{"id":94490,"date":"2021-12-14T14:56:03","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T13:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=94490"},"modified":"2021-12-15T14:40:48","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T13:40:48","slug":"salif-keita-soro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/salif-keita-soro\/","title":{"rendered":"The story of Salif Keita\u2019s Soro"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Salif Keita\u2019s Soro <\/em>released in 1987 and recorded at Studio Harry Son in Paris stands as a time capsule of a particularly creative milieu and arguably an early work of afro-futurism. A cornerstone of Keita\u2019s cannon and indeed the careers of all involved – This defining album of the eighties was executive produced by Ibrahima Sylla alongside Fran\u00e7ois Br\u00e9ant and featured a pan-African personnel present in Paris at the time, as well as genie of the synth Jean-Philippe Rykiel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A record that can sit comfortably alongside Immigr\u00e9s<\/a> <\/em>by <\/em>Youssou N\u2019dour (1988) and Le Voyageur<\/em> by Papa Wemba (1992), it baffled more reductive ears who for Br\u00e9ant expect African music to be \u201ca museum\u201d<\/em> and \u201ca bone through the nose and bells on the feet\u201d<\/em> listeners eager to be served the same dish again and desiring of a record to neatly file in a carefully curated collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Soro <\/em>sought to say something new with what the liner notes of Nii Yamotei described as \u201cstate of the art technology\u201d<\/em> by using synths and production to do justice to the perfection of Salif\u2019s craft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resident in Paris since 1984, Salif Keita was already a star in West Africa at the time work began on Soro<\/em>. Having honed his voice first with the Super Rail Band De Bamako and later with Les Ambassadeurs, this direct descendent of Sundiata Keita (the founder of the pre-colonial empire of Mali) had overcome prejudice and conservatism in his path to professionalism. Shunned as a person with albinism, and forbidden to sing as a result of his noble birth, Keita could cite a variety of reasons to relocate to Paris.        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hub for musicians of the African diaspora in Paris at this time was a small record shop situated near the Gare du Nord. Kubaney Music run by Ibrahima Sylla on Rue de Rocroy was both a meeting place and laboratory for creativity, and could be compared to Sterns Record Shop in London during the same epoch.Son of a diplomat and an erstwhile economics student – Sylla had founded the Syllart label in Dakar in 1978, producing records for Orchestra Baobab and licensing and releasing cassette recordings made by African artists between the sixties and eighties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Completing the team that would converge on Studio Harry Son came conjurer of the keyboard Jean-Philippe Rykiel, and producer Fran\u00e7ois Br\u00e9ant, who confesses to a certain stage fright when Salif first visited to start preparations for the album: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember when Salif came to my home studio for us to prepare. Very often African musicians arrive with a court of friends and when Salif came it was fifteen people in total in my studio there to give Salif their opinion on whether he could trust me.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fran\u00e7ois Br\u00e9ant, 1978<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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With Salif satisfied, work began with Br\u00e9ant asking for a tempo for each song and setting up a click with the desired beats per minute, alongside a drone for each song to provide a tonal reference. Over this Salif sung ideas whilst picking out some arpeggios on his acoustic guitar and in this way several of the tracks were built up with Fran\u00e7ois immediately struck by the commitment with which Salif approached any vocal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomething that impressed me with Salif was that whether it’s a demo, or mic test or whatever, he sang like it was the last time of his life, and the emotion, expression and artistic content is there all the time. I thought he\u2019s not faking! He\u2019s not restraining, he was doing it whether it was important or not.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This mastery is evident from the first seconds of Soro <\/em>as the album takes off with \u201cWamba\u201d on which Salif cries out with all a griot\u2019s vibrato and melisma (despite not being from the artisanal cast) and is answered by a female choir in perfectly matched counterpoint. Indeed, Soro <\/em>shows us what it\u2019s about immediately as Cameroonian drummer Brice Wassy locks in with bassist Michel Alibo and guitarist Yves Ndjock trades with Rykiel\u2019s synths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With engineer Herv\u00e9 Marignac at the desk and the best players in Paris being called for the sessions, work was under way with Br\u00e9ant clear on what his role would be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was for me to restrain my influence. I wasn\u2019t there to give them music lessons! I never forget that I\u2019m a white man from France and I\u2019ve seen many collaborations slide into disco records with African flavours as added exoticism.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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