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 Everyone
knows the majesty of Africa's traditional folk music. But few
in the West would have connected Africa with 'folk' in the guitar-toting,
protest-singing sense - not until two dudes with guitars slipped
on stage between sets at last year's Dakar night at the London
Barbican Centre's Urban Beats Festival. Few recognised Pape
and Cheikh, whose powerful melodic songwriting had already set
their native Senegal alight. But they immediately began strumming
up a storm, their poignant airs and driving acoustic energy
sending a wave of excitement through the packed house.
Steeped in the traditions of their Serer region of central Senegal,
but citing Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and Joan Armatrading among
their prime influences, Pape and Cheikh brilliantly encompass
both concepts of folk music. And they're the latest in a line
of Senegalese singing sensations that includes Youssou N'Dour,
Baaba Maal and Cheikh Lo. Back home in Senegal they've already
had a political impact beyond what the likes of Dylan and Baez
could ever imagine, and their first international release, Mariama,
is destined to be one of the albums of the year.
Papa Amadou Fall and Cheikhou Coulibaly, born in 1965 and 1961
respectively, grew up in the central Senegalese town of Kaolack
and have been close friends since the age of eight. Pape, lead
singer and principle lyricist, is the poet and romantic extrovert;
Cheikh is the more introspective, yet practical of the two.
While Cheikh stayed on at school, eventually progressing to
studies in law, Pape moved to the capital Dakar, becoming apprenticed
to a tailor at age thirteen. Later, at the suggestion of a foreign
aid organisation, he moved back to the Kaolack region to take
part in a batik-printing project, spending seven years in a
village in what was once the Serer kingdom of Sine.
The unchanging savannah landscape, bleached by remorseless sunlight
and dotted with immense baobab trees in whose hollow trunks
griots - traditional praise singers - were buried in times gone
by, had a profound effect on Pape as did the spirit of the Serer
people and their music. Disillusioned with his academic studies,
Cheikh joined him, and the pair began researching traditional
Serer music, whose elemental polyphonic singing has influenced
other modern Senegalese musicians, most notably Youssou N'Dour.
It was all a world away from the youth revolution that was sweeping
the West as they grew up - powered by folk-protest songs such
as 'The Times They Are Changing' and 'Blowing In The Wind'.
Yet as well as absorbing a wide variety of traditional music
and the dynamic sounds of modern Senegalese pop, Pape and Cheikh
were also exposed, through the radio, to sounds from much further
afield: Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, and - most importantly
for them - the reflective acoustic sounds of Dylan and other
singer-songwriters.
After continuing their musical research at Dakar's Conservatoire
during 1992 and 1993, Cheikh went on to play bass with the veteran
Senegalese bandleader Ouza, while Pape joined a Serer acoustic
group, Santamuma, on the hotel circuit, singing everything from
traditional songs to Maxi Priest's version of Cat Stevens' 'Wild
World' and Elton John's 'Sacrifice' - and it was to prove excellent
experience.
In 1997 the pair established themselves as a performing act,
consciously modelled on Western duos from the Everly Brothers
to Simon and Garfunkel. Signing to Youssou N'Dour's 'Jololi'
label in 1999, they recorded an album with some of Senegal's
top musicians, including Oumar Sow, the brilliant guitarist
of Cheikh Lo and Super Diamono fame, and guitarist Jimi Mbaye
and percussionists Mbaye Dieye Faye and Assane Thiam all from
N'Dour's Super Etoile de Dakar. Canadian musician Mac Fallows'
production gave their earthy rhythms a sleek modern feel, with
the powerful and magnificently soulful larynx of teenage singer
Mamy adding a devastating touch to the song Mariama.
The duo were initially frustrated that the album, Yakaar,
was not given immediate release in Senegal, but the eventual
timing proved fortuitous. Appearing at the beginning of the
2001 election campaign, their song 'Yatal Gueew' ('Widening
the Circle'), a plea for tolerance and co-operation between
Senegal's many different ethnic, social and religious groups,
so caught the public imagination that opposition leader Abdoulaye
Wade adopted it as his official theme - and all but one of the
other 25 parties followed suit! Upon winning, Wade acknowledged
that the song had had a powerful effect on the running of the
election in which the party that had ruled Senegal since independence
was removed from power in a completely peaceful and democratic
manner.
Pape and Cheikh's brief appearance at London's Barbican drew
them to the attention of Real World, and in spring 2002 they
repaired to Real World's Wiltshire studios with producer Ben
Findlay, to work on the original Yakaar tapes and record
new songs.
The resulting album, Mariama, is a powerful and extraordinarily
coherent slice of Africa, traditional and modern, full of driving,
funky rhythm and poignant, yearning melody. It combines a deep
feeling for the enduring themes of African culture, with an
understanding of all the elements necessary to create a truly
universal modern song.
Mariama, the opener is just such a contemporary classic
- the tragic tale of a Mandinka king who made a pact with the
devil to ensure a male heir. A son was born, but on the condition
that the boy would die if he ever slept with a woman. An aunt,
eaten up by jealousy, brought two girls to the palace, Sere
and the beautiful Mariama... All were killed in the fire that
followed! Pape's vocal brings tremendous urgency to this tale
of fatal passion, with accordion from the Afro Celts' James
McNally fleshing out Mac Fallows' haunting synth groove.
Oumar Sow's wah-wah guitar powers the driving semi-acoustic
funk of 'Yaay', Pape's homage to his mother and to mothers everywhere.
'Forgive me mother,' he sings. 'You carried me on your back
and fed me at your breast. If we appreciated all our parents
had done for us, we would treat them with kindness and respect.'
'Kokoliko' is left completely acoustic - a plaintive tale of
rustic life, in which a cock is asked by a hyena why he crows
for his chicks, only to find that it is the hyena himself who
has eaten them. In the animal kingdom, as in so many other spheres,
he who is strongest wins.
'Kamalemba', is a prayer for peace in the Casamance, Senegal's
forested southern region where a brutal civil war raged for
much of the last decade. Clapping, to the rhythms of the region's
Jola people, lends a festive, flamenco feel, muscular guitar
picking meshing with Lath Mbaye's needling talking drum beats.
'Pelipeng' takes a swipe at that bane of manhood, the grasping
woman! Pape draws on his experience as a tailor in this account
of an avaricious woman, whose demands for credit ruin local
traders. 'Your beauty and charm have betrayed you! Now the tables
are turned!'
'Jello' is an exquisite acoustic love song, the ancient echo
in its pared down guitar riff evoking an Africa of vast open
spaces and timeless emotions. 'Jello... I will do everything
I can to ensure your happiness, for marriage is sacred before
God.' 'Yatal Gueew' is the song that rocked the Senegalese elections,
Pape and Cheikh's political credo set to a rocking mbalax beat
with a trace of Simon and Garfunkel in the ascending guitar
riff. 'Let us widen the circle,' they sing. 'Our differences
are our strength.'
There is an anthemic feel to the mystical 'Soni' (The Call),
with its beautifully moody blend of piano and accordion - the
snapping sabar percussion still present in the background. 'Youth
for all its joy has an end. Power will inevitably leave you.
Forget all earthly things and follow God's laws.' 'Ma Ansou',
addressed to an aged marabout or holy man, continues the spiritual
theme in a more light-hearted vein. Over urgent acoustic picking,
Pape tells us that fishermen spirited the sage away in their
motorboat!
'Kekilo' (Jealousy), about a man scared of losing the youngest
and most beautiful of his three wives, builds around Laye Babou's
gloriously sunny kora groove. 'Lonkotina' brings the theme of
love right up to date, the easy-flowing guitar riff creating
a catchy, radio-friendly summer vibe. 'I swore that I would
never love another girl,' wails Pape. 'But I have fallen into
the same trap!' 'Fanick' (The Elephant), closes the album with
a tribute to two great Serer Musicians - Sombel Faye and Mbissane
Diagne - homage both to the mighty animal and to the indefatigable
spirit of the artist, set to the booming clatter of typically
Senegalese sabar drums.
And that's the unbeatable duo that is Pape and Cheikh: twelve
strong, beautifully crafted songs full of African instrumental
subtlety, with all the hooks and big anthemic choruses you could
want. Songs that explore universal themes - of love, ambition
and the struggle for freedom and dignity - while remaining imbued
with the respect for tradition and the mystical spirituality
that are still everywhere in modern Africa.
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