Like most Senegalese groups with a penchant for electric instruments, they started out with a repertoire of rhythm'n'blues, rock, bossa and salsa. The group built up a reputation throughout West Africa, culminating in a 1975 tour in the wake of South Africans Myriam Makeba and Hugh Massekela. Under the impetus of drummer Prosper Niang, the real pivot of the group, Xa-lam gradually developed its own style, with tam-tams playing a jazz tempo, while electric guitars were cast in the mold of traditional string instruments, such as the xalam, a three- to five-string lyre. In 1979, the group was one of the first African orchestras to appear on the program of the Berlin Jazz Festival. The result was their first live album, Ade. Two years later, the Xalam musicians moved to the Paris region, from where they embarked on a European career.
The forerunners of modern mbalax. After a concert in Dakar with jazz giants Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and Sonny Rollins, they took part in the Rolling Stones album Under Cover Of The Night (1983), then composed the music for Michel Blanc's film Marche à l'ombre (1984). They also recorded several anthology albums, including Apartheid (1985) and Keurgui (1988). It was during the recording of this album, on April 29 1988, that Prosper Niang died of cancer. This visionary musician and trailblazer of modern African music left behind a group of distraught musicians who would take several years to get back on their feet. The group would return to service with a change of musicians, but without the magic of its founder. In any case, Xalam remains the forerunner of today's mbalax, which has since become an essential musical genre.
F. P.
