Certain musicians make music as easily as they breath. Indeed music flows from them naturally,
seemingly effortless. Everything they do is musical. It doesn't matter what such artists play--what instrument, what composition, what style. Genres and styles mean nothing to them. Their music-making flows and overflows artificial stylistic boundaries. Any such musician automatically makes any group he or she plays with better. The groove becomes tighter, more kinetic; the textures better defined. You can find such musicians anywhere in the world but they also stand head and shoulders above the general run of musicians.
Cheikh Lo is one such musician. The first time I was conscious of hearing him was in the early 90's
on an album called "Na La Thiass", his first international release, produced by Youssou N'dour. Though
the album had much mbalax, the Senegalese national popular style spearheaded by Youssou N'dour,
as its core, it had a very different feel from other Senegalese recordings. There were many elements
that were not particularly mbalax. The music was subtly unclassifiable....it was riverine, it just flowed.
It made me smile. And it was richly satisfying, like a well-prepared meal. A few years later, Cheikh
Lo released Lamp Fall, an album even more eclectic, drawing substantially on Brazilian music. It was
sublime.
Where does Cheikh Lo get his uniqueness? Though Senegalese, he was born in an area close to the
border of Mali and grew up speaking Bambara, as well as Wolof and French. He was therefore from an
early age bathed in the currents of music emanating from Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinee. When he moved to Daker in the Seventies, he played in resident club and hotel bands for many years. In the hotel bands he played a wide-ranging repertoire including many songs from around the world. And of course he was immersed in the Afro-Cuban and Congolese styles that were so popular in Dakar. At this point he was mainly a drummer, though sometimes also a vocalist. His palette expanded again when he moved to Paris in 1985, becoming a session drummer on an infinity of sessions, including many Congolese and Camarounian recordings.
When he finally got around to recording, his vocals came to the fore with a beguling vocal sound
that was less spectacular than some of the leading lights of Sengelese and Malian music--but throughly inviting. His music has an uncanning way of subtly sweeping you along in a warm, gently stimulating
current.
Another aspect of Lo's uniqueness stems from his religious faith. He is a Baya Fall Muslim, a particularly Senegalese variety of Islam, an adherent of the Mourid sect founded by the mystic
Bamba in the late 19th Century, a manifestiation of the anti-colonial movement. Many of the Baya
Fall wore their hair in long dreadlocks--this predates Rastafari by several decades.
I recently saw Cheikh Lo on tour as part of Still Black And Proud: An African Tribute To James
Brown, a quite wonderful collaboration between former James Brown hornman Pee Wee Ellis, who
has worked with many West African musicians, some other James Brown alumni, such African
musicians as Vieux Farka Toure (the son of Ali Farka Toure) and Cheikh Lo, and some European
musicians--playing the repertoire of James Brown, who of course was hugely popular in West Africa
during the late Sixties and Seventies. When Cheick Lo stepped forward and sang "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" in Wolof, it brought the house done. Somethng that could have seemed comical became in
Lo's performance eminently soulful.
So do yourself a favor; check out the music of Cheikh Lo. It doesn't matter if you're particularly
into African music. If you love music, you will probably enjoy his music!
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