Search - Etoile De Dakar, Youssou N'Dour :: Once Upon a Time in Senegal: Birth of Mbalax 79-81

Essential

Idiosyncrat | California | 07/15/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have to make some effort to avoid using superlatives here. This is an incredibly good compilation on this unknown but seminal Senegalese music group. Yes, they're most famous for launching Youssou N'Dour's career, but these guys were much more than that.



If I had to sum up Etoile in one word, I'd have to go for "intense." The rhythm section's groove feels like it's going to accelerate the earth (listen, e.g., to the speedy salsa bass playing in "Esta China"). The guitar, sax, tama drum leads and singing push this over the top. I must say that I appreciate the sax playing here in particular just as much as Youssou N'Dour's famed singing. There is more than one sax player credited in the notes (which by the way are excellent), but clearly there's one of them that's very, very good.



I've heard many of these tracks before in other releases (e.g., Absa Gueye 1; Rough Guide to Youssou N'Dour & Etoile De Dakar, so I can add that the mastering in this collection is better than on the others I've heard. I can hear considerably more detail in the rhythm section.



My only, minor complaint about this release is about the track selection. I guess that the producers wanted to emphasize the more autochtonous Senegalese-style tracks in Etoile's repertoire, but I think that it would have been good to include at least one more salsa-style track (e.g., "El Hombre Misterioso Soy" from Absa Gueye 1), simply because Etoile were really remarkably good at that kind of music."