“I never had a teacher, but I would watch other percussionists” | Élage Diouf

Élage Diouf has always been fascinated by percussion. Growing up in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, he spent his time “tapping on desks at school, or on the kitchen table. Then there were the percussion battles between children in the street, banging on cars and using them as instruments. I never had a teacher, but I’d watch other percussionists, and see what they were doing…”

It was the start of a long and colourful career that has involved collaborations with rock bands, dance and circus groups, and a move to Canada’s French-speaking province of Québec, where he has now released his third solo album, Wutiko. It’s an engaging, varied set that proves he’s an artist that surely deserves to be better-known in Europe and the UK.

Until he began his solo career, Élage was called El Hadji Fall Diouf and worked with his brother Karim, another singer and drummer. Their father, “an office worker for the government,” didn’t like the idea of them being percussionists and Élage worked as an electrician as the duo established their reputation, performing with bands including Dougou Fana et les Élèves. In 1993 they drummed alongside the legendary Doudou N’Diaye Rose, when he staged “a percussion symphony in a Dakar hotel, with 100 people playing together – an event I’ll never forget.” 

In 1996 there was an offer to tour with the Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, but when they reached Québec the brothers decided they were unhappy with the salaries and working conditions, and simply quit. It was summer, and they had yet to experience Canada’s famously bitter winters, but they soon became part of the Québécois music scene, playing with French-language hip-hop band Dubmatique, singer-songwriter Ariane Moffatt and rock-reggae band Les Colocs. Élage won an award for co-writing the bleak and powerful ‘Tassez-vous de D’Là’ with the band’s leader André (Dédé) Fortin.

After the band broke up, following Fortin’s suicide, the brothers released an album of their own, Dund (2005), and spent three years touring the world’s stadiums with Cirque du Soleil. “I loved that,” says Élage. “We had a major role in the show with drum battles.”

His subsequent split with Karim was “a bit of an accident… We wanted to go in different directions, so I had no choice.” Élage has always been a songwriter, “sometimes spending 15 years on the same song,” and his solo debut Aksil (2010) showcased his eclectic approach, winning a Juno Award for World Music Album of the Year. Wutiko is brimming with influences ranging from mbalax to North American and Caribbean styles, while demonstrating Élage’s skills as a percussionist and singer-songwriter with a fine, soulful voice.

His albums feature a range of African percussion, from djembé to sabar drums, but on stage he leads his four-piece band while playing the Brazilian timbau, “which is better suited for the climate and for touring.” Hopefully, we’ll get to see him coaxing rhythms from it here in the autumn.   

Read the review of Wutiko in the Songlines Reviews Database

This article originally appeared in the March 2022 issue of Songlines magazine. Never miss an issue – subscribe today