• artist: Youssou Ndour
• event type: Concert
• start date type: 26 Nov 2008
• end date: 27 Nov 2008
• time: 23:30 - 05:00
• city/area: New York City
• venue: Nokia Theater
• country: USA
• style(s): Mbalax
• event submitted by: African Hypertext LLC

NEW YORK'S GREAT AFRICAN BALL

Notwithstanding his international career, Youssou Ndour's rootedness in Senegalese music and storytelling remains the hallmark of his artistic personality. At once daring innovator and staunch protector of mbalax's unique "Dakar overgroove," Ndour manages to maintain a sound which is both characteristically Senegalese and outward-looking, a synthesis of musical languages unmistakably nourished by the musical soil of his homeland. On the foundation of this highly personal sound, Ndour remains a revered figure in his country and in the ever-growing worldwide Senegalese diaspora.


Ndour continues to make his home in Dakar, but in Paris and New York once each year his Great African Ball, a post-midnight marathon dance party in the Senegalese style, he and The Super Etoile feature the kind of unhinged performances typical of the surreal Dakar nightclubs. In these annual soirées, Ndour's African immigrant patrons in Paris and New York become, for one night in each city, his co-stars, their celebratory verve finding expression in an extraordinary popular spectacle. As The New York Times has commented: "New York City doesn't get any closer to Africa than at Youssou Ndour's annual Great African Ball. Instead of an abbreviated club or concert set, the Great African Ball presents what his band might play on its home territory, where club shows run without curfews. At previous concerts, the electrified griot songs of Mr. Ndour's band, The Super Etoile, stretched out and exulted in their six-beat groove; Mr. Ndour unfurled all the glories of his impassioned, soaring voice. And tall, graceful Senegalese, onstage and in the audience, danced in bursts of flailing limbs, as if struck by lightning. Mr. Ndour has thoughtfully internationalized his music through the years, but these concerts celebrate how close he remains to home."