Consumer Guide Album

Salif Keita: The Mansa of Mali: A Retrospective [Mango, 1994]
I wonder what a mansa is. Surely nothing so crass as an albino from the desert around Bamako who was ambitious enough to hit NYC back in 1980? But that's who he is and has been, as set on world conquest as Youssou D'Dour himself even if he isn't as good at it. The baloney on this useful introduction isn't the three grand survivals from the failed Eurofusion Soro, which are more likable undercut by simpler stuff, or even the duly selected representative from the Republic of Zawinul, which starts out fairly pretty and gets fairly intense. And it sure isn't the legendary 1978 "Mandjou," 13 leisurely, inevitable minutes an Ambassadeurs fan might buy a whole best-of just to own. It's the three hunks of soundtrack, precisely one of which conjures up any image whatsoever. A−