Habib Koité, Vusi Mahlasela, Dobet Gnahoré <br> Join Afropop Hall of Fame

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Habib Koité, Vusi Mahlasela, Dobet Gnahoré
Join Afropop Hall of Fame

History made at "Putumayo Presents Acoustic Africa," in New York City

Report by Sean Barlow, Afropop Worldwide
Photograpy: Michael Weintrob and Banning Eyre, Afropop Worldwide

On Tuesday, November 14, 2006, the Afropop Hall of Fame inducted three outstanding artists to its ranks—Habib Koité, Vusi Mahlasela, and Dobet Gnahoré. Past inductees include Youssou N’Dour, Baaba Maal, the Mahotella Queens, and Thomas Mapfumo. The Afropop Hall of Fame honors artists for their artistic excellence, and also their significant role in connecting Americans to Africa .

The 2006 Afropop Hall of Fame took place before a rapturous, sold-out crowd at the B.B. King Blues Club in New York as part of the hugely successful “Putumayo Presents: Acoustic Africa” nation-wide tour. We all felt lucky to be there as this constellation of stars may never appear on the same stage again. And unlike a typical three-set presentation, Habib, Vusi and Dobet all performed on each other’s songs, and interchanged musicians in constantly shifting lineups that added new textures and vocal power to familiar songs, and broke new ground as well. Vusi, who often performs solo, sounded supercharged with a full backing band of mixed musicians from Habib’s and Dobet’s bands. The Vusi Mahlesela and Dobet Gnahoré share the stage (Michael Weintrob) show, which ran nearly three hours, concluded spectacularly with the three principals harmonizing together Vusi’s signature “When You Come Back,” Habib’s first hit “Cigerette Abana,” and the SA classic “Pata Pata.” It was a thrilling and rowdy wrap up to one of the most varied nights of music we have ever seen.

Afropop first saw Habib Koité and his band Bamada in Bamako in 1993 when they were playing around town as a bar band. We had a hunch even then that Habib was bound for glory. The music was an unusual mix of Malian traditions, and Habib’s classy, original guitar playing, lovely singing, songs with memorable hooks, and sheer charisma made it clear that this act was meant for bigger things. Still, no one could have guessed what tireless road warriors Habib and his band would become, making extensive tours in Africa, Europe, North America and Australia, winning more fans with every show.

Habib pioneered pan-Malian roots pop. Most Malian musicians at the time tended to Habib Koité gives his all to the audience (Michael Weintrob) stick to their ethnic and regional music—the Wassoulou sound of the southwest, the Mande griot (jeli) praise tradition, Bambara pop, or the desert genres of the north. Habib embraced all of this and more, creating a new, wide open model that many younger artists have since emulated. Habib’s song “Fatima,” in the seductive takamba rhythm of northern Mali was the biggest takamba hit to date, and Habib had yet to visit Timbuktu when he wrote it! “Fatima” introduced many people from the south of to northern traditions, an achievement not lost on northerners. On Afropop Worldwide’s “Mali Magic 2000” trip (undertaken by a group of intrepid Afropop fans including Bonnie Raitt and led by yours truly and Banning Eyre), we saw this first hand. At a town party thrown for our group in Timbuktu, local diva Haira Arby summoned Habib and Bonnie to the stage to perform “ Fatima ” and hundreds of locals danced takamba in the sandy square. Magic indeed….Bonnie, Habib and other musicians in the group on the sand dunes in Dogon country, and on the roof of a pirogue lazily traversing the Niger River . No surprise that Habib turned up on a track on Bonnie’s next CD, Silver Lining.

Vusi Mahlasela came to prominence in in the bad old days of apartheid. He worked as a political organizer and composed songs that helped rally the people’s spirits to make it through the violent, bloody days in the 80’s. Vusi’s 1990 hit “When You Come Back” imagined the time when all the South African exiles who had been forced out of the country for political reasons would be able to come home. It remains a powerful touchstone of the South African songbook.

Like Habib, Vusi is on the road a lot. We have seen him perform solo at New York ’s intimate Joe’s Pub, and at SOB’s, as well as before 7,000 people at Celebrate Vusi and Habib partner on stage (Michael Weintrob) Brooklyn this past summer. It is not easy for a solo artist to hold the attention of a big crowd with your music and stories, but Vusi does it with ease. Vusi loves to recount the story of one night when the authorities came to his house demanding to see him. His feisty grandmother refused—“Vusi is here, but you’re not taking him. I’ve got a pot of boiling water on the stove and the next one who steps through that doorway gets it!” The authorities backed off. Vusi always pays tribute to the “visionaries” he most respects—Bishop Desmond Tutu, President Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. A recurring theme in his work and his onstage presentation is the importance of forgiveness.

Dobet sings to the audience (Michael Weintrob) Dobet Gnahoré, the youngest of our honorees, wowed the audience at B.B. King’s with her powerful singing and fluid, theatrical dancing. Dobet is a striking woman—tall and strong, with nappy, braided locks, and a face that can project everything from steely determination to effervescent joy. Dobet’s artistic life was shaped by her years studying in the renowned Village Ki-Yi near Abidjan, Ivory Coast, home base of the amazing pan-African cultural troupe, Ki-Yi Mbock. The group’s visionary leader Were Were Liking believes in giving young performing arts students a multidisciplinary education in music, dance and theater. She also believes in multi-cultural immersion so that students go beyond their own ethnic group background and learn to perform in many traditions. Dobet for example sings in seven African languages, plus French. The Acoustic Africa concert proudly flew this multi-cultural flag too as the artists learned to sing on each others’ songs in Zulu, Bambara, Baulé, and other languages.

Dobet was making her first American tour, but already she has won many enthusiastic fans on the Acoustic Africa trail. She has a great future before her. After the concert, Habib joked that he and Vusi are old men, making a bending and Habib accepts his Afropop Hall of Fame award (Michael Weintrob) creaking motion. “Dobet makes us feel younger,” he said.

Habib and Dobet concluded the show’s first set with a smoking version of Habib’s “Wassiye.” Then I strode on stage to do the honors of presenting the Afropop Hall of Fame awards to all three artists. I cranked up the crowd with roaring call-and-response cries of “Habib Oyé! Oyé! Vusi Oyé! Oyé! Dobet Oyé! Oyé! Africa Oyé! Oyé! Putumayo Oyé! Oyé! Afropop Oyé! Oyé!” The artists seemed genuinely moved to receive their awards. Vusi held his lucite plaque decorated with the Afropop dancing man logo and paused to say in a quiet voice that this award was for all the people of . Halfway through my presentation to Dobet I realized she was probably not understanding much of my laudatory English, but she gamely volunteered, “I understand a little.” It was enough, and as Dobet received the Afropop Hall of Fame Emerging Artist of the Year award, she beamed beautifully and held it up to the wildly applauding crowd.

After receiving his Dobet accepts her "Emerging Artist of the Year" award (Michael Weintrob) award, Habib told the story of receiving an earlier Afropop award ten years ago, when he was “emerging.” With characteristic levity, he added, “In ten years, I’m expecting another award.”

While onstage, I also had the honor of announcing publicly for the first time Afropop Worldwide’s brand new collaboration with the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. In the coming months, we will be providing Afropop Worldwide programs to radio stations in Congo, the Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sudan.The U.N. takes responsibility for some of the most difficult peacekeeping assignments around the world (There are almost 100,000 U.N. peacekeepers around the world and 70% of them serve in Africa .) This is the very first time the U.N. has entered into an agreement like this to Vusi "raising the spirits higher" at BB King (Michael Weintrob) work with an NGO. And of course we are deeply honored to be invited to do our small part to reconnect people in these countries where they are trying to recover from harsh civil conflicts to the rest of the world.

During the second set, the artists cut loose and the crowd grew more and more animated We saw an unusually rowdy side of Vusi when he paraded onstage with a chair on his head and then proceeded to mount the chair for an impressive wave dance—reaching for the ceiling and then crouching with his tongue stuck out. The crowd loved it! And when the sexy ladies paraded on stage to dance, they headed straight for Vusi. He didn’t seem to mind. Later in the set, Afropop Board member Mitch Harwood hobbled onstage on crutches and proceeded to whirl around on one leg. He must have gotten a healing!

Board members Josh Mailman (L), Bill Kornreich and guests at BB Kings (Michael Weintrob)
We were very happy that close to one hundred of Afropop’s friends and colleagues joined us for the event, including Afropop Board members Josh Mailman, Bill Kornreich, Mitch Harwood, Fiona Dunne and Evangeline Kim. And many thanks to Afropop's Operations Manager Misha Turner and our many wonderful volunteers for running our Awards gathering.

Thanks to everyone involved in the Acoustic Africa tour—the artists of course, Dan Storper and the Putumayo crew for producing it, Michel de Bock of Contre-Jour (record label for Habib Koité and Dobet Gnahoré) in Belgium for conceiving the original notion of having the artists mix it up onstage and helping the artists develop that in rehearsal Dan Storper opens the Acoustic Africa set at BB King (Michael Weintrob) and onstage in Europe, and Scott Southard of International Music Network (IMN) for their very successful booking of the tour.

Looking ahead, Vusi will release a fantastic new album in February, 2007, "Guiding Star" (ATO Records), including collaborations with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Dave Matthews and others. Dobet Gnaoré and Habib Koité also have new albums expected in late spring/early summer on their American label (Cumbancha). In the meantime Putumayo ’s 'Acoustic Africa" compilation is a superb set of songs from these and other great, acoustic African artists.

Finally, this heads up: Afropop’s Chief Audio Engineer Michael Jones made a fabulous three-dimensional, stereo recording of the concert, brimming with the crackling feel of excitement on stage and from the audience. Later in the season we will present highlights of the concert. Stay tuned.