As the lights went down at La Maison Francaise on Monday, an a cappella voice emerged from behind the audience. Walking barefoot, dressed in West African clothing and carrying two candles, Julia Sarr proceeded up the aisle to the stage warbling "Yobuma" in a high key in the Senegalese language of Wolof. Onstage, acoustic guitarist Patrice Larose and percussionist Alex Tran joined Sarr, with subtle finger work that drew more from flamenco and samba than Afro-pop polyrhythms.
Until recently, Sarr and Larose were backing musicians in France. The Senegalese-born Sarr supported the likes of Julio Iglesias, Congolese vocalist Lokua Kanza and rapper MC Solaar. Larose is French-born but his parents came from Spain and he played with a Brazilian singer. Producer Laurent Bizot dreamed that Sarr and Larose would sound good together and paired them for their recently released debut, "Set Luna." Tran soon joined them.
Sarr and Larose's compositions are not standard verse-chorus-verse pop songs. Instead they are quieter cafe folk tunes that are often melodic but with non-standard time patterns and cross-cultural accents. Sarr's mezzo-soprano was beautiful throughout the set but was most distinctive on cuts like the opener and the Youssou N'Dour tune "No More," where she added an Islamic-derived grit and moved up and down the scales. "No More" also highlighted Tran's ability to switch seamlessly from intricate patterns on the Peruvian cajon box to gently brushing wind chimes. Their songbook lagged only when, on the CD's title song and on the encore, "Yow Lai Xar," Larose played too cleanly and Sarr sang with a smooth folky-soul timbre that was a tad too polite.
--Steve Kiviat
02/08/06 >> 
