RSSBaaba Maal
- Taara [Mélodie, 1990]
- Lam Toro [Mango, 1993]
- Firin' in Fouta [Mango, 1994] **
- Nomad Soul [Palm Pictures, 1998]
- Jombaajo [Sonodisc, 1999] ***
- Live at Royal Festival Hall [Palm Pictures, 1999] A-
- Missing You . . . Mi Yeewnii [Palm, 2001] A-
- Being [Atelier Live, 2023] A-
See Also:
Consumer Guide Reviews:
Taara [Mélodie, 1990]
Lam Toro [Mango, 1993]
Firin' in Fouta [Mango, 1994]
so intensely beautiful you can hear through the instruments from the right angle ("Sama Duniya," "Swing Yela") **
Nomad Soul [Palm Pictures, 1998]
Jombaajo [Sonodisc, 1999]
Cut circa 1990, unreleased because it seemed too loose, and better for it ("Baydikacce," "Farma"). ***
Live at Royal Festival Hall [Palm Pictures, 1999]
"My voice was always very loud but very thin," so this border Tukolor bulked up his God-given instrument with the same conscious discipline that enabled him to attend law school and penetrate Wolof Dakar. But as with so many ambitious young men from the provinces, there's always been an awkwardness about him, and his Chris Blackwell-backed attempts to follow Youssou N'Dour and Salif Keita into the so-called world music market have been cluttered with horns, stabs in the dark, and invited guests. The shows have varied, too, but this four-cuts-in-40-minutes EP is the heart of a good one. It's got a montuno-driven salsa. It's got reggae universalist Ernest Ranglin in Tukolor drag. And everywhere it's got tamas wrangling into the night. A-
Missing You . . . Mi Yeewnii [Palm, 2001]
"Recorded after dark in the village of Nbunk, Senegal" with "guidance" from old postpunk hand John Leckie, this isn't as ecstatic as 1984's folkloric Djam Leelii or 1999's jamming Live at the Royal Festival Hall. But like both it avoids the intelligent compromises with which Maal has attracted some non-African listeners and disoriented others, and the concept works. Ambient sounds, traditional tunes, modern rhythms, choruses of women, working bandmates, and old colleagues all sound rooted to a place. The fairest recording ever of all the music this thwarted visionary has in him. Ecstasy can wait. A-
Being [Atelier Live, 2023]
This 69-year-old vocalist and guitarist is a Tukulor not a Wolof and hence, at least in his case, a more politically conscious and proactive figure than even a Wolof as socially sapient as Youssou N'Dour himself. But it pretty much goes without saying because who has that he's never approached N'Dour's musical reach or scope, and keeping up with his albums has required more diligence than they seemed likely to reward. That's one reason I missed 2016's The Traveller, only now I'm kind of sorry, because this one is simultaneously raw and delicate, powerful and modulated. One reviewer has praised how openly it integrates younger pop experimental types. What impresses me is that you can't tell they're there. A-