Records of the Month
October 2005

Thione Seck Orientation ( Strens)		Daby Balde Introducing Daby Balde (Introducing)

After a lifetime of reacting to the credit ‘arranged by….’ with wariness and suspicion, I’m surprised to find myself poised to praise these two albums by drawing attention specifically to their arrangements.

Back in the 1950s, before rock ‘n’ roll took pop music by the scruff of the neck, arrangers were the dominant figures at recording sessions, writing out all the parts for session musicians to play, making sure every note was predetermined and rehearsed to the last quivering quaver. When rock ‘n’ roll made spontaneity more important than perfection, and a small rhythm section simply followed the lead of the singer, arrangers were apparently unnecessary.

But within a year or two, they were back again, providing what producers called ‘sweetening’, cooing vocal groups and sweeping violin strings to tug your heart strings. The worst culprit? Marty Paich, responsible for the arrangements on ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ by Ray Charles. In the 1970s, when a few reggae singles slipped onto British radio, they invariably carried the credit ‘arranged by Johnny Arthey’, whose strings (overdubbed in London) softened the raw power of the Jamaican rhythm sections.

So it’s a great surprise to realise that the basis of my enjoyment of these two albums derives particularly from their arrangements. In both cases, the singers started by recording in Dakar, Senegal, before going elsewhere to finish them. Daby Balde completed his album in Belgium; Thione Seck’s recordings were completed in Madras, Paris and Cairo.

Introducing Daby Balde is so astonishingly good, I keep listening again to make sure I’m not exaggerating or misrepresenting it. Partly, the appeal is in Daby’s voice: clear, high, always melodic, and with that cutting edge we have come to expect from Senegalese singers. He doesn’t sound like either Youssou N’Dour or Baaba Maal, yet we might guess he is from the same part of the world. Daby may already be well known in Senegal, but this is his first international release and it could soon put him in the first division of the world’s great male singers.

If Daby had simply recorded his album in Dakar and released the results, we might have been quietly impressed. The songs are distinct, the backing vocals attractive, the musicianship impeccable, and Daby sings with warm charm. But it is the inclusion of instruments recorded in Belgium that lifts the album into a higher plane, and turns it into an endlessly satisfying experience. Only three instruments are added – accordion, saxophone and violin. But it is the interplay between these European sounds and those of the West African musicians that gives the album its unique flavour, taking our ears on a zig-zagging journey between city and desert, past and present, the familiar and the unexpected.

There are at least four songs here as good as anything I have heard all year. ‘Sora’ and ‘Kaye Waxma’ are intricate patchworks of colour and tone, simultaneously full of detail and space, moving forward yet suspended in time. How did Daby figure out that he needed to take the recordings to Europe? How could he guess what a difference violin and saxophone would make to ‘Sora’, or an accordion to ‘Maadiyel’? Such confidence, such authority, such a rare sense of high ambition fully realised.

Daby Balde may be at the start of his career, but Thione Seck has been cherished in Senegal since he surfaced as a teenager in the late 1970s, as a vocalist with Orchestra Baobab when that was the team to play for. Baobab’s best known album from this period is Pirate’s Choice, recorded in 1982; but the two immediately before it were just as good, with Thione featured as lead singer on ‘Autorail’ and ‘Mouhamadou Bamba’, the latter a tribute to a revered religious leader. He has regularly recorded as a solo artist ever since, his yearning, floating voice and flair for poetic imagery making him a national heart throb.

If Daby’s arrangements are subtle and spare, those on Orientation are extravagant and luxurious, wrapping Thione’s voice in rich cloaks of sound. Huge string sections swirl around him, and vast choirs chant on the choruses. The orchestrations were arranged by French keyboard player Francis Bréant, celebrated for his contributions to Salif Keita’s epic Soro album, who was challenged by executive producer Ibrahim Sylla to devise arrangements that would highlight the relationship between West Africa and music from the East.

Senegal is celebrated for being open to many Western influences - American jazz, rock, soul and hip hop, Cuban son and Jamaican reggae. But it has been just as strongly affected by sounds from the East, including the wailing voice of the legendary Egyptian singer Oum Kalsoum and the unabashed flourishes of Bollywood soundtracks. Sylla commissioned Bréant to adapt some of Thione’s most popular songs to reflect these connections, including a revival of his tribute to ‘Mouhamadou Bamba’, and featuring duets with female singers in each country.

Thione (pronounced ‘Tchonne’) Seck never made international fame his primary goal, and if Orientation turns out to be the album that belatedly establishes his status, he may not welcome the attention it brings. ‘Siiw’, the first track and one of the best, warns that celebrity promises no peace to those who seek it out, that they will suffer jealousy and slander. The arrangement manages the difficult trick of enabling the string section to move sympathetically with Senegal’s distinctive Mbalax rhythms.

Dense and intense, the album takes time to absorb, but Thione’s voice is consistently spectacular. Among the duets, ‘Assalo’ with Bombay Jayashri works particularly well, and the call-and-response backing vocals are consistently effective, especially on ‘Blain Djigeueul’.

Of the two albums, which both redeem the role of arrangements and confirm the extraordinary quality and universal appeal of two more singers from Senegal, Orientation is recommended for connoisseurs, while Introducing Daby Balde may be the more immediately accessible. I’m confident they will reward us all with lasting pleasure.

CG

An edited version of this review appeared in the September issue of the Observer Music Monthly