Consumer Guide Album

Les Ambassadeurs: Les Ambassadeurs Internationales Featuring Salif Keita [Rounder, 1992]
Where Rounder's first Ambassadeurs reissue was a vocal treasure-house billed to the band, this attempt to cash in on Keita's modest portion of fame is a band showcase headlined by the vocalist. Keita had left before one track was recorded, and on all five the instrumental bed is more seductive than the excellent singing it supports. You wait for Kante Manfila's guitar, for the oddly tuned horn riffs, for the unidentified keyb (Farfisa? Casio?) that evokes heavy wah-wah, cheap alto sax, unalloyed synthesizer. Penciling shadows of kora and kalimba behind local beats and copycat tintinnabulations, it documents a moment before West African dance music had figured out what to do with Congolese hegemony or its own traditionalism, and a lovely moment it must have been. A−