Abdel Gadir Salim is among the most significant and influential singers Sudan has produced. He first introduced the rhythms and melodies of the western province of Kordofan into the national music, and then played a key role in bringing Sudanese music in general to the world. Unlike many of his great contemporaries, Salim still lives in Sudan, where he is viewed as a national icon. He has traveled the world extensively with his group, and in 2005 made history and proved himself a truly contemporary player when he collaborated with former child soldier and southern Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal on the groundbreaking CD Ceasefire.
Salim was born in the mid-50s in Dilling, in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan’s western province of Kordofan. Salim recalls his youth in Kordofan as a broad musical education, “a mix of tribes singing all night.” Nuba tribes, as well as various peoples of Kordofan and Darfur to the west “lived together in friendship like one tribe.” The dance rhythms Salim heard as a boy, “at midnight,” like the cantering merdoum, were often tied to the natural word, imitating for example the gait of camels and horses, and all of this formed the core of a young man?s musical sensibility. He came to Khartoum in 1970 as a teacher, but soon formed his group, the All Stars, and began performing modern, urban adaptations of the sounds he had loved since boyhood.
Salim befriended Sudan’s greatest singer Mohammed Wardi, and studied at the Institute of Music and Drama. “The first song I played,” he recalls, “was Alur Halabi in 1971. It’s about the first lorry that came to Dilling. It says that I am very glad the first lorry has come to my village, but also I am sad because this lorry has taken my lover from this village. I want this lorry to be broken because it has taken my lover.” When Salim took old songs like this one and arranged them for his group, with saxophone, keyboard and electric guitar joining oud, violin, and traditional percussion, he made his mark as a force in modern Sudanese music. His band combined the aesthetics of an orchestra, a traditional ensemble, and a jazz combo, and their sound became standard fare at wedding celebrations. Salim’s music was so deeply loved by the public that his group continued to perform even during the harsh period of the 1990s when Sudanese artists suffered under a regime of strict, Islamist government.
In 1994, Salim was a victim in a knife attack in Omdurman, which took the life of famed singer Khogali Osman. The assault reflected the fiercely anti-cultural environment that followed the 1989 coup, but Salim, always a figure above politics, dismissed it as the act of a crazy man, and carried right on with his work.
Salim is a statuesque presence and a warm, charismatic performer. As such, an ideal ambassador to the world for Sudanese music. He has released some of the best known Sudanese recordings, notably The Merdoum Kings Sing Songs of Love (1991), and Khartoum Blues (1999).
In 2005, he surprised fans everywhere with his collaboration with rapper Emmanuel Jal, who had survived the experience of child warfare in a horrific civil war between north and south. Ceasefire straddles cultural, generational, stylistic, ethnic, religious and political divides, and stands as a powerful symbol of collaboration and unity in a deeply divided nation.
In 2012 he was one of the artists featured on an album dedicated to the music along the Nile River: The Nile: Song of the Rivers – Le Nil.
Discography:
Nujum al-Lail – Stars of the Night (Globe Style/Shanachie, 1989)
The Merdoum Kingsplay Song of Love (World Circuit, 1992)
Le Blues de Khartoum (Institut du Monde Arabe, 1999)
The Nile: Song of the Rivers – Le Nil (Accords-Croises, 2012)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.