Guinea music reviews

People are inclined to their own musical tastes, but i'm not sure I can think of anyone that I'd recommend this disc to. Guinean artist Mory Kante is supposedly one of the great singers in a country of great musical history, but this is at best an uninspired imitation of Western pop dance music. Western pop artists can do it better. In contrast, many western listeners love african drums and traditional stringed instruments!

I understand the effort to produce African albums that are accessible to Western listeners. I also understand and appreciate African artists developing their music by assimilating new sounds from other parts of the world into the music. But I'm not sure I can find any redeeming value in a track like "Ayeh," which basically sounds like a middle-eastern inflected karaoke vocal over a Gloria Estefan soundtrack. Why use a cheezy synthetic drummer in a part of the world where many children still learn to play drums in grade school?

The "hook" in this album is presumably the title track "Touma", which listeners will recognize as another variation on the African traditional tune on which "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is based. This version is an appropriate soundtrack for an aerobics workout.

If you want to hear great West African music, try Djelimady Tounkara's "Sigui" or Taj Mahal's manding-blues fusion "Kulanjan".

I became exposed to Mory Kante through this CD given to me as a gift. It's wonderful. Every track ranges from above average to great. Mory is from Senegal, and singing in his native tongue, so I have NO idea what he's singing about, but that doesn't matter. The entire album is very upbeat, uplifting and infectious. I find myself trying to sing along because it's just so darn enjoyable. Great music knows no language barriers, and this disc most certainly qualifies. Not long after this disc was released, I was fortunate enough to see Mory live in concert, opening for the Stranglers in Paris. Wonderful. I must say I loved this disc from the time I received it, and the wonderful memories of the concert do not influence my review of this disc.

I loved it instantly.

So..... what could I compare it to? Well, I wouldn't say they're alike, but the first thing that pops into my head would be the upbeat tracks from Afro Celt Sound Systems 2nd CD, "Release". They both just grab you and take you on a wonderful journey. I don't know anything about Mory Kante other than his music, and that's enough.

Grab this disc and enjoy it. It's great.

I only rate it 4 stars because personally, I'm stingy. A disc has to be flawless & an absolute classic to rate 5 stars in my book. That's very difficult. This comes close. I think people fling out 5 star reviews FAR too frequently here. I'm trying to be fair & objective.

An extremely worthy effort, I'd give it 4 1/2 if possible. Standout tracks include "Mankene", "Ayeh", & "Touma (Wimowe)", which is a version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".