Transcendence: Youssou N'Dour and "Allah"

Even though I was raised Catholic and still attend Mass, I consider myself open to pretty much most religious beliefs and practices, and especially if there is a beauty that surrounds it. There are not many religions that don't have some type of beauty, so that means I can usually find something in everything. Occasionally, I can find a transcendent experience. One of those experiences came in Turkey when, as I was walking through a bazaar next to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the call to prayer came over the speakers, and I stood there for the length of time the call to prayer lasted, grinning like an idiot because of the beauty of moment. Currently, I've been working my way through the Ramayana, and I'm amazed at the mix of history and mythology in that epic work. Yesterday, Megan and I were in San Francisco and we stopped into a Russian Orthodox church (ironically after coming out of a bar) and the inside was stunning in its iconography and its stained glass. Religion has served as an essential inspiration behind so much art that even the most irreligious or anti-religious among us cannot deny its influence.

I count today's song among those pieces of beauty that come out of religion. Youssou N'Dour is already a giant among African musicians. A singer, songwriter, composer, percussionist, actor and politician, he is one of the most visible personas of Senegal. A man born in a griot family, he didn't take the traditional griot path but he is considered a modern griot anyway, who was the driving force behind the popular Senegalese music called mbalax. He came to world notice thanks to his collaborations with Western musicians like Peter Gabriel, but his music stands on its own. This song, Allah, is from his 2004 CD Egypt. The album combines West and North African music, as well as instrumentation in its use of the West African kora and the Arab oud. It promotes the tolerance of Senegalese Islam, and the album won a Grammy award.