Djabote

Doudou N’Diaye Rose

Released 14 February 1994

  1. Ligueyou Ndeye
  2. Cheikh Anta Diop
  3. Rose Rhythm
  4. Sidati Aidara
  5. Baye Kene Ndiaye
  6. Chants Du Burgam
  7. Khine Sine
  8. Khine Saloume
  9. Walo
  10. Tabala Ganar
  11. Diame
  12. Ndiouk

Liner notes

I first met Doudou N’diaye Rose in 1984. I was on tour in Africa for the first time, and I could already feel this continent was magical, especially for a musician. For African people, dancing is as natural as breathing and the music is always around, as essential as the air. When we arrived in Dakar, Senegal after one month touring. I had already had a few experiences, more particularly in Zaire, that definitely changed my vision of music. Doudou was playing on the same stage before us, with twenty drummers, mostly his daughters and sons… I spent his whole concert staring at him and was really amazed by what I was hearing. All these drummers were really one, conducted by Doudou who appeared like some martial arts master. The music they were playing was obviously based on rhythm more than on harmony, but so developed that it sounded as rich and nuanced as a symphony. Then, during our show, I had the luck to play with Doudou standing right in front of me, eye to eye, for a few minutes , and I could feel he was giving me something important. It was like receiving in five minutes as much as I could have learned in several years. After this moment, my life  as a musician was definitely changed.

In November 1990 when I heard from Béatrice Soulé that Doudou had no recording contract, I decided to produce his first album as a gift to him and because I think he really is the most amazing rhythmatist on this planet. One week later I met him in Dakar, and in March 1991, we spent one week recording the album on the island of Gorée, with fifty drummers and eighty singers. The last day of the recording was Good Friday, in the middle of Ramadan, and under the full moon, fifty Muslim drummers and eighty Catholic singers playing, singing and dancing together, with a perfect mastery of their art and an amazing joy for living. All the X-Plorer crew involved in these recordings thank Doudou Ndiaye Rose and the musicians for the magical week they gave us.

ERIC SERRA

Composer and producer of all Luc Bresson’s film scores (Nikita, The Big Blue, etc), Eric has played bass with many major French artists, including Jaques Higelin who took him to Africa on all important tour of 1984.

Doudou N'Diaye Rose, WOMAD Morecambe Bay, 1989. Photo credit: Sue Belk.

Listen

Reviews

  • Rose’'s rhythmic symphonies are precisely arranged and meticulously orchestrated with thunderous bass drums pounding the tempo Folk Roots (UK)
  • Booming, bludgeoning hypnotic vastness The Wire (UK)
  • The power and passion of the performance are captured perfectly Rock 'n' Reel (UK)
  • Live at Real World

    The Drummers of Burundi

    Released 09 March 1992

    The formidable rhythms of Burundi's most celebrated musical exports might have been heavily co-opted by Adam & The Ants and Bow Wow Wow along the way, but the sound remains all theirs. The Drummers were the heroes of the first-ever WOMAD Festival in 1982 and, ten years later, pitched up at Real World Studios where they immortalised their art with this deeply hypnotic performance. Raw, heady and immediate, this record is a one-way ticket to the pumping heart and soul of the mother continent.
  • Faso Denou

    Farafina

    Released 08 May 1993

    This electrifying West African percussion ensemble deliver a live session of breath-taking speed and skill. Farafina's music has a polyrhythmic structure that is complex and yet immediately clear, but above all the music is an irresistible driving force to dance.

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