous tracks including ‘Békoor’, ‘Sabar’, ‘Set’ and ‘Lii’. The first Senegalese musician to use a fretless bass (in ‘Mbeugel’, ‘Mercy’ and ‘Ay Coona La’) and the six-string bass, he replicated basslines on keyboards in ‘Alboury’, ‘Set’ and ‘Wooy’. He was extremely adept at using major/minor harmonic modulations, and in 2012 he launched an ambitious solo jazz project with his album H20. When, on 25 April 2018, it was announced that Habib Faye, the benjamin (youngest) of the Super Étoile, had passed away in Paris at the age of fifty-two, his fellow musicians were devastated and the whole of Senegal was shocked by his unexpected death.

Ibou Konaté (trumpet) is the son of Mady Konaté, a famous saxophonist and bandleader whose group performed at nightclubs and gala evenings all around Dakar.

Issa Cissokho (saxophone) was a regular musician with the Super Étoile before rejoining Orchestra Baobab in 2001, where his extrovert personality and idiosyncratic saxophone solos brought style, colour and humour to the stage. Following a performance he was often heard to say “J’ai bombardé!”, I gave it my all. He was invited by the renowned film director Djibril Diop Mambéty to compose parts of the soundtrack for his 1994 film Le Franc. Issa sadly passed away on 24 March 2019.

Mamadou ‘Jimi’ Mbaye (lead guitar) comes from a family of griots, of whom some, like Babacar Ndaak Mbaye, are storytellers. Jimi’s brother, Abdoul Aziz Mbaye, also has a connection with Youssou: he was an international diplomat and president of the Youssou N’Dour Foundation before becoming Senegal’s Minister of Culture. Jimi was greatly influenced by Jimi Hendrix (hence his nickname) and Carlos Santana. Around the time in 1985 that Youssou and the Super Étoile appeared with Jacques Higelin at the Bercy Arena in Paris (discussed in Chapter 9), Youssou noticed that Higelin’s guitarist, Pierre Chérèze, produced a big sound thanks to an excellent technique. His remarks were a spur to Jimi, who spent ten years perfecting his own range of distinctive sounds using a Fender Stratocaster, pedal reverb, delay, chorus and effects such as picking to imitate traditional instruments like the xalam, kora and ngoni. Jimi eventually developed his own style, which is now as instantly recognisable as those of the guitar heroes he admires. He is most proud of his rock solo in the song ‘Kocc Barma’ and his intro to ‘Birima’.

22. Jimi Mbaye.

Oumar Sow (guitar) has a style which is a unique mix of jazz, African traditional music and modern soul, rock and blues. Born in Dakar in 1959, a few months after Youssou, he benefited from a privileged family background and a good education, and subsequently perfected his skills as a composer and arranger under jazz guitarist Pierre Cullaz at the Centre d’Instruction Musicale in Paris. When he was still a student, he formed the group Bataxal with Pape Dieng as drummer and Jean Pierre Senghor on keyboards, an exciting forum of experimentation for the young jazz apprentices. In 1985–6 Oumar played guitar on Youssou’s albums Diam and Nelson Mandela and toured with the Super Étoile before opting for a freelance career. In 2006, following his participation in the albums Alsaama Day and Rokku Mi Rokka, Oumar once again became a full-time member of the Super Étoile de Dakar.

Ousseynou ‘Ouzin’ Ndiaye (vocalist) is Youssou’s uncle. His velvety voice, with its strong vibrato texture, has been an excellent foil for Youssou, and his backing vocals have been a vital element in the Super Étoile repertoire.

Pape Dieng (drums), who is now a successful businessman and no longer performs with the group, was a natural, intuitive and hugely talented drummer and composer who brought genuine musicality and a jazz feel to Youssou’s music, most notably on the album Diam. When Youssou supported Jacques Higelin in Paris, it was Dieng who emerged first, hoisted hydraulically with his drum kit from the basement to the centre of the arena.

Pape Oumar Ngom (rhythm guitar), like Youssou, comes from a griot/gawlo family. His guitar links the basic rhythms and harmonies, meaning that even if the rest of the band were to stop playing on songs such as ‘Thiapathioly’, ‘Ndakarou’ and ‘Immigrés’ it would still be possible to recognise the song. Pape Oumar contends that each time the music follows Youssou’s voice, as in ‘Djino’ or ‘Birima’, the songs seem very natural and complete, but it is less satisfying when Youssou sings over music already produced by someone else.

Thierno Koité (saxophone) comes from a long line of hereditary musicians, many of whom were expert saxophonists, including his uncle, Mamadou Mba Coro Koité. He played alongside Dexter Johnson, an accomplished Nigerian musician who lived in Dakar and influenced an entire generation of Senegalese horn players. A cousin of Issa Cissokho, Thierno began his career with the Rio Orchestra in 1969 then moved to the Star Band at the Miami Club and the Sahel at the Sahel Club before joining the group Xalam. He performed with the Super Étoile from 1985 to 2000 and guested with Cheikh Lô’s band before returning to the reformed Orchestra Baobab in 2001. Blending sensitive musicality with technical virtuosity, Thierno continues to make notable contributions both in the studio and onstage.

Thio Mbaye (percussion) is a versatile and inventive performer who has worked with most of the leading groups in Dakar and toured with many of them. The title track from his solo album Rimbax, produced in France in 1993 by Ibrahima Sylla, was an instant hit in Senegal.

Viviane Chidid N’Dour (vocals) spent many years as Youssou’s backing singer before launching her solo career. When her first cassette, Entre nous/Between Us, was released in 1999, it sold 100,000 copies. A role model for young Senegalese women, Viviane brings style to the stage with her designer dresses and sleek tresses (she signed a lucrative promotional contract with the Japanese manufacturer of NINA hair products). Viviane twice married and divorced Youssou’s brother, Bouba N’Dour.

*

In 1987, as Youssou began touring in earnest in Europe, he created a second group, Super Étoile 2, with Kabou Gueye on bass, Ibou Cissé on guitar, Rann Diallo on saxophone and Manel Diop and Malang Cissokho on vocals. According to Gueye, it was a brilliant band, a groupe de choc. The idea was that Youssou could fly back to Dakar to fulfil contracts with them and avoid the expense of bringing all his Super Étoile musicians home. When Super Étoile 2 became no longer viable, the Finnish musician Khassy Wally, who often visited Dakar and was passionate about Senegalese music, arranged to take most of the musicians home with him to Finland.