photo provided by Sherri Rase
I Bring What I Love CD cover
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Whether or not you have heard of Youssou N'Dour is immaterial. One of Senegal's most famous sons is featured in a film that documents his struggle to show the more embracing side of Islam, rather than the strictly fundamentalist sects that most Western news sources have made familiar. N'Dour's strength, passion, compassion and commitment to his culture is evident in every song starting with the title song, "I Bring What I Love," which is also the name of the film.

N'Dour is well connected. Griots in African tradition are the walking, living history of their region. They know folk songs by the score- to the letter-yet are expected to weave current events into performances. These consummate musicians are analogous to bards in western culture and N'Dour has lines to the griot tradition on his mother's side. His parents made a choice that he would be raised in a fully modern fashion, so N'Dour learned griot traditions from others in his family. The result is a man of many parts, equally skilled in every aspect of music performance, composition and collaboration.

You may have heard N'Dour's work with musicians like Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Neneh Cherry, Tracy Chapman and Dido. N'Dour is a composer of opera, a repository of tradition, and arguably one of the most well known men in Senegal. His commitment to and development of a style called Mbalax makes him a cultural icon, though he is only 50 years old.

The music of "I Bring What I Love" shows us a man contemplating the next chapter of his life as he builds on what has come before. Griot is praise-singing and for those who follow Islam, it is a holy and passionate task he has set for himself. N'Dour wants to bring people together, but there are many who would stand in his way.

Senegal's most famous musician wants the world to see the compassion of Islam, but his work to bring Islam's gentle side to a wider audience has met with a firestorm of resistance from fundamentalists within his own country. His work is considered blasphemous and in the world history of thought-provoking books and music, N'Dour becomes a history-making figure in a way he did not intend.

The music ranges from his learning at the feet of his Grandmother ("I Bring What I Love"), to "Birima" who was a prince whose very reign promoted happiness, to Yonnent ("The Messenger") that talks about the holiness in every person, blade of grass, animal and tree. N'Dour's faith in his culture and his passion to share permeate this album and make it a beautiful departure from the Top 40 catalog that's played in a nearly continuous loop across the country. Take this album with you for Labor Day and taste a bit of the world.
This album is one of Nonesuch Records' latest releases and you may not know it, but you've been saving a space in your cabinet and your iPod for it. It will open your eyes, and your mind.