Musicians play an important role in West African culture, so it's no wonder that that region of the world has produced some of the so-called world music superstars. Since the Middle Ages, hereditary troubadours called griots are much more than entertainers, also playing the role of historian/storyteller, educator and political commentator. Rarely does someone born outside the musician's caste assume this role. Blind singer/guitarist Mansour Seck was a griot born and raised, but his friend and (subsequently) more famous counterpart Baaba Maal was born into the fisherman's caste. Maal's family wanted on him to transcend his humble beginnings and helped him enrol in Law School, but he'd never graduate. His love for music won out and he eventually struck a partnership with his friend Mansour that in 1984 took them as far as Paris where they entered a recording studio to make a record -actually a cassette- album that would become a hit with the African diaspora. 
5 years later it was released internationally on CD and vinyl under the title "Djam Leelii", gaining wide critical recognition. Maal would go on to become a world/pop crossover star, experiment with reggae, pop, soul and electronic sounds and collaborate with Western musicians. But "Djam Leelii" is strictly traditional music, two voices and acoustic guitars with discrete backing by percussion, electric guitar, kora and balafon. It's an album of gentle, hypnotic music, fluid guitars and mourning vocals. Among my favourite songs are the slow and melancholic "Djam Leelii" and "Lam Tooro". Very emotional and wistful playing and singing - I'm told the latter deals with the sorrow of forced migration, being forced by the harsh weather and political conditions to leave everything and everyone you know behind and travel to strange and unwelcoming destinations. The lyrics are all written in the Pulaar language, and there are no English translations on the web, but it seems that exile and immigration is the central theme to the album, ergo the English title appended to later reissues "Djam Leelii: The Adventurers". Somehow we Europeans think that these people very naturally and gladly exchange their homeland, friends and family for the "luxurious" living in the ghettos of the grey and cloudy cities of the North. Even more absurdly, we think that closing our borders to them will render us safer and more affluent. But anyway, don't let me give you the impression it's a depressing record. Next to the spiritual and sorrowful tunes there are enough uplifting, rumba-like, pieces which provide some of the album highlights ("Maacina Tooro", "Salminanam", "Kettodee"). If you like African sounds, acoustic guitars or just atmospheric music, this is an album you're sure to enjoy...
***** for Lam Tooro, Salminanam, Maacina Tooro, Djam Leelii
**** for Loodo, Sehilam, Kettodee
*** for Muudo Hormo, Bibbe Leydy
Funny. I find Maacina Tooro to be heartbreaking. I've probably wept to this song 150 times.
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