Tuned In: Youssou N'Dour, Mick Harvey, Cat's Eyes
By CHUCK CAMPBELL / Scripps Howard News Service

"DAKAR -- KINGSTON," Youssou N'Dour (Emarcy)

Youssou N'Dour makes a fair exchange in the Africa-Caribbean music pipeline on his new "Dakar -- Kingston." Mbalax meets reggae, Senegal meets Jamaica, Sufi meets Rasta ...

The Dakar, Senegal, native is among the best-known of all African musicians, a sometime actor and activist who has been a driving force in world music since the 1970s. The 51-year-old performer's ode to reggae feels uncommonly natural, and if anything he boosts the beloved genre with embellishments and variations in mood that generally lift the release out of rhythmic redundancy.

N'Dour opens "Dakar -- Kingston" with a love-filled tribute to Bob Marley, "Marley," featuring lyrics by Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) and charismatic guest vocals by Jamaican dub poet Mutabaruka.

N'Dour then shifts focus back to his homeland with "Medina," a soft-horn-accented, reggae-cadenced song named for his section of Dakar.

From there N'Dour is back and forth, bridging the 4,000-or-so-mile journey between Senegal and Jamaica with musical and political continuity.

The multilingual mash-up includes everything from the serene empowerment in the alluring "Africa Dream Again" featuring Nigerian-German singer Ayo, to the rock-shaded "Bamba" driven by brassy horns and fat bass. "Don't Walk Away," featuring Jamaican band Morgan Heritage, is somber-smooth with its call for resilience, while "Black Woman" weaves a spell with a more personal message as N'Dour sings, "I'll never leave you alone again/Black woman, black woman/I'll never make you sad again/Black woman, black woman."

Politics, languages and genres aside, "Dakar -- Kingston" is lush and engaging, always tied to N'Dour's vibrant voice.

Rating (five possible): 4