The Met’s recent African textiles exhibit was NOT where I would expect to find my new favorite track (I didn’t even stop by my favorite gallery: musical instruments). But alas, its treasures are vast and a random video installation commenting on the multiple uses and interpretations of a piece of cloth by some Kenyan woman--performing choreographed demonstrations of its function--caught my ear.
Though she had looped the second (and best) part of the track, Baaba Maal’s “Alla Addu Jam” was piercingly melodic and rhythmic in all the right ways. Now my mother does teach an African language but I know nothing about/can’t say anything in Pulaar. Still Maal sounds resilient in the face of darkness, first singing solo and then joined by a rowdy vocal and drum chorus in the second half that kicks the song into gear.
I also love the stringed instrument’s stickiness and grittiness. I can practically smell the animal gut strings--which somehow remind me of kudu jerky, mmm…
Allah Addu Jam - Baaba Maal
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