Roots in Reverse by Shain Richard M

Author:Shain, Richard M.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Published: 2018-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

“WE ALL DIED FOR SALSA”: THE DECLINE OF SENEGALESE AFRO-CUBAN MUSIC IN THE 1980S

By the late 1970s Senegalese Latin music had been the dominant music in Senegalese clubs, recording studios, and radio stations for a generation. Dakar’s boîtes were filled with patrons whose appetite for Cuban dance music was insatiable. Senegalese groups like Orchestre Baobab and No. 1 produced Latin-infused recordings of artistic distinction. Senegalese radio regularly broadcast the music of such Cuban ensembles as Orquesta Aragón and Orquesta Broadway. Senegal had become an obligatory stop on the touring itineraries of New York–based Latin music ensembles, and Senegalese and Ivorian impresarios even traveled to the United States to record Afro-Cuban music for the Senegalese market. Though ignored by the Senegalese government, Latin music’s hold on the popular imagination seemed secure.

Within five years, however, the rise of what came to be known as m’balax ensembles almost completely eclipsed Afro-Cuban music.18 These new bands relegated Afro-Cuban rhythms, melodies, and harmonies to the background in favor of mostly Wolof drumming and singing traditions. The gentle sway of the cha-cha-chá was replaced by the gyrations of new dance styles. Wolof “folkloric” musical forms long had been part of many bands’ repertoires. Numerous recordings exist of m’balax-tinged music from the 1970s by the Star Band and No. 1. Even Orchestre Baobab, despite its Casamance orientation, performed some Wolof material (as did the Super Eagles band of neighboring Gambia, whose work greatly influenced N’Dour).19 Other bands, such as Diamono, emphasized m’balax rhythms and sabar drumming more than the Afro-Cuban bands.20 Ndaga and traditional ensembles went even further in their explorations of local musical traditions and attracted sizable audiences. While to many listeners outside of Senegal, local Latin music and m’balax sound similar, to Senegalese ears the two genres of music are separate and distinct. Sometimes their meters overlap, but the arrangements distinguish one from the other. M’balax is more percussive and often is played at a rapid clip. Afro-Cuban bands by contrast aim for fluidity and restraint. The bass lines are especially different. Senegalese Afro-Cuban bass players lay down a beat heavily indebted to the clave, while m’balax bassists instead are influenced by jazz and rock.21

When m’balax rose to prominence in the 1980s, it was the culmination of a gradual process through which ensembles had adjusted their song lists to reflect the new preferences of their publics. Even more important, what sometimes has been presented in African musical studies as a debate about modernity was actually a conversation within Senegalese modernity that involved changes in government policies, economic and social crises, competing generations, and the development of a local entertainment “business.” While this process of redefinition in the 1980s was dramatic, it was part of a long conversation about authenticity and cosmopolitanism in Senegal that began before the ascent of m’balax and still continues today.

In 1981, after twenty-one years in office, Senegal’s first president, Léopold Sédar Senghor retired and was replaced by Abdou Diouf, a leading member of his Socialist Party.22 While the handing over of

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