Inspiring children to achieve since
music home base is a good thing, because it allows him an opportunity to share their home country’s music with a whole new audience. “People playing music in Senegal right now, they’re not making it universal,” says Malick, a drummer. “If you’re not from Senegal, you’re not going to understand it. It’s not going to get out of Senegal. Everybody has their own roots, but you have to find a way to make it universal.” That’s what Ibu is trying to do. As his emails straddle continents, so does his music. He sings in both English and Pulaar. Electric guitars complement traditional handmade drums. Western, verse-chorus-verse song structures reveal folk melodies of Western Africa. The idea is to “mix (Senegalese music) with music here … to communicate with music, like a language,” Ibu says. It’s a commitment that might have never developed had he continued performing on the Strip, where, for two and a half years, from 5 p.m. on, he would play lead and rhythm guitar and sing background vocals for two, one-hour sets. “It was a great gig, almost like a dream come true. Everything from Christina Aguilera to Etta James,” Ibu says. “It was a school in American music.”
Your roots are showing
Join Us for an Open House! Tuesday, February 8
9 a.m.–6 p.m.
© 2011, Barbara B. Baker
Summerlin 9900 Isaac Newton Way 878-6418 Green Valley 1725 East Serene Avenue 990-7300 Los Prados 5150 N. Jones Boulevard 839-1900
Because You Know the Value of Education An independent private school offering preschool through eighth grade · ChallengerSchool.com 24 D e s e r t C o m pa n i o n F e b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
But that school didn’t last. “I started to see the Paris hotel and others get rid of bands and bring in piped-in music. You knew it was over.” After that, “I went back to my roots. It forced me to look at playing my music,” he recalls. He also soon found there was not much of a local audience for what the industry calls “world music.” Undeterred, King Ibu kept recording, producing two CDs. His new material is more acoustic and stripped-down than those titles. “It reflects the way I’ve been traveling,” he says, meaning you get used to making do with less when you’re a solo act on tour with a limited budget. It also reflects the troubled times, which have caused him to look inward. “A nation can’t grow if the individual doesn’t grow,” he explains. As for the local audience — or lack of it — Ibu hopes the growth and diversification of Las Vegas over the past decade-plus eventually results in a city with broader musical appetites. Meantime, he focuses on what he can control, such as recording, performing and selling CDs — and doesn’t stress about the rest. He resorts to a Senegalese adage that says as much, and seems at home in the desert: “Once you pour water on sand,” Ibu says, “it’s gone.” Hear King Ibu’s music at www.myspace.com/ kingibumusic.