There are new things here, and compositions written for the circumstance (a magnificent Black Woman, syncopated and swaying), not to mention new readings of past hits like the old Pitche Me, taken from Immigrès (1986), produced with the assistance of Tyron Downie. This huge figure started in music in 1969 at thirteen with Bob Marley, playing with The Wailers during the master's time, and then with Peter Tosh or Sly & Robbie before settling in France to keep watch over the sounds of Tonton David and Tiken Jah Fakoly.

Youssou N'Dour could have fallen into the trap of a flat tribute to the federating hero Bob Marley, but instead he chose to take a look at himself in the reggae mirror: when he founded his club, he called it the Thiossane, a word that means "Our history, reality, that of the lineage which the griots knew and told stories about. My mother and my grandmother were Griots, Toucouleurs people from West Africa. The Griots are there for circumcisions, christenings and wedding feats... they arrange the way the celebrations are organised... But in everyday life they invite themselves to people's houses, and spend the day telling stories, humming tales from the countryside about our ancestors, and they accompany themselves on the khalam, a four-string guitar. You can recognise the Griots because every part of their body talks: eyes, hands, even their behinds..."

By 1996 he was already famous worldwide thanks to 7 Seconds, his duet with Neneh Cherry (released in 1994 on the album Wommat, which also featured his cover of Bob Dylan's Chimes of Freedom), and he recorded Voices of the Heart of Africa with the great YandÈ Codou SËne in the pure Senegalese Griot tradition. Still loyal, in 2007 he released Rokku Mi Rokka (the title is in the Pulaar language of the Toucouleurs) with musicians from the north, on the borders of Mauritania and the Sahel states of Mali. From that album's traditional return, the new convert to the rhythms of Kingston has chosen Bobolene here.

Nothing's In Vain, another call for unity, dates from 2002, and it included both Joker, here picked up by vocalist Patrice, and Africa Dream Again, which features Nigerian singer Ayo. With brass, percussion, bass and guitar lines all from Jamaican sources - the album was recorded in the spring of 2009 at Kingston's Tuff Gong studios with Dean Fraser on saxophone, Michael Fletcher on "dancehall" bass and Earl "Chinna" Smith on guitar - the album's instrumental add-ons are all wedded to Africa's memory and modernity, and its leitmotif is Youssou N'Dour: from Bombay to Rio, and from Dakar to Melbourne, via New York and Bamako.

There are new things here, and compositions written for the circumstance (a magnificent Black Woman, syncopated and swaying), not to mention new readings of past hits like the old Pitche Me, taken from Immigrès (1986), produced with the assistance of Tyron Downie. This huge figure started in music in 1969 at thirteen with Bob Marley, playing with The Wailers during the master's time, and then with Peter Tosh or Sly & Robbie before settling in France to keep watch over the sounds of Tonton David and Tiken Jah Fakoly.

Youssou N'Dour could have fallen into the trap of a flat tribute to the federating hero Bob Marley, but instead he chose to take a look at himself in the reggae mirror: when he founded his club, he called it the Thiossane, a word that means "Our history, reality, that of the lineage which the griots knew and told stories about. My mother and my grandmother were Griots, Toucouleurs people from West Africa. The Griots are there for circumcisions, christenings and wedding feats... they arrange the way the celebrations are organised... But in everyday life they invite themselves to people's houses, and spend the day telling stories, humming tales from the countryside about our ancestors, and they accompany themselves on the khalam, a four-string guitar. You can recognise the Griots because every part of their body talks: eyes, hands, even their behinds..."

By 1996 he was already famous worldwide thanks to 7 Seconds, his duet with Neneh Cherry (released in 1994 on the album Wommat, which also featured his cover of Bob Dylan's Chimes of Freedom), and he recorded Voices of the Heart of Africa with the great YandÈ Codou SËne in the pure Senegalese Griot tradition. Still loyal, in 2007 he released Rokku Mi Rokka (the title is in the Pulaar language of the Toucouleurs) with musicians from the north, on the borders of Mauritania and the Sahel states of Mali. From that album's traditional return, the new convert to the rhythms of Kingston has chosen Bobolene here.

Nothing's In Vain, another call for unity, dates from 2002, and it included both Joker, here picked up by vocalist Patrice, and Africa Dream Again, which features Nigerian singer Ayo. With brass, percussion, bass and guitar lines all from Jamaican sources - the album was recorded in the spring of 2009 at Kingston's Tuff Gong studios with Dean Fraser on saxophone, Michael Fletcher on "dancehall" bass and Earl "Chinna" Smith on guitar - the album's instrumental add-ons are all wedded to Africa's memory and modernity, and its leitmotif is Youssou N'Dour: from Bombay to Rio, and from Dakar to Melbourne, via New York and Bamako.

(Shrink Text)