Idrissa Diop

One of the quiet innovators behind the scenes of African music, Idrissa Diop has played a role, sometimes directly but usually indirectly, in much of contemporary Senegalese music. Before Dakar had become a hotbed of activity on the world market, Diop was playing the local music circuits as a percussionist with a number of small bands, usually providing the bulk of the arrangements and infusing the traditional music with touches of jazz, funk, and Afro-beat (Fela was a personal hero of sorts for Diop, and later became a major target for help from his political side of work). W...