The Senegalese guitarist and singer Mansour Seck, who has died after a brief sickness, aged 69, recorded solo albums however was finest recognized for the essential function he performed within the profession of the African star Baaba Maal, his longtime good friend. Not like Maal, Seck was a griot, a hereditary musician accountable for protecting alive the music and tales of his folks, and he remodeled Baaba’s type by educating him griot songs. Collectively they recorded Djam Leelii, the 1989 album that launched Maal’s profession, and Seck later turned a key member of Maal’s band, Daande Lenol, with whom he toured the world.
“I didn’t have the fitting to make use of the music of the griots,” stated Maal, “however since me and Mansour had been like twins or two brothers, the griots allowed me to the touch a few of this music, Yela music … With out Mansour I might by no means have been known as the King of Yela. He opened the door for me and I opened the door for him to journey.”
The album that modified their lives was recorded in Paris in 1984. Maal had been finding out on the Conservatoire, and used the cash he earned from native performances to pay for Seck to hitch him. Djam Leelii was not supposed for western audiences however on the market on cassette again in West Africa, and the distinctive mix of stately, interlocking acoustic guitars and rousing vocals (in halpulaar, the language of the Fulani of northern Senegal) introduced them a following amongst Fulani teams and others throughout the area.
The cassette turned a cult success in Britain virtually by chance. Lucy Durán, the music educational, heard it whereas within the Gambia and introduced it to the eye of that adventurous broadcaster Charlie Gillett, who performed it on Capital Radio. John Peel then performed it on Radio 1. One other copy went to Ian A Anderson, the music journalist, who “turned utterly obsessed” with the cassette and determined to launch it as an album and CD by means of his personal report label, Rogue.
A live performance by Maal and Seck on the Hackney Empire in London in November 1988 was filmed by the BBC and broadcast early the next 12 months, quickly after the album had been launched, profitable reward from each the nationwide and music press.
Djam Leelii had been credited to each Maal and Seck, however by the point of the British follow-up, Baayo (1991), Maal was a soloist signed to Chris Blackwell’s Mango label. One other highly effective acoustic set, it once more featured Seck on guitar and vocals. When Maal started to experiment in mixing African with western amplified types, Seck recorded a sequence of solo albums on the Sterns Africa label. N’der Fouta Tooro Vol 1 (1994) was an acoustic set with vocals shared between Seck and the Mauritanian griot Ousmane Hamady Diop, with one music from Maal, and was performed by Peel. Seck adopted up with Vol 2 (1995) and Yelayo (1997).
When Maal returned to his African acoustic roots with the traditional album Lacking You (2001), Seck was once more taking part in guitar, and co-wrote one monitor. The album’s producer, John Leckie, famed for his work with Radiohead, remembers Seck’s “gentleness and humour … he was a pleasure to be round. He’d usually have a guitar within the management room and could be taking part in repeatedly till I requested him to cease.”
From then on, Seck turned extra outstanding in Maal’s concert events somewhat than recordings, usually offering an acoustic passage throughout a present. His final UK efficiency with Maal was on the London Barbican in 2023, and his remaining look was in Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, three months earlier than his dying. “It was one of many biggest concert events we ever performed,” stated Maal.
Seck was born within the village of Guedé, in northern Senegal, in 1955, in line with official data (although Maal insists that Seck was born in 1951 and that he was “two years older than me, and so the date proven in his passport is inaccurate”). He was the son of Bocar Seck, a griot musician, and his spouse, Dadelle Thiam, who died when Mansour was six months outdated. Mansour moved to Podor, a little bit city on the Senegal river, to be introduced up within the family of Mansour Sy, a detailed good friend of his father, after whom he had been named. Sy was an area administrator and ensured that Mansour attended Podor highschool.
Studying the music of the griots, he was influenced by his grandmother Djeymade, a celebrated singer – however determined to interrupt from custom by studying the guitar, not a griot instrument. He first met Maal – already recognized regionally as a fantastic singer – in his mid-teens, they usually turned shut pals and commenced making music collectively. Seck had sight issues from an early age, and have become utterly blind in his late teenagers, and Maal would act as his “eyes”.
After leaving faculty, Seck moved to Dakar to hitch the standard group Asla Fouta, which Maal joined later after deciding to stop his regulation research. Then, together with a few pals, Seck and Maal set off on an in depth discipline journey to check native musical types, travelling throughout Senegal into Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, “staying with griot households and pals”. Maal, and shortly afterwards Seck, then moved to Paris to start their worldwide careers.
Seck is survived by his spouse, Ramata Samb, and their 5 kids, Gamby, Dadel Yaya, El Hadj Baba Mall, Thioyo and Oumoul Khayi.
