A Fresh Summer Beat

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

Of all the performers on all the music tours this summer, from the all-female Lilith Festival (with neo-soul star Erykah Badu joining Sarah McLachlan and others) to the Furthur Festival (headlined by the Other Ones, a new band featuring members of the Grateful Dead), probably no one has taken a longer, harder route to a city near you than Maryam Mursal. She fled Mogadishu, Somalia, with her five young children in 1991 at the height of her native country's bloody civil war. Bribing and buying her way through Kenya and into Ethiopia, she eventually journeyed to Denmark, where she resumed her career as a singer.

Now she is performing in the U.S. for the first time, as part of Africa Fete, a traveling festival of African music and culture that will visit 20 North American cities starting in early June. Joining her will be several other African singing stars, most of them little known in America, including Salif Keita (a huge star in his native Mali), Papa Wemba (from the Democratic Republic of Congo) and newcomer Cheikh Lo (of Senegal). Their sounds can be heard on Africa Fete '98, a companion album just released by Island Records. Taken together, the tour and the album offer American audiences their best chance in years to hear some of the most interesting and innovative African pop around.

Africa Fete began as the dream of Mamadou Konte, an African immigrant living in Paris. He wanted to bring a little of Africa to Europe to show Parisians what that continent's culture was all about. So in 1978 he founded Africa Fete, a weeklong series of concerts in Paris that still draw tens of thousands of people each year. In 1993, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell (who helped bring reggae superstar Bob Marley to a global audience) licensed the name Africa Fete and started a similar show in America. He was forced to halt it, however, after three years of financial losses. This year Blackwell has brought it back with strong new sponsorship (including American Express and the Kennedy Center) and a more extensive itinerary, including stops in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and New York City.

With bland pop fare ruling American radio and the once popular Lollapalooza tour falling by the wayside, this year's Africa Fete offers a compelling summer alternative. "The attraction is that this is some of the most exciting music on the planet," says Blackwell. "It's ancient and it's modern at the same time. There are rhythms and sounds here that you will hear nowhere else in America." For the performers it's a chance to reach a potentially huge new audience. Mursal speaks Somali, Arabic, Danish and only a little English, but when asked if she's excited to play America for the first time, her enthusiasm is easy to understand. "Yes!" she exclaims, breaking into English. "It's been my dream for 30 years."

The album is an enchanting preview of the festival and a sampler of some of the best African music (most of the songs are also available on solo albums previously released by the featured artists). Mursal's Somalia Udiida Ceb (also on her U.S. debut CD, The Journey) is driven by a deep, warm bass groove and Mursal's agile vocals. The song, which draws from both African and Arab musical traditions, is a plea for Somalis to turn away from self-destruction. Abede, a new song by Salif Keita & the Wanda Band, has a jangling, sunny sound that's quietly and insistently mesmerizing. Cheikh Lo, whose current CD, Ne La Thiass (World Circuit/Nonesuch), positioned him as one of Africa's rising stars, contributes the title track from that release, a smartly insinuating song that draws on rumba, folk, jazz and mbalax, a rolling, highly rhythmic musical genre popular in Senegal.

Island Records is not expecting to make money from Africa Fete since none of the performers have major followings here. Indeed, in about half the cities that are playing host to the tour, either local groups or the cities themselves are chipping in with funding so the concert can be offered free of charge. At other stops, tickets won't exceed a nominal $15 to $20. Island is prepared to pick up half the expected loss of $500,000, hoping that the tour will develop brand awareness and build interest in the genre of African pop.

It will also build awareness of African culture. Along with the music, each stop will feature an "African Village" showcasing arts, crafts and food from the continent. Borders bookstore chain will promote books by African and African-American authors. "Most people view Africa as a lot of political turmoil," says Karen Yee, vice president of artist development at Island Records. "We want to show there's a flip side. There's beautiful music and culture--stuff that doesn't get played on the radio."