"Ballago"

Thione Seck, one of Senegal’s, indeed the world’s, greatest singers, has created a masterpiece, a work that traverses history, geography and global culture with confidence, originality and verve.  Intriguingly, these 12 songs include almost no references to the Western pop music we generally associate with world music “fusion” projects.  Instead, the mix is Seck’s own griot roots, Arabic classical music, and the Hindi film soundtrack tradition, best known as Bollywood.  Seck has long cited Indian film music as an important influence for him, a source for some of his soaring, melodic ideas.  But Orientation (originally titled Orientissimo) goes far beyond adding Indian musicians and flavors to Seck’s base sound—i.e. gritty mbalax pop, performed with his Dakar-based band Raam Daan.  Here, Seck puts aside electric guitars and keyboards, in fact all electronics, and fills out his vision using over 40 musicians from Egypt, India, France and Senegal, and the guiding hands of seasoned producers Ibrahima Sylla and François Breant.  Seck began this elaborate project in 1999, the same year his countryman Youssou N’Dour started recording his Grammy-winning Egypt album.  Comparisons between the two are inevitable, and also fascinating.  But for present purposes, suffice it to say that for all they share, the two works are as different in character and spirit as prayerful Islamic meditation, and a Bollywood production number.

Not that Seck gives himself over to Bollywood excess.  In fact, he tempers it brilliantly, both with rolling, African 6/8 rhythms (as on “Mamignoul” and “Mouhahibou”) and with the rich subtleties of Arabic music.  “Siiw” opens the album with solo oud, frail and agitated in advance of an orchestra that pounces with sensuous swing.  Seck’s singular voice then enters, august and effortless, with an air of grand melancholy.  The huge chorus that comes next is a constant on the album, giving many songs a processional, anthemic feel that sometimes borders on grandiosity.  Seck then changes the mood with a vocal tour de force, “Yaye,” featuring violins, oud, ney flute, and Seck singing with a distinctly Arabic nasality.  On this cool, meditative piece, the Senegalese griot broaches the Arab vocal aesthetic with skill and respect, infusing it with African force and directness, so that when he opens up into his full-throated wail, the effect is sensational.  Trailed by the ney, Seck reaches for high notes, constraining his voice with a deliberate thinness that exudes spirituality.

“Ballago” is a standout number from the Bollywood side.  It opens with a drone and Seck’s voice, sweet and strong, shadowed by sitar, and then lifts into a percolating Hindi pop song with an elegant, long form melody.  At one point, the mood shifts dramatically with low, bowed strings hitting a dark drone note, the sitar spitting, and Seck crying from somewhere deep, before reverting back to tuneful sweetness.  As elsewhere, the arrangement is sharp and adventurous, constantly surprising, but never forced.

Two songs pair Seck with non African vocalists, an Arabic crooner on the Afro-Arab song “Woyatina,” and a perky, Indian female foil on “Assalo,” one of many songs with a strong melodic hook.  “Doom” varies the mood with African percussion, a brass section, and a rolling 6/8 groove.  And the album closes with “Mouhamadou Bamba” which features kora, and characteristic griot vocals as it praises a Mouride saint, bringing this expansive, ambitious work home with a satisfying sense of familiarity.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org