Bembeya Jazz vocalist
Sekouba Bambino continues his ongoing quest to follow the musical model of
Salif Keita's epochal
Soro. And guess what? He nailed it this time.
Sinikan is a rootsier version of
Kassa and the freshest disc in this modern, griot-rooted West African pop vein in recent memory.
Yes, it looks back to
Soro by recruiting
François Bréant for the arrangements (he did half of the landmark
Keita disc) and bringing in
Keita's regular guitarist
Ousmane Kouyate to anchor the band. But most crucially,
Sinikan strikes the right balance between African roots and Europop polish, allowing
Bambino's individuality to shine through, his voice front and center in a lush, full bed of sound on this collection of five-minute songs.
So big, dramatic string swirls play off bass and kora/balafon sounds on the title track, "Decourage" rocks out with horns and lead guitar upfront, and "Ate Tolama" opens with a nice bass melody and muted voice before hitting its loping stride. "Ni Matele" weighs in with more detail, dramatic strings, and hard-to-figure rhythm moves to help get a sweeping cinematic sound and the roots-simple "Famou" with accordion, "Ndiwa Ndiwa," and "Gnangnini," with its breathy flute solo, are ruled by skittering kora lines playing off
Bambino's voice.
"Banandiou" works in a mournful, bluesy mode with a lonely horn-synth solo before
Bambino enters, the
Keita influence apparent, but he's more of a straight-ahead singer who doesn't aim for virtuoso turns. The ballad "Diougouya Magni" is softer, with a prominent jazzy/bluesy harmonica part, a unique and inventive touch that shows the creative effort that went into crafting
Sinikan. But the final three tracks offer the real proof positive of that. "Promesse" ropes in Paris-based Senegalese rapper
Disiz La Peste to rhyme in French against
Bambino's vocal over an almost go-go beat, with nice funky guitar topped by flute. It's an obvious play for the youth market, but winds up as a totally organic, unforced groove that works perfectly. The most radical move is tackling
James Brown's "It's a Man's World," with
Bréant's arrangement Afro-stringing up the melody and just letting
Bambino be
Bambino, and it works wondrously well.
Taking the "Famou" dance remix into the soukous zone with compelling guitar and basslines while the horns and drums itch for the chance to bust loose pales in comparison, but it's a strong track, too.
Sinikan is a great disc, pure and simple, one that deserves to become as much of a latter-day reference point for current West African pop as
Soro was in it its day. ~ Don Snowden