Sufi magic

Tonight I was mesmerised by the primeval swoon of Youssou N'Dour's voice at the Barbican. He was accompanied by the mystical swirl of the Egyptian Fathy Salama Orchestra's strings, oud, wind and percussion instruments, and his Senegalese band of kora, balafon and sabar drum players. Together, they stunned us with their interpretation of Sufi Islamic music from N'Dour's new album Egypt.

N'Dour has an amazing 4-5 octave range and his voice soars and swoops with such ease, it transfixes its listener.

He adheres to the Sufi sect of Senegal's moderate take on Islam, the Mouride faith, and the album combines Sufi chants with Senegalese griot praise songs.

The album was recorded in 1999, but the events of 9/11 and the subsequent conflation of Islam with terrorism led to N'Dour delaying the album's release until now. In fact, N'Dour refused to tour the album in the US as a protest against the Bush government's invasion of Iraq.

A sublime and intensely uplifting evening. View photos.

Related link:
+ Profile of Youssou N'Dour. With 1 hour music.

Other links today:
+ To ad or not to ad. Personally I'm not at all bothered by web ads. They're so ubiquitous that I rarely register they're there. Besides, I use Firefox and AdBlock. More.
+ Product placement in video games. More on "stealth marketing".
+ Are political books preaching to the converted?