Dropping in on Baaba Mal

FOR YEARS THE music press has insisted that African pop is poised to become the next big thing. That American audiences will embrace the various polyrhythms and grooves of a land most of us have never been too. Yet despite small blips in the radar (Miriam Makeba, Manu Dibango, King Sunny Ade, the late Fela Kuti, Ladysmith Black Mambazo) that explosion hasn’t happened. Yet despite the lack of big time sales there are still African pop stars who have made an impact and in that rarefied circle is Baaba Maal.