Word: musicalities
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Africa has long been renowned for its musical heritage, but it's only comparatively recently that the continent has been exporting it abroad. Youssou N'Dour and the Senegal born hip-hop artist Akon may have broken into the pop mainstream, but both had to conform to Western tastes and styles of music in order to do so. Nuru Kane, the continent's latest musical wunderkind, hopes to change that...
...There are a plethora of good singer-songwriters in the west African country of Senegal, many of whom - like Cheihk Lo, Baaba Maal and the peerless N'Dour - have become staples for any self-respecting world music fan in the West. But Kane is different. Less traditional but not quite "Western," he mixes soul and Malian blues with rock tunes on a Moroccan three-stringed guitar known as the guimbri. One London-based music critic described Kane's eclectic sound as "evocative of a kind of pan-Saharan Velvet Underground...
...take African instruments and play them with [Western] electric instruments." He describes the music as a patchwork, similar to the hodge-podge clothing worn by members of his Baye Fall religion, a Sufi branch of Islam which subsitutes Koranic studies and piety for hard labor. The group's motto dieuf dieul ("you reap what you sow") impels followers to show their devotion to god through work; in Kane's case, through his music...
...Growing up in a working-class section of Senegal's capital Dakar, Kane listened to European music on the radio and fell in love with the Nigerian Afro-beat pioneer Fela Kuti, whose own music reflected a melee of African and Western styles. As is common in his home country, Kane had trouble finding work. Many young Senegalese dream of making a living abroad, some of whom brave a treacherous journey in the open seas on rickety boats to get to Europe...
...struggled to get solid work. Busking in the Paris subways to make ends meet, Kane got his big break when he was spotted by an organizer of Mali's legendary Festival in the Desert. The annual event has attained something of iconic status in the eyes of African music connoisseurs. Set in the dunes of the Sahara, several hours' drive from the nearest town of Timbuktu, the festival attracts an array of world-music talent, both from Africa and beyond. Kane was asked to perform five days before the festival began in 2004 - not even enough time...