LIRA RECOMMENDS!

MOKHTAR SAMBA: Dounia

O+ /Harmonia Mundi
Afrofusion

Lots of things are happening here! A magical flying carpet, woven by those rhythmic patterns, colourful from all those sounds, brings us from Mokhtar’s motherland Morocco to his fatherland Senegal, with a few detours to Paris and other modern musical metropoles.

With his first solo CD, Mokhtar Samba joins the group of incredibly skilled and qualified African musicians (Etienne Mbappé, Brice Wassy and others) who after years as sideman step into the spotlight. Like them, he has also played with musicans like Zawinul, Youssou N’Dour, Salif Keita, Manu Dibango, and like them, he surprises us with his exciting and inventive compositions on the borderline between world music, jazz and fusion.

That this music has been created by a drummer is quite obvious. It’s charged with intense drumming, both by Mokhtar himself and his invited guests, such as Dakar Percussive Ensemble. Eventful arrangements by, among others, Celia Reggiani, whose grand piano along with Jean Philippe Rykiel’s synths creates a nice contrast to kora, ballafon, steel pans. And the voices are present everywhere, starting with Nelson Mandela’s words in the intro of the first track: “I hope that those who will be looking for a vision of the future will be a little more honest.”

A unique mixture – for everybody longing for new music. Sofisticated and accesssible at the same time.

Annika Westman

Published in Lira Magazine #2/2005