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Youssou N'Dour Performs a Sublime Set at Joe's Pub in NYC to Benefit the Fight Against Malaria
Last Friday, April 25th, Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour graced Joe’s Pub in New York City with a rare acoustic performance following his appearance at the United Nations on the occasion of the Malaria Awareness Day. The benefit raised money for the Youssou N’Dour Foundation which is the vehicle for the causes N’Dour believes passionately in, including the fight against malaria that kills almost one million people, mostly young, in Africa every year.
Jeffrey Sachs, professor at the International School of Public Affairs at Columbia University, had the honor of introducing N’Dour. Sachs relished announcing that just that day the United Nations, the World Bank, the Global Fund and other international institutions had announced their goal of ending malaria by the end of 2010. He reported that the disease was entirely preventable with mosquito nets and medications. Sachs said, “We’re all in this together. The fight against disease is the fight against poverty which is the fight for peace.”
http://www.mobilising4malaria.org/get_button.php?lang=en
http://doctorswithoutborders.org/news/issue.cfm?id=2395&gclid=CLbC79qOgZMCFSoziQodQx5twg
N’Dour proceeded to deliver an intimate, incandescent, set backed by a superb, five-piece contingent of his band, Super Etoile, and guest vocalist Mor Dior Seck. Looking quasi-scholarly in heavy rimmed glasses, N’Dour began the set seated with a subdued take on his ballad “My Hope is in You.” Later, N’Dour and Seck, both seated, traded rounds of what appeared to be praise singing. Dueling griots! It takes a confident singer to invite a young vocal prodigy onstage to share with him as an equal. And indeed, Seck’s high, sweet, powerful voice recalled N’Dour’s own earliest performances. All these years later, N’Dour’s self-assurance and generosity acquitted him well. And of course, he held his own in the singing department as well.
“Mama Bamba,” N’Dour’s praise song to a Senegalese, Sufi sage, signaled an uptick in the energy level, and brought N’Dour to his feet. From there, the set worked up to an all-out, mbalax crescendo and a jubilant take on “4-4-44,” one of just two songs from N’Dour’s 2007 release, Rokku Mi Rokka. He followed with his mega-hit “Birima,” introduced by a crowd pleasing guitar intro from long time Super Etoile guitarist, Jimmy Mbaye. The most powerful passage came when N’Dour invited his “New Yorker” brother, Bouba N’Dour to the stage to introduce the iconic torch song “Piche Mi,” from N’Dour’s 1988, breakthrough release Immigrés. Bouba explained how the song dealt with the ways the rich and powerful abuse and oppress the poor, but it was N’Dour’s searing delivery that drove the point home.
N’Dour ended with an a capella performance of “New Africa,” but brought the band back to the stage for an encore that had the entire crowd on their feet. In just over an hour, N’Dour and his musicians delivered a whirlwind tour of his monumental career. But given the momentous occasion and the prospect of ending malaria deaths, which clearly drives N’Dour with a passion, one left with the feeling that the best is yet to come.
The day before N’Dour’s gig at Joe’s Pub, Youssou and his band performed a daytime concert at the grand atrium of the World Bank in Washington for Bank employees. Our man in D.C., Georges Collinet, reports that a large contingent of Senegalese showed up. He says that the Senegalese Ambassador was especially impressive on the dance floor, doing the vigorous mbalax dance moves. Youssou who hangs with Bono, the G-8 Summit and other power places on behalf of Africa smiled on the scene.
--Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow
Contributed by: Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow
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