Maal’s Universal Beat Makes the Rounds

‘Firin’ in Fouta,” the 1994 album from Senegal’s Baaba Maal, was a powerful musical document, a definitive indication of African music’s capacity to interface with the most topical Western pop styles.

The singer’s new follow-up, “Nomad Soul,” also explores African/pop connections, in tracks that range from gentle, acoustic ballads and surging percussive dance numbers to duets with reggae star Luciano and Sinead O’Connor’s back-up singers, the Screaming Orphans.

But there is a symbolism present in the album that reaches beyond the music. Maal sees himself as a nomad in two different, but related ways. His roots, he points out, are in the nomadic Fulani people, and his professional life, with performances around the world, has echoed the restless movement of his ethnicbackground. This week, his busy tour schedule brings him to Los Angeles for free appearances at the Santa Monica Pier on Thursday and the Watercourt downtown on Friday.

“I always wanted to travel and see the world,” says Maal, who is in his early 40s. “And I have always loved to perform. For me, a concert is a pleasure. Every time we have a record out or do a tour, we try to make sure, even for people who have never heard our music, that it’s going to be an exciting experience for them. We have a lot of ways of giving our message. The dancing, the choreography are all ways to communicate.”

Maal sees “Nomad Soul” as both an extension and an expansion of “Firin’ in Fouta.”

“I always try to experiment with the fact that music from different parts of the world can really work together,” he says. “In ‘Firin’ in Fouta’ it was just between different kinds of music. For example, funk music meets traditional things from my country. But the new album involves more different areas of music.”

Maal’s composing process for “Nomad Soul” began with songs, which he initially worked on with his traditionally styled ensemble.

“Then I did the programming,” he explains, “to see what kind of sound worked with every song. Each song, I feel, has its own personality. And that’s how I chose the producer for each, picking someone I thought could give a song exactly what it needed from the studio and from the technology.”

Is he concerned that this process of blending African and pop music, of using studio technology and a variety of producers--such as Simon Emmerson, Paul “Groucho” Smykle and Ron Aslan (of Raw Stylus)--in any way intrudes upon the traditional roots of his music?

“Not at all,” Maal says. “When people say traditional music they think it’s something that belongs to 200 or 500 years ago. But that’s not true. African music grows out of society. And every generation as it arrives brings new things. When you go to Senegal now, you see the kora players, the guitar players, performing with a lot of innovation. What came from the old generation is still there, but no one says it must stop and be like it was. It is always becoming something else.”

He also points out that many of the source elements of Western pop music trace to a common African heritage.

“All this music has roots in Africa,” Maal says, “and that connection is something you never forget. It can be unconscious, inside of you, but when you perform it comes outside naturally. When I hear reggae or samba or Cuban music I hear things that I know came from my country.”

Maal recently signed with Palm Pictures, a new label established by veteran executive Chris Blackwell, whose Island Records was a key force in reggae’s rise. The company is involved with film, home video, DVD and CD-ROM as well as music recording, and Maal sees his association with Palm as an opportunity to serve as a model for other African artists.

“In Africa we have a great diversity of music around us,” he says. “We have many talented musicians, but the structure of making music a profession is just beginning to happen in Africa, and we have a lot more to do, in learning how to understand the business of music better.

“If we can learn how to do that,” Maal says, “then we will be able to give our music to everyone, and show where modern African music comes from, traveling from the village to the big city and from the big city to the world.”

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Baaba Maal plays on Thursday at Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, 7:30 p.m. Free. (310) 458-8900. Also, Friday at the Watercourt, 350 S. Grand Ave., noon and 8 p.m. Free. (213) 687-2159.