The Youthful Youssou N’Dour
Scholars in the field of Youssology – i.e., the study of all things pertaining to the life and music of mbalax star Youssou N’dour, the most widely embraced and critically acclaimed African artist of the past two decades – have lately been focusing their collective attention on the singer’s earliest performances, recorded while he was still a teenager.
Despite his age, there’s very little juvenilia in the music N’dour made during the late 1970s, prior to forming his own outstanding, and long-standing, group, Le Super Étoile de Dakar, in 1981. Indeed, many Youssologists prefer the testosterone rush of discovery heard on these original cassette releases to the polished expertise of, say, his 2010 Bob Marley tribute, Dakar-Kingston.
Enduring U.K. label Stern’s Africa has made it easy for Youssologists – and for Youssou newcomers, too – to dig deep into his catalog by distilling Youssou’s four-year stint in the group Étoile de Dakar into Once Upon a Time in Senegal – The Birth of Mbalax 1979-1981. A revolutionary combo by any estimate, Étoile appeared at a critical juncture in urban Senegalese music. It marked the transition from a music that combined West African traditionalism with Cuban styles to the feverish mbalax dance music, based on beats associated with the sabar drum, an audio hallmark of Senegambia’s predominant Wolof tribe.
But even prior to his engagement with Étoile de Dakar, Youssou performed with the Star Band de Dakar, the revolving-door house combo impresario Ibra Kasse installed in his Miami nightclub in 1959. Youssou began singing at age 13 and first appeared onstage at legendary Dakar nightclub the Miami in 1976 just three years later. He quickly earned a citywide reputation as “le petit prince de Dakar.” Although his contributions aren’t clearly designated as such, you can hear the youthful Youssou’s earliest recordings amid the historically essential collection of Star Band tracks available on eMusic (volumes five to nine), beginning with volume five’s smoldering “Bouna N’Diaye” and mambo-fied “Kelendi.”
A common occurrence throughout its history, the version of the Star Band that included Youssou quit the Miami together after a dispute with the tyrannical Ibra Kasse, the so-called “father of Senegalese music.” With the addition of the fuzz-crazy acid-mbalax guitarist Badou N’Diaye to their core lineup, and a cheeky transliterative name change, the Miami’s Star Band de Dakar became Étoile de Dakar and set their hometown ablaze. Surprisingly, these kids from the Medina, the poor Islamic neighborhood established in 1914 during Senegal’s colonial period, managed to legitimize Dakar’s working-class sound. They gradually drifted from Latin music to become even more Senegalese, blending raw intensity with seemingly effortless virtuosity. Their popularity increased exponentially, and crossover was achieved. According to Badou N’Diaye (via Mark Hudson’s liner notes), at Etoile de Dakar performances, “you’d still see prostitutes, but housewives too.”
Once Upon a Time in Senegal chronologically distills the best of Stern’s five Étoile de Dakar’s five albums – Absa Gueye, Thiapathioly, Lay Suma Lay, Khaley Etoile, and Maleo – and four tracks from Syllart’s Toulou Badou Ndiaye. The first thing Youssou fans may miss, at least until the end of the album, are those sabar drums, whose rhythms Badou N’Diaye often plays on guitar. More notable is the presence two other dazzling vocalists, El Hadji Faye and Eric M’Backe N’Doye. The latter, who specialized in Latin tunes such as “Esta China,” splits the difference between Youssou’s high, keening tenor and Hadji Faye’s low, gritty intensity (more of which can be heard on his solo mbalax albums, Djirim and Pastèf.) Assane Thiam, who would follow Youssou into the Super Étoile, laces his tama talking drum’s variable-pitch chatter into the group’s warp and woof like a melodically motor-mouthing fourth voice.
Ultimately, Badou was the first Étoile bandmember to fall victim to the band’s meteoric ascent. After succumbing to a marijuana-induced paranoid freakout prior to a gig, he laid down his guitar and left the group in the lurch. He was replaced by the more versatile Jimi Mbaye, who joined Assane Thiam in Youssou’s Super Étoile lineup when *#201;toile de Dakar broke up in 1981.
The rest, as they say, is Youssology.
