AKASSA by HAMED KANE

When I was introduced to Hamed by impressario Thom McCarthy in 1999, I had no idea I was working on the first ever release of Bayefall Sufi music from Senegal. Hamed's tribal leader Ndigel had entrusted Hamed with lyrics which he created songs around which form the basis of this fascinating album. 

Hamed had built a set of Khin Drums which he laid down in the recording one drum at a time with no click track. At this point in time, Hameds' grasp of English was extremely  limited so we communicated only through our musical ear, with nods of encouragements and broad smiles,  fist pumps and joyful belly laughs when things had gone down on the recording well.

When he started putting drums down with no click reference they seemed to make no sense individually. By the time he had put the third part down it began to form a backbone of rhythm which was amazing. He then inserted a shaker and then sang the songs, all performed effortlessly with no hesitation. By the end of one week we had established all the tracks.

Hamed then persuaded me to add Guitar, Bass and Keyboards.  I was very reluctant to play on this album as I wanted it to be authentically African but somehow the parts just came on their own. 

What surprised me most was that the tracks weren't laid down with any tuning reference so I thought the drums and vocals wouldn't be in tune with the synths and guitars. I was astonished to discover that everything was in perfect concert pitch as Hamed had tuned the drums with his truly gifted musical ear.

We gigged the album around locally and performed a radio session which was broadcast thoughout Africa by the BBC World Service.

After the album was released and distributed by Sterns Music in London, Hamed disappeared back to Senegal just as mysteriously as he had arrived. His mission to release his spiritual masters music accomplished!

It was only after the release that we discovered this was the first EVER album from the Serere tribe in Senegal. They had converted to Islam, but only on the condition they they kept their African customs and culture alive. Their patchwork clothes represented the collection of influences that they adopted from may sources of inspiration and wove into their lifestyle. 

Around a year later the doorbell went and I heard the familiar joyful greeting "Ja Ja Fa Te", and Hamed was back as though he had never been away. I was working with some new tracks for our own project at the time under the name The Harmonics. Keith More turned up and Hamed opened up his songbook, which he always carried with him. He asked if he could put his words inside a song I only had a chorus line for at the time. he picked up a SM58 mic and immediately added verses. keith then jammed 8 tracks of Lead Guitar, filling up an ADAT 8 track recorder I was using at the time which was synced to an Atari 1040 computer using Cubase. The resulting track Never Too Late is featured in the video below.

I only wish I had taken more footage of this extremely colourful character. And of Keith, who was an extremely gifted guitarist.

I learned in 2023 that Hamed tragically died from throat cancer. This album however, is a true legacy to his skill and dedication to his craft, especially in relation to his drumming.

Keith More also passed away in the same year from pancreatic cancer. Both dearly missed but immortalised on this uplifting Afro/Celtic crossover track.