September 29, 2008

El Sonero

Laba Sosseh is perhaps not the best sonero to come out of Africa, he does have some of the best recordings. And he has inspired and still inspires a great number of other singers.

Examples of these great recordings have been released on CD, notably on the Dakar Sound label.
I especially like the sweaty ambiance of the live tracks.

"El Sonero De Africa" which was released in the 1970s on the Senegalese N'Dardisc label has a very different sound, but still is one of my favorite Laba Sosseh albums. It contains some superb covers of classic Cuban sons (including an near ecstatic version of "Guantanamo"), plus one track ("Mama Yassima") which the sleeve contributes to Laba Sosseh himself, but which -if I am not mistaken- is in fact by Jean-Serge Essous.

Here is the album.

5 comments:

  1. really great LP, once again thank you.

    Does the LP list the instrumentalists or year?

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  2. I'm glad you like it too!
    As you can see, there's nothing on the sleeve (and the label adds nothing to this).
    And I have no idea of an exact date, but I guess it must be from the late 1970s.

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  3. do you think its Dexter Johnson on sax? I've seen other N'dardisc Lps where issa cissoko is credited playing with Sosseh ( as part of les vedettes band)but that was from earlier

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  4. Hmmm, it's hard to say. I don't think it's Issa Cissokho. Judging by tracks like Envidia, I would opt for Dexter.

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  5. Just discovered your site courtesy of Global Groove. Lots of tasty goodies here! Thanks, i'm just starting to download stuff and enjoy.

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