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CD Review
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The Beat Magazine, CD Review >>
Speaking of epiphanies, I was driving through the countryside when a European Starling sailed across the road just as Bembeya Jazz hit an instrumental break on "Sabou." Four guitars were churning out polyrhythms as tight as the thickets of brush on both sides of the street, then an adrenaline-pumping horn section soared above the groove with a punchy tattoo that put me right in the starling's body as the bird glided more than hundred feet without a single wing flap and landed precisely in a patch of grass alongside another bird. It was as inspirational an example of avian flight as I had ever witnessed, and illuminated by the genius of Bembeya Jazz, participating in that small experience suddenly made life seem worthwhile. Though not as showy as goldfinches Orchestra Baobab in that Senegalese band's 2002 comeback Specialist in All Styles, Bembeya 's first release in 14 years, Bembeya (World Village), has the right stuff plain and simple. Back in the 1970s and through the 1980s, Guinea's Bembeya Jazz was one of the hottest bands in West Africa, and the sinewy Manding rock on these new recordings of classic songs gives ample reason why. Don't look for a lot of showboating here, since Sekou "Diamond Fingers" Diabate is generally content to fire off his guitar solos deep within the rhythmic strata of songs that submerge the inevitable Cuban influences beneath fluid neo-griot arrangements, though his Hawaiian guitar action provides the focal point to "Gbapie" and "Yelema Yelemaso." It's easy to imagine balafon, kora and other local instruments standing in for the constantly engaged guitar section, and that traditional reference also helps explain how these ever-shifting riffs stay out of one another's way. While the results aren't always pretty, they are profoundly beautiful. "Soli Au Wassoulou" is as close to a perfect melding of American funk and African groove as you'll ever hear, with sharp horn parts, a skittering guitar solo and urgent vocals. About four minutes into the song, a horn section change-up and a ferocious drum solo announce an intensification as the rippling guitars turn into surging waves to create a sound and a sensation that no other African band can duplicate. While the singers' voices occasionally betray their ages, the playing remains as vigorous as that of any young whippersnappers on the planet.
-Bob Tarte
06/01/03
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