Carlou D’s "Muzikr"

When night falls in Dakar and the cold Atlantic wind whistles up the streets of the city, the Sufi Islamic spiritual chants known as zikr infuse the night air. Young Baay Fall, followers of the spiritual guide Cheikh Ibra Fall, congregate and celebrate their faith with passionate calls to their guide, singing and chanting his name during the all-night vigils, hoping to share in the spiritual grace that channels from Allah to man. 

Carlou D is an outspoken singer, songwriter and an exceptional guitarist who emerged out of Senegal’s exciting hip-hop scene of the 90s. Instantly recognisable in his traditional Muslim robes with his dreadlocks signalling asceticism, he wears the image of Cheikh Ibra Fall around his neck as a tribute to his spiritual guide. It is from the leader of this spiritual sect, the Baay Fall, that Carlou takes much of his musical inspiration, preserving and modernising the chants, melodies and rhythms used in celebration of this man who has millions of followers around the world. 

With a pure voice and infectious sense of rhythm, Carlou D’s forthcoming international debut album Muzikr is destined to make him one of Senegal’s next great musical exports. Recorded in Dakar, this is electric, spiritual roots music, straight from Dakar’s ripe music scene.

Dakar is one of the most musical cities in Africa.  Music is an expression for everyone who lives there; as a spiritual celebration, an outpouring of frustration, as a critique of events, or purely for entertainment. It’s in the taxis and buses, in the rasping voice of a teenager practising his rap lyrics on the pavement, in the funk-laden riffs pouring out of a small bar in the middle of the night, or in the call of the muezzin from the mosque as dawn breaks. It’s in everyone and everything, and especially in religion. Senegalese Islam is Sufi, the mystical form of Islam which is less orthodox than other forms of Islam and places importance on music as part of its practise.

It was in the suburbs of Dakar that Carlou D was born 30 years ago and raised under the musical eye of his father, who initiated him into the vast and varied styles of music of that time. Immediately hooked on the sounds, Carlou D left school at sixteen and began performing on local stages set up around his neighbourhood.  When his father took a second wife and deserted the family, the young singer was left to look after the family and suddenly understood the old adage that people who suffer a lot are close to God. As a young adult Carlou joined Senegal’s first, and arguably most successful, hip-hop group, Positive Black Soul. He adopted a voice which would speak out about social ills, human behaviour and political situations. In 2004 after having performed with the band worldwide he left to start his solo career.

Carlou D’s illuminating stage presence is reflected on the album. Taking the essence of the Baay Fall philosophy, the outspoken qualities of hip-hop, and musical elements of jazz, soul, rap, and acoustic roots, Carlou has developed something he feels can encourage dialogue. “The part of hip-hop which I have kept in my music is the courage to be direct,” says Carlou.  As such many of the songs, mostly sung in Wolof, are social commentaries.  Gorée (which features Carlou’s mentor Youssou N’Dour) is about the slave trade and the role Africans have played in it. Fi Ma Diar deals with the problem of Senegalese youth leaving their country in search of a better life (“Senegalese people make the dangerous journey to Spain in small fishing boats, only to realise that it was all lies, that the streets in Europe aren’t paved with gold,” he explains), while Sen Regal is about greed, hypocrisy and jealousy in Senegalese society. Spiritual songs include the opener Sam Fall (a prayer) and Ila Touba (about going to Touba in central Senegal, the spiritual home of the Mourides and the Baay Fall, where followers go to at least once a year to pay homage to their spiritual guides), whilst Namenala is a personal song for Carlou’s mother who died when he was 20.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.worldvillageuk.wordpress.com
http://www.myspace.com/carloudmuzikr
http://www.motherland-music.com

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