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| Director Pierre-Yves Borgeaud |
YOUSSOU N’DOUR: RETURN TO GORÉE (Retour à Gorée) A- Switzerland Luxembourg Senegal (110 mi) 2007 d: Pierre-Yves Borgeaud
The horrible reality about slavery was that it was a condition of commerce, buying and selling human beings. To that end, for over 300 years somewhere between 10 to 20 million of among the best and brightest blacks in Africa were transported across the globe where 20% (or nearly 2 million) died either in the Middle Passage transport on the slave ships or in their initial transport and confinement to their ultimate destination, often separated from their families and sent to different countries, like Brazil, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and several other countries in the Americas. Is it any wonder that today Africa continues to suffer from a perception of backwardness? This question could just as easily be asked of blacks in America today, wondering why other immigrant groups seem to advance economically ahead of blacks who historically lag behind. This question and this inter-continental connection lie at the heart of this film, made by Swiss filmmaker Pierre-Yves Borgeaud, yet it’s a surprisingly tender road documentary accentuating music that traces links to the African diaspora. Grammy-winning Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, perhaps best known in America for singing in his native Wolof language at the end of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes - YouTube (5:31), or touring with Bruce Springsteen in his Human Rights Now! Tour, noticed the connection between the percussive music played at the docks of Dakar, his hometown in Senegal, and Mardi Gras music in New Orleans, or a spiritual connection about slavery that perhaps only American gospel singers could capture, but more importantly realized that jazz is a product of slavery, that African descendants in America invented an improvisational form of music that he traces back to his own African roots, claiming African music similarly defies form and relies heavily on an improvisational component. An idea spawned at the Cully Jazz Festival in 1999, he decided to re-arrange some of his own songs giving them greater vulnerability and emotional expanse through jazz, blues, and gospel, traveling from Bordeaux and Luxembourg to Atlanta and New Orleans, and from New York to Dakar in search of the roots of African-American music. To that end, his arranger extraordinaire, blind Tunisian-born Swiss pianist Moncef Genoud, wrote some arrangements for what they called “the project, the Return to Gorée,” recalling the history of The Transatlantic Slave Trade through music, eventually performing a live concert on Gorée Island where it all began in the “Maison des esclaves” or slave houses from the slave era days, a symbol of their last breath of freedom before they walked through the “Door of No Return” and were shipped across the ocean on slave ships, Return to Goree - Youssou N'Dour - YouTube (6:00). While not a concert film, this has a more relaxed, almost conversational style that instead focuses on time spent during the rehearsal sessions.
Simply put, N’Dour, who was briefly a Minister of Tourism in his home country, chooses some great musicians, as they are among the best in the world, but more importantly, each is attuned to the righteousness of their mission which is as much a spiritual journey, elevating the quality of the music heard throughout the film, as N’Dour travels to America with Genoud to seek them out, heading first to Atlanta to work with the Harmony Harmoneers gospel singing Turner brothers, a bare bones gospel group with no piano, no drums, just a capella voices. Rehearsing together, while the intricate voices sound superb, immediately they discover a cultural rift, as N’Dour is a Muslim entering a Christian church for the first time, so when they start singing about Jesus, it doesn’t fit the song “My Hope Is in You,” My Hope Is In You - YouTube (4:24), where “you” refers to the next generation. The Turners are a bit stunned when they’re asked to stop using Jesus, something they don’t take lightly, but in the interest of “the project,” there’s a higher purpose than one’s own feelings. In New Orleans, we meet one of the originators, Idris Muhammad, who calls himself one of 8 percussionists growing up in his family which accounted for developing his own style early on, who at the age of 15 played on the 1956 Fats Domino smash hit “Blueberry Hill,” fats domino - blueberry hill - YouTube (2:21), later converting to Islam in the 1960’s. He does an exquisite job describing the origins of the music of Mardi Gras and its multiple jazz rhythms, where the hypnotic percussive beat drives the second liners, Second Line Blues: A Brief History of New Orleans Brass, a traditional dance style in New Orleans that traces its origins to the infamous Buddy Bolden and the spirited processions that accompanied festive music that played during weddings and funerals. In New York they pick up perhaps the most surprising choice, Pyeng Threadgill, the daughter of A.A.C.M. jazz composer Henry Threadgill and choreographer Christina Jones. Known for advocating diverse vocal styles, she is perhaps the most subtle addition as she supplements N’Dour’s own vocal lead and is genuinely amazed at his superb improvisational vocal technique. In New York, they also pick up bassist James Cammack, who along with Muhammad both currently work with Ahmad Jamal, a pianist long admired by Miles Davis for his use of space and texture, precisely what N’Dour is looking for. More importantly, in a flashback to the 60’s, they briefly add the fiery poetry of New Jersey poet laureate Amira Baraka, who invites them all to his home. N’Dour treats this invitation as an honor, as if being invited into the home of an African chief, viewing Baraka and his intellectual curiosity and interest in Africa since the 1960’s as an integral part of “the project.” The jam session with Baraka is one of the dramatic high points of the film, as his words are spot on, nearly shouted at first: “At the bottom of the Atlantic ocean there is a railroad made of human bones, black ivory, black ivory,” following the path all the way back to their origins using words that are finally whispered: “Africa, Africa.”
When they travel to Europe, they pick up Austrian guitar phenom Wolfgang Muthspiel, Luxembourg trumpeter Ernie Hammes, and French harmonica player Grégoire Maret, all of whom add musicianship, brilliant technique, and multiple layers of texture. When this entire group rehearses together, adding bits and pieces of N’Dour’s sweet voice, the result is nothing less than phenomenal. The final leg on their tour is Dakar, where N’Dour is in his element. Rather than feature the dance-like Senegalese rhythms of N’Dour’s pop songs which endear him to the local population (Mbalax in Senegal), this is a softer, much more contemplative style that might aptly be described as hushed, where every sound is meticulously crafted, Youssou N'Dour at Gorée Island | By The Rhythm Space YouTube (26:30). If CD’s were selling outside the theater, they would no doubt sell out, as there is a singularly distinguished, heartfelt tenderness to this music filled with eloquent, impressionistic colors so quietly underplayed, so by the time N’Dour’s voice soars above it all with intricate, soulful riffs, it’s nothing less than inspiring. The focus on Muhammad in the film is always rewarding as he’s a lion of a man, whether joining the drumming of the local djembe players in Dakar, offering a prayer afterwards, or buying a barracuda for dinner during a seaside visit next to rows of empty fishing canoes that line the beaches at night, where the man who actually caught his fish is pointed out. The film is surprisingly moving and powerful on so many different levels, most of it amazingly personal, though it doesn't address the controversy raised about the truth or fiction of that Door of No Return which many still believe is more symbolic than historical, as there are still historians who remain convinced the shore is too rocky for ships and that the majority of the slave traffic flowed through the Senegal and Gambia Rivers, suggesting the story is a myth fabricated by Joseph Ndiaye, a Gorée Island slave house curator who was given a position of prominence in the film, elevated to the level of a griot, an all-knowing grandfatherly historian who reveals the ugly details of what happened here, where six million died in the Middle Passage from Senegal alone, though it’s hard to imagine the personalized inner reactions of the visiting black Americans who are themselves descendants of slaves. Especially poignant is the scene where the Harmony Harmoneers gospel singers break out into song right there on the spot at the Door of No Return, singing “Return to Glory,” where it’s as if time stops and death is put on hold until they’re finished. It’s a miraculous moment catching everyone by surprise, as it appears completely spontaneous and utterly appropriate. But Joseph Ndiaye will go on spending the rest of his life revealing the history of the slave trade, publicly denouncing it in multiple languages, as if bringing the wrath of God upon us all, while Youssou N’Dour offers angelic whispers of hope as light as moonbeams that gently guide us into a more harmonious future.
