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los afro salseros de senegal en la habana
los afro salseros de senegal en la habana (Popular African Music)
In April 2001 a group of Senegalese salseros went to Cuba to record at Havana's legendary Studio Egrem. This CD presents the singers Labah Sosseh, Pape Fall, James Gadiaga and Mar Seck, accompanied by musicians selected from Dakar's leading salsa orchestras. Arranger Yakhya Fall, ex-bandleader and guitarist of Number One de Dakar, leads the ensemble. There is no keyboard, there is no drum kit, but there are two trumpets, Issa Cissokho's sax, lots of percussion and a grand piano in a beautiful 'Dakar tuning.'
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"There's a certain tendency in the global distribution of world sounds for a handful of musicians to come to represent the whole of a given country's music. In Senegal, for instance, Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Africando and (in France at least) Touré Kunda have dominated since the 1990s - and then there's the recent "rediscovery" of Orchestre Baobab. cd cover Of course, there's far more to popular music history in Senegal. Important external influences stem from Cuba's cultural and political involvement with newly independent West African nations, and the global dissemination of a diverse blend of Afro-Cuban music and African American R&B, funk and jazz.
When the Cuban ambassador heard an all-star salsero revue on a Dakar visit, he issued an invitation to Cuba, bringing Los Afro-Salseros de Senegal to record at the EGREM studios. Producer Günter Gretz's album notes recount the engineers' foibles and reveal the interference of politics in the recording session. Small wonder; when the musicians arrived five days late, Gretz insisted on going into the studio on July 26, 2001, the anniversary of the Cuban revolution, a day when no one works. But in the end, sixteen one-time members of Orchestre Baobab and Number One de Senegal laid down the eight tracks heard here. A strong vocal lineup (Pape Fall, Mar Seck, Labah Sosseh, and Star Band-Super Cayor de Dakar veteran Mapathé "James" Gadiaga) and ex-Baobab leader Issa Cissokho define the sound of Los Afro-Salseros de Senegal, as sure a tribute as any to the pervasive resonance of the music of revolutionary Cuba in West Africa." - Michael Stone, RootsWorld |
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