Music Arcades: Wasis Diop: Toxu

I've already said how much I love Charlie Gillett as a DJ. The silver lining to the cloud hanging over Andy Kershaw is that we've had more Charlie on Radio 3 (since he retired from his Radio London show in 2006). I like Andy, but I like Charlie more.

So this purchase came about through his recommendation. I first heard Charlie play Wasis Diop in 2003: it was Defaal Lu Wor/Once in a Lifetime, and Charlie mentioned that David Byrne had said it was his favourite cover of a Talking Heads song. Like returning to Africa what he had borrowed. At that stage I just made a mental note; well, and a digital copy of the radio stream. But then Charlie had Wasis in for a session and a chat last June. Charlie was saying how much he liked Wasis' voice, and coaxed some great solo performances out of him, including the second best (after John Cale's) version I've heard of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah — which Wasis calls L'Ange Djibril (I recommend that you download it from this page, as I just have).

Anyway, my first port of call if I hear something good is usually to check if it's available on emusic, but there's no Wasis Diop stuff there. Instead I managed to get this CD for a snip at £3 on Amazon Marketplace. I like it quite a lot. It's got a polish and a sheen to the production that you don't often get in African music aimed at the UK Guardian-reading WOMAD-visiting market. It also has some songs sung in English, which is a no-no for Brits obsessed with authenticity and being true to your native culture. But Wasis Diop is based in Paris, and the French clearly have a different attitude. I'm sure that says something about how we and they have come to terms with our different experiences of colonising parts of Africa. I'm just not quite sure what. I tend to the British attitude myself, self-evidently daft though it is, but the songs on this album are so well crafted and performed that they get over that petty barrier.

Last night Charlie did a similar low-key chat and session with Manu Chao, which you can still hear online for six more days via the BBC website. I see also from Charlie Gillett's Wikipedia entry this his taste in choosing a name for his son was also impeccable.