10.000 Songs: Mory Kanté - Yé Ké Yé Ké

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Rob
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10.000 Songs: Mory Kanté - Yé Ké Yé Ké

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This topic is part of the weekly 10.000 songs, 10.000 opinions. In this, every week another song from the Acclaimed Music song top 10.000 is selected for discussion. The song is chosen completely at random, through random.org, making the selections hopefully very varied. The only other rule in this is that after an artist has had a turn, he can’t appear for another ten weeks. The idea for this topic came to me because I wanted to think of a way to engage more actively with the very large top 10.000 songs that Henrik has compiled for us, while still keeping it accessible and free of any game elements. Yes, that’s right, no game elements. You are free to rate the song each week, but I’ll do nothing with this rating. I want it to be about people’s personal reviews and hopefully discussions. So in reverse to other topics on this site I say: “Please comment on this song, rating is optional”.
Earlier entries of this series can be found here: http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/forums/vi ... ive#p45337

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“Sini Mory la diyandé/ Timba bara wouloukounta/ Souba ma kata I yala/ Ah sara le ila”

Image

101. Mory Kanté – Yé Ké Yé Ké

The facts:
Year: 1987.
Genre: Afro-House.
Country: Guinea.
Album: Akwaba Beach.
Acclaimed Music ranking: #3915.
Song ranking on Acclaimed Music in the artist’s discography: 1st, the only one.
Ranks higher than Barbara Ann by The Beach Boys, but lower than Daddy’s Home by Shep and The Limelites.
Place in the Acclaimed Music Song Poll 2015: Unranked.

The people:
Produced by Nick Patrick.
Lyrics by Mory Kanté.
Lead vocals by Mory Kanté.
Backing vocals by Djanka Diabate
Guitar by Samba N’Diaye & Les Davidson.
Bass by Willy N’For.
Drum programming by Roland Vaughan Kerridge.
Djembe by Moussa Cissokho.
Trumpet by Tony Brenes.
Sax by Daniel Paboeuf.
Trombone by Alex Perdigon.
Kora by Mory Kanté.

The opinion:
Two days ago, the season’s first snow fell. For two weeks now it has been freezing cold. You know who doesn’t care? Random.org! To celebrate this wintery occasion it selected a great summer song: Mory Kanté Afro dance classic Yé Ké Yé Ké. Let’s pretend that we’re at the beach! (Or at least that my radiator is working!)

This song is something of a milestone for this series, as it is the first African song I talk about. That also means that it is also the first song from its parent country Guinea that I come across (regardless of the fact that it was actually recorded in Paris, we count the birth country of the artist). It might also be the last, as it is the only Guinean song currently in the top 10.000. Finally, it is the first song I write about that is sung in the Maninka language. Maninka is a language mostly spoken in Mali, were Kanté had his musical education as a kid.

So, I’ve already mentioned three countries in passing. You might get the idea that Kanté is a traveller. You would be right. Of course, every successful musicians becomes a traveller, that goes with the job, unless your name is Nick Drake. But for Kanté his musical career began way before he had success. As I said, he was send to Mali for musical education as a kid. He was seven then. But long, long before, his destiny as a musician was set.

Both Kanté’s parents were musicians. His father was what you call a griot. This is a type of historical storyteller in many West-African countries. In tradition, these were the guys who memorized the history of their country or region and shared it with the people, from farmers to politicians. This isn’t necessarily done through music, but a lot of the time it is. Kanté’s dad seemed to have quite a bit of renown, as he received several medals for his griot services. I’m not sure how strict the rules are that children inherit this profession, but in the Kanté family it came with huge expectations for young Mory to follow in his father’s footsteps. Not only because his dad was held in such high esteem, but mostly because they came from one of the oldest griot families. It is said that the Kanté family holds an unbroken line of griots from the 13th century on down. Tough guy who dares to break that tradition.

As such, Mory Kanté’s musical education started early and apparently he was fluently in many instruments by the age of four. Mali was a bit of the centre for music in West-Africa at the time, so that’s why Kanté was send there. That’s were he learned to play a very specific instrument that was used by a lot of griots: the kora. This is a 21 snare harp, shaped like a guitar. Despite being a real multi-instrumentalist this became Kanté’s go-to instrument, the one he felt a special kinship to.

It is also the instrument that brought Kanté renown. He quickly became famous in the West-African region for his inspired playing. He joined the Railway Band that also featured Salif Keïta, an artist from Mali with a couple of albums on Acclaimed Music. This didn’t last, as the two became rivals, but for a short while the group was a big success in Africa. After this, Kanté travelled to the States and frequently to Paris, were he settled for a long time.

He still took his role as griot, or as djeli as it called in Guinea, seriously. His drive to record traditional music on his kora was big, but he was equally interested in modern music. That is why he started to record using an electric kora, something that was seen as a heresy in some corners. Kanté had a different view: it was the role of the djeli to tell the story of the African people, with the music of the African people. African music had diversified over the years. It was not just African traditional music, but also jazz, blues, rock and disco. He wanted to fuse all music that could be traced to African roots.

That’s his story and it is a good one. Next up was the recording of the album Akwaba Beach and the release of the song Yé Ké Yé Ké. That was a significant release, as that song became huge. It was a massive hit in Africa and much of Europe and Asia. I’m not sure in what measure it was the first African song that became a worldwide smash, but every source claims that it put Africa on the western map again as far as music goes. Then again, this song came two years after Paul Simon’s Graceland which is said to have done the same thing and these types of stories tend to be a mess in music history, where each successful song is said to be the first in something.

Regardless, Yé Ké Yé Ké was big and important. What struck people most is the fusion of modern dance music and traditional African sound. Kanté was inspired by then-current house trends, but retained a clear African flavour. You can guess the year it came out through it’s production and the drum machines, but there is also something timeless to it. The very African use of percussion, he chanting vocals and the rhythm makes it sound like it is a song that has descended from the ages. Robert Christgau goes so far to claim that Yé Ké Yé Ké was a traditional in his review of Akwaba Beach, but it seems to be a Kanté original composition. It’s easy to see where that mistake came from.

Anyway, that fusion between the old and the new must certainly have been the reason why it struck a chord with so many audiences. Also important: it is danceable as hell. This thing has great rhythm and the backing chants of the title are irresistibly catchy and sound unique. Kanté own voice has the right raw power, as someone who might have a background as a spiritual singer (this is not the case as far as I can tell, the griot/ djeli is not a religious storyteller by definition, but Kanté did follow Koran studies, so who knows). The electric kora is more subdued in this track and is only really noticeable during intro and the bridges, but they give a breezy sound that doesn’t quite sound like anything we find in western.

I like this song. Since 80’s dance or house is not particularly my cup of tea I have to congratulate Kanté with doing such a good job in creating such a catchy song. Not everyone was happy though. World music purists hated it. They still hate it. They see it as selling out the purity of world music. But what is world music really? I don’t dare to use it as a genre description as it is so broad. Fusion of genres is always very exciting if you ask me, so why should the music of the world (which roughly translates to non-western music apparently, in a bit of odd-eurocentrism) not play along. Sure, Kanté created a sound that suddenly appealed to westerners, but it appealed to Africans too. Yé Ké Yé Ké may as such be safe, but above all it is a style fusion that sounds fresh, even 30 years later. All styles of music belong to the world and it seems that it took a djeli from Guinea to get that message across.
7/10

Other versions:
This song was a dance hit and as such all covers can be found in the dance corner. The song has been sampled and remixed more than necessary. 30 years on, it still gets picked up to be reworked. It’s nice that the record has such legacy, but it is sad that so few of them capture it’s freshness. Many of the tracks in the playlist below are more predictable dance songs, with heavy beats and standard loud-soft structures. The chants of Kanté, the background vocals or even the rare use of the kora are usually easy-won highlights.

Still, there are a couple of good efforts here. My favourite is by Pete Tong and Jules Buckley, who used it in a dance medley together with Rej and Man with the Red Face. Yé Ké Yé Ké comes on at the end and the way it springs into life is glorious. The duo also give the song room to breathe. I also like the light percussion take by Yusuf Bütünley; you could describe it as cute if you want. You get a short history lesson in African hits there too. There are also versions in other languages. Priscilla Chan sang it Cantonese, right in the same year Kanté had a hit with it. Los Lachos made a Latin-flavored Spanish version. Neither is interesting beyond the translation though.

Mory Kanté himself seems to like this song being remixed, as he has sanctioned a lot of remixes himself. This already started in 1988, when the song failed to break out in the UK and a so-called Afro-Acid Remix was made to appeal to British tastes, with still disappointing results (which explains why it is not Spotify?). No mention of this song is complete without the Hardfloor Remix which did very well in clubs in the mid-nineties and brought back some attention to Mory Kanté, who never had another real hit in the west. The remix is from 1994, but Kanté himself released it again on an EP with other remixes in 1996 (it’s not on Spotify, but you can find it on YouTube below). In 2011 he even helped to release a complete remix album of Yé Ké Yé Ké. In 2016 there followed an ELEKTROKID remix, which got a “Vol. 2” in 2017. This is more than I have been able to take in. And more than I need, frankly. Still, the Hardfloor Remix works very well, whereas the Britain only Afro-Acid Remix just replaces the koga sounds with beats…

The playlist:


The Afro-Acid Remix:
The Hardfloor Remix

One last note: I have not been able to find a good translation of the song’s lyrics. Is anybody here fluent in Maninka?
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