Youssou N'dour

Youssou N'dour (born 1959) is a singer who was born in Dakar, Senegal. He helped develop today's popular music in Senegal, known in the Wolof language as mbalax[?], a blend of the country's traditional griot[?] percussion and praise-singing with the Afro-Cuban arrangements and flavors which made the return trip from the Caribbean to West Africa in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and have flourished in West Africa ever since.

Beginning in the mid-1970s the resulting mix was modernized with a gloss of more complex indigenous Senegalese dance rhythms, roomy and melodic guitar and saxophone solos, chattering talking-drum soliloquies and, on occasion, Sufi-inspired Muslim religious chant. This created a new music which was at turns nostalgic, restrained and stately, or celebratory, explosively syncopated and indescribably funky. Younger Senegalese musicians steeped in Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, James Brown, and the whole range of American jazz, soul music and rock, which Senegal's cosmopolitan capital, Dakar, had enthusiastically absorbed, were rediscovering their heritage and seeking out traditional performers, particularly singers and talking-drummers, to join their bands. (The griots - musicians, praise-singers and storyteller-historians - comprise a distinct hereditary caste in Wolof society and throughout West Africa.) As it emerged from this period of fruitful musical turbulence, mbalax would eventually find in Youssou N'Dour the performer who has arguably had more to do with its shaping than any other individual.

Youssou is best known for his collaborations with Peter Gabriel, Neneh Cherry[?], and Wyclef Jean[?]. His albums include "Immigres", "Set", "The Lion", "Eyes Open", "The Guide (Wommat)", "Joko", and his latest, "Nothing's In Vain".

His early work with Etoile de Dakar[?] in the 70s were the typical Latin style popular all over Africa during that time, but by the 80s he developed a unique sound when he started his current group, Super Etoile de Dakar[?] featuring Jimi Mbaye[?] on guitar, bassist Habib Faye[?], and Tama[?] (talking drum[?]) player Assane Thiam[?].

In recent years, he opened his own recording studio, Xippi, as well as his own record label, Jololi (http://www.jololi.com/). He also started Project Joko (http://www.joko.sn/) to open internet cafes in Africa and to connect Senegalese communities around the world.

External Links

• http://www.youssou.com/ (http://www.youssou.com/) - Official Site
• http://www.jololi.com/ (http://www.jololi.com/) - His record label
• http://www.joko.sn/ (http://www.joko.sn/) - Joko Clubs
• http://youssou-ndour.worldbeatplanet.com/ (http://youssou-ndour.worldbeatplanet.com/) - Fan Site