August 02, 2009

Sudando

With the promise of improved weather conditions here in the Netherlands, I am mentally preparing myself for a healthy dose of sweltering. And what better way to prepare than with the steamy music of Laba Sosseh, recorded live or under similar circumstances in Dakar, Senegal. With the loose sax of Dexter Johnson.

As I have expressed before (here and here) I just love the ambiance of his recordings. Qualitywise the series on the M.A.G. label, of which this is the first, is certainly not as good as the wonderful CD's on the Dakar Sound label (at least one of those is still available here). But this volume has some classic Laba Sosseh, with personal favourites "Me Voy Pa'l Monte" (a tune which a nasty tendency to stick in my head for days...), "Aminata", "El Manisero (version Sangomar)" (that trumpet..!), "Seyni" (see one of the next posts!), "La Sitiera", and the killer: "Recordando A Noro Morales", - one of those songs that can only be heard with a ventilator at full blast.

Garçon! Get me a cold beer to go with this sweaty music!

MAG 102

3 comments:

Mouhamadou Falilou Mbacke Ndiaye said...

Dang, that's a great album. I found my favourite songs on it : Seyni, Aminata, Que se Funan. Those are the bombs. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait for his next post

Anonymous said...

Any record by the late great laba Sosseh is always welcomed. Que se funan was previously recorded by Chappottin y sus Estrellas even though credit is given to Laba on the record sleeve. I haven't listened to his version yet, so I don't know if it's a straight interpretation.

Thanks,

Alexsam

Anonymous said...

Laba Sosseh always makes me enjoy whith his misunderstanding of the Spanish language, by the way "Que se funan" is really "Que se fuñan" a Latin-Spanish expression.

But where I really like Laba, is in Seyni where he sings in Wolof is higher.