finetune artist: Africando

Africando was formed in the early 90s by a trio of top Senegalese vocalists - Nicolas Menheim (best known for his association with Youssou N'Dour), Pape Seck (of toile De Dakar) and Medoune Diallo (of Orchestra Baobab). This project was more than an impromptu gathering of like minds, and owed much to several other collaborators. The trio was paired with Africa's leading producer, Ibrahima Sylla (the owner of Syllart Records), who had previously produced Salif Keita, Ismal Lo and Les Quartre toiles as well as Malian composer Boncana Maiga. The instrumentalists were drawn from far afield. To accompany the project, in 1992 Stern's Records recruited a team of top-flight New York salsa players, including saxophonist Jos "Chombo" Silva and Maiga's brother-in-law, Armando Bar¢, pairing them with the three vocalists in an attempt to explore the mutual history of Cuban/Latin and African musics. Despite their African origins, both Maiga and Sylla had grown up listening to Cuban records, the former living in Havana for nine years and the latter collecting thousands of the island's records on his travels. Trovador Volume 1 sympathetically harnessed these resources, taking care to ensure lyrics remained in African dialects such as Wolof, Mandingo and Peulh, while the music drew on classic Cuban, Mexican and Puerto Rican sources (the compositions of Beny Mor, Noro Morales and Trio Matamoros), with several tunes intentionally written by Maiga in an Afro-Cuban context.

Listen to Africando at Finetune.

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