Once Upon a Time in Senegal: The Birth of Mbalax 1979-1981

Youssou N’Dour is Africa’s biggest star and the mbalax sound he helped shape remains Senegal’s musical heartbeat 30 years after its creation. Youssou is today also an accomplished businessman and aspiring politician, while mbalax has been smoothed into a shallow pop sound from a revolutionary youth movement. This is the perfect record to remind people what music sounds like when it’s fresh and exciting: a double-CD package returns to the early 80s roots of mbalax, to the very first days of Youssou N’Dour’s career. Thirty years old, this music is like a cold shower on a tropical day. Raw guitars scream, drums rumble, saxophones bounce and the youthful voices of Youssou N’Dour and El Hadji Faye weave daring harmonies. Youssou was a kid wonder then and turned into a star practically overnight. It’s easy to see why girls would have screamed and fainted, and why boys competed in on-stage dance competitions like sparring partners in a boxing match during the concerts of Etoile de Dakar. It’s impossible to sit still to this music. Even if you know nothing about Senegal, its language and rhythm, or the fact that this youth sound represented a tidal shift away from imported Cuban sounds to indigenous Senegalese pop, this beat is going to carry you away. Some of the tracks, like the Cuban-inflected classics ‘Mane Khouma Khol Thi Yao’ and ‘Dom Sou Nare Bakh, are pretty well known, and never get old. The second CD features rarer tracks from the 1980 and 1981 releases of the Etoile de Dakar, many of which have never been released outside Senegal. The seven-minute treat ‘M’Baye Gueye’ is one to rewind endlessly, and the rugged early version of ‘Sama Guenth-Gui’ shows the early roots of some of Youssou N’Dour’s later hits. It’d be impossible to pack more life or joy in two hours of music.