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RECORDS: N`DER FOUTA TOORO v.1 N`DER FOUTA TOORO v.2 YELAYO THIAROYE
Member of: | Dande Lenol |
| Musician for: | Baaba Maal |
| Language: | Fula |
| Genre: | Traditional folkmusic |
| Instrument: | Guitar Male vocals |
Articles: On Senegalese music (in Danish)
“He and I have two different roles - he is a guitarist and I am a singer. So when we work together, we complement each other." Thus Baaba Maal explains the relationship with his lifelong friend and music colleague, Mansour Seck.
Seck has been a leading figure in Dande Lenon, Baaba Maal's band, for many years, and performed on many of Baaba Maal's disks during that time. Mansour Seck has in the meantime also released disks under his own name. Seck and Maal come from the same town, Podor, in Northern Senegal. They grew up together and Mansour, who comes from a Griot family, introduced Baaba Maal to a line of music styles during their journeys across West Africa. They performed together in a group of traditional musicians and dances from Northern Senegal. Following the completion of Baaba Maal's studies at the conservatory in Dakar, he went to Paris to learn more about western music and modern arrangement. He saved all he earned by playing for the Senegalese in Paris in order to invite Mansour Seck and two other guitarists to come and stay with him. They formed a group that played in restaurants, parks, and other places where people stopped to hear them. Little by little they became known as Dande Lenol (The People's Voice), also the title of one of their songs. At that time, 1984, they recorded the album "Djaam Leeli". They later toured together in the USA. Mansour Seck's first solo release came in 1994.
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Last Modified:
22 nov 2009
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N`DER FOUTA TOORO v.1 
Sterns Africa/1994
A pure acoustic album disk, this, with Mansour Seck on guitar and vocals before his own band. Several of the members come from Dande Lenol, but this disk is a different offering from Baaba Maal.
The title tells us that the music comes from the region that stretches out from Northern Senegal to Mauritania. From Mauritania comes the disk's other guitarist and singer, Ousmane Hamady Diop. While Mansour Seck sings in the traditional, shouting fashion that is normal for Griots in Mali and Senegal, Diop has a deeper and more powerful voice that he uses to really sing out. This sounds optimistic and liberating. There is also a fine exchange on the disk since these two sing on every other track, and in the middle Baaba Maal has sneaked in a song. The arrangements are also amazingly varied, with guitar and kora alternating right through the sound picture. The music rolls and strums along, and one is drawn into a gentle and positive mood. There is something genuine and sincere about these guys. This disk is, in fact, a very positive surprise.
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N`DER FOUTA TOORO v.2
Sterns Africa/1997
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YELAYO Sterns Africa/1998
Click record company for review/sound sample
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KJØP PLATE Editor: Bjørn-Erik Hanssen
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