The Sahel is a ribbon of semiarid land, 600 miles at its widest point, that runs the width of Africa from Senegal and Mauritania at one end to Ethiopia and Eritrea at the other. It separates the rippling sand dunes of the Sahara in the north from a more verdant savannah to the south—or maybe it bridges them. In any case, the Sahel exists between two very different worlds, not unlike its most famous native son, the singer Baaba Maal.
Maal was born in Senegal and educated in France, and over the last 30 years he has toured the globe earning a reputation as one of the most distinctive voices in world music. “I come from a small town, from a very cultural town,” Maal told Santa Cruz Weekly from London, where he was readying for his Tales From The Sahel tour. “I was lucky because that town was not just one ethnic group—it was nearly all the ethnic groups from West Africa who just came at one point to live together.”
“I was able, when I was growing up, to hear in one night the music for the ceremony of this tribe, and the next night the ceremony of another tribe or two,” Maal recalls. “I was going from corner to corner to witness how people were using music to communicate—to talk about the past, about now, about the future, to talk about their relationships, to talk about how together to make a better life.”
Cross-cultural conversations were part of the inspiration for Maal’s most recent album, Television, released in 2009. Maal saw, with television’s introduction into the last unexposed corners of the world, increased access to information and the potential to advance and expand conversations beyond lines of ethnicity, geography or genre. (Fittingly, the New York-based dance outfit Brazilian Girls lent vocals and electro beats to the album.)
In Africa, B.T. (before television), Maal says, information flowed by word of mouth, and informal concerts were often channels of distribution. “[Someone] will come to say, ‘Hey guys, I just heard this thing today and it comes from far away, what do you think about it?'” The new ideas would give the musician inspiration and he, in turn, would pass the information he received along in song. “It’s all connected,” Maal says.
Tales From the Sahel is structured to mimic these concerts, the sites of Maal’s introduction to music. “It was very natural. People come when they want to come, they pick up their instruments, they sit down, have some food, have some tea, and talk about religion, about education, about whatever—they talk about everything.” During his appearance at the Rio this Friday, Maal will be joined on stage by British journalist Chris Salewicz, who will act as interlocutor, engaging with Maal on a range of topics.
Maal, who has performed in Santa Cruz before with his band, Daande Lenôl, says he’s excited at the prospect of returning. “I hope that a lot of people will come with a lot of curiosity to know about what’s behind the music,” he says. “We’re going to give people the opportunity if they have a question, to ask it, because when it comes to African music, African culture—I don’t think one song is enough to explain or to make a picture of the background of the artist. People always want to know, and this is made for that.”
Tales from the Sahel: An Evening with Baaba Maal
Friday, Oct. 7, 8pm at the Rio
Tickets $28-$40
