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Artist: Baaba Maal
Category: Africa/
Critics' Award (Winner)
There comes a time in most artists' careers when they may feel the need for a return to their 'roots'. Often this is a fairly spurious excuse for going over old ground, or perhaps inventing a past that never was. Not so in the case of Baaba Maal, the Senegalese singer, guitarist, dancer, composer and cultural icon.
Maal hails from the dry dusty northern town of Podor, near the border with Mauritania. Though he spends a lot of his time touring abroad, he still lives there for several months of each year, renewing his passion for the culture that first made him a star. His music somehow manages to be
progressive while maintaining strong links with the local Fula people's traditions.
He burst onto the world music scene in 1989 with the serenely acoustic 'desert blues' classic Djam Leelii, recorded with his childhood friend and colleague Mansour Seck. Their wailing nasal voices and distinctively fluid acoustic guitar styles were an unlikely hit.
A string of albums in the 1990s with his band Daande Lenol took his music in many different directions. In 1994, future Afro Celt Sound System founder Simon Emmerson produced the wildly eclectic crossover album Firin' in Fouta. It was a daring fusion of the local 'yela' and 'mbalax' rhythms with reggae, rap, salsa, Celtic influences and clubland beats. But some fans began to tire of the high tech approach which threatened to swamp its 1998 follow-up, Nomad Soul.
For his latest album, Baaba decided to strip away such trappings and get back to a more organic live feel. Much of Missing You (Mi Yeewnii) was recorded in an improvised studio open to the sky. It has a simple acoustic ambience permeated with the sounds of an African village and shows his interest in music from neighbouring countries.
Now, as always, the best way to experience the art of Baaba Maal is to attend one of his exuberant concerts: 'The music, the dancing, the clothes... everything is connected,' he explains. 'That really can really help someone to come into the music, even when they don't understand the
language.'
Biography by Jon Lusk, November 2001
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