Most Western musicians”notably Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, David Byrne and Sting”have firmly couched their musical career in Western styles before experimenting with African styles and collaborating with the continent’s most accomplished musicians. Much rarer is the Western musician trying to make it in Africa before going international. But such has been the road taken by singer/songwriter Ashley Maher, who has forged a two-decade career on the back of musical collaborations with some of the most accomplished musicians from Africa. ’That’s kind of different,’ said Maher, whose fifth CD, the Mbalax-tinged ‘Amina,’ comes out this week. ‘It’s a harder road.’ And her musical journey has its roots in an unlikely place: Pacific Palisades, California. Born in Montreal to an Irish father and English mother, Maher and her family moved to Los Angeles when she was four, and then to the Palisades a year later. ’The music departments at Paul Revere and PaliHi were excellent,’ said Maher, who graduated in 1981. ‘I sang in choirs, learned music theory, and developed a great ear for harmony.’ While attending multi-cultural PaliHi, ‘I fell in love with everything to do with black music,’ Maher said. ‘All the white kids were listening to Boston and Journey. But when they played Earth, Wind and Fire, the Isley Brothers and Parliament-Funkadelic, I was the only white girl on the dance floor. That was my first doorway into the music.’ After a year at UCLA, Maher transferred to UC Berkeley, where she graduated summa cum laude and, along the way, ‘stumbled into African drumming,’ after hearing C.K. Ladzekpo, a master drummer from Ghana who was teaching at Berkeley. That moment literally changed her life. ’I just heard the drumming in the hallway,’ Maher said, ‘and it was this biophysical epiphany. The music affected me almost on a molecular level. I knew this was going to be the direction of my life.’ Maher, who was studying medieval history, was on the short list for a Rhodes scholarship to study in Oxford, but was passed over. She decided to relocate to England anyway. ’I moved to London, got a job and lived there for the next 12 years,’ from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, Maher said. ‘That was the heyday for African music. It was just heaven.’ At the time, Maher fronted Backlash, an Afro-funk outfit that got her noticed. She was able to record the demos that landed her a contract with Virgin Records in England. ‘I had Peter Gabriel’s manager and Phil Collins’ publisher.’ Her first CD, ‘Hi,’ came out in 1990 and received positive reviews from the British music press. But by the time her second CD for Virgin, 1992’s ‘Pomegranate,’ was released, Virgin was going through some internal upheaval and neglected the album. ’The record came and went in 10 days,’ Maher said. During that time, Maher had met her husband, Aboubacar Sidibe, who is from Ivory Coast and today works in post-production at a DVD production facility. They had their first child, son Sundiata, now 18 and a student at UC Santa Barbara. Maher’s life took another dramatic turn in 1998, the year she released ‘The Blessed Rain’ independently, when her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. ’I came back to L.A.,’ Maher said. ‘We put all our furniture on the street and rented our flat to a friend. I knew my mom really needed me full-time. I was with her for six months until she passed away.’ By then, ‘the market in England was sluggish and my husband loved L.A. and didn’t want to go back.’ And so, today, Maher and her family, which now includes Koyan, 9, live in Santa Monica, where Maher played the Pier in 2006 as an opening act for Mali singer Salis Keita. She also performed alongside Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and Dave Alvin at UCLA’s Royce Hall at a 2008 concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the legendary West Hollywood club, the Ash Grove. In 2006, no less than Youssou N’Dour, arguably the most internationally renowned African recording artist, recorded a song Maher co-wrote with Jason Hann called ‘Boul Bayekou,’ which wound up on several Senegalese albums. ‘He put his own lyrical stamp on it,’ Maher said. ‘The song was a huge hit in Senegal.’ In the spring of 2008, Maher started working on ‘Amina’ with Cameroon bass player Andre Manga, who had previously collaborated with her on the 2006 CD, ‘Flying Over Bridges.’ Then she got a call from N’Dour. For the last 10 years, Maher has been studying Senegalese dances such as sabar, and last year N’Dour flew her out to his concerts in Dakar [in Senegal] and Paris to dance on stage. It was a nice detour for Maher, who considers N’Dour her favorite musician. She got back on track, raising $15,000 to record her new album in Dakar with African musicians by utilizing donations via her worldwide mailing list. ‘We recorded ‘Amina’ in September and finished it in June,’ Maher said. ‘Then I went on tour all over Europe, returned to Dakar to work on videos, and came back here.’ The title of ‘Amina’ is a word that can mean ‘woman’ and ‘amen.’ ‘The one thing that’s been consistent throughout my recording career,’ Maher said, ‘is that all of the albums have had a rhythmic folk with African and a hint of jazz. One thing different about ‘Amina’ is that it’s rhythmically more focused on Mbalax music.’ She explained that the Mbalax style utilizes ‘thin sticks on tightly tuned tall drums,’ in contrast to the ‘hands on drums’ style of much West African music. ‘It’s a frothy, energetic quickness,’ she said. On ‘Amina,’ Maher’s voice flies high over the material, her voice and cadences reminiscent of Joan Baez. But social activism and injustice does not inform this album’s lyrical content; spirituality and an esprit of joie de vivre does. Lyrically, Maher invests hope and faith across such tracks as ‘Deserts,’ ‘Joy,’ ‘By My Side’ and ‘Amazing Grace’ (not a cover of the famous hymn but a song referencing the power of that iconic anthem). The song structure on ‘Amina’ seems less symmetrical in composition than most Western fare, which makes it less predictable. Overall, Maher’s new album is soothing, with spots of saxophone blasts giving the affair a jazz-lite flair. Through sales of ‘Amina’ (available through her Web site) and via private donations, Maher intends to raise another $15,000 to finance a promotional trip to Senegal on November 1, when she wants to begin work filming another video with the country’s top dancers. In January, she will throw a CD release party and spend next summer touring in Europe. ‘My manager, Thomas Rome [who has managed N’Dour for 25 years] believes that my doorway onto the world stage will be through Senegal,’ Maher said. ‘Internationally, the world music tastemakers and gatekeepers tend to be understandably wary of Western artists who collaborate with Africans, as they may be exploitive or derivative. ‘Senegal will not be a place to make money, as piracy there is so rampant. However, my heart is absolutely over the moon at this idea, not only because my entire being lights up like a candle when I am there, but because I know that deep down, my higher purpose is to be a cultural ambassador between Senegal’s music and ours. There is so much talent there I want to champion.’
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
