Senegalese bassist/vocalist/composer Alune Wade erases genre boundaries on his new release, Sultan.
Alune Wade
Sultan (Enja Records)
A review
Drawing on traditions that range north/south from Andalusia to Sub-Saharan Africa, and east/west from Arabia to the United States and Cuba, and employing instruments both ancient and modern, Senegalese bassist/vocalist/composer Alune Wade’s new release, Sultan, delivers a captivating journey that winds through intertwined musical roots.
Wade’s wide-ranging résumé includes collaborations with Joe Zawinul, Marcus Miller, Oumou Sangare, Bobby McFerrin, and Youssou N’Dour, among others. The album’s personnel includes a similarly wide range of guest artists, from keyboardists Leo Genovese (Argentina) and Harold López-Nussa (Cuba) to vocalist/sintir player Aziz Sahmaoui (Morocco), vocalist Mounir Troudi (Tunisia), poet/rapper PPS the Writah (Senegal), and more than a dozen others, as well as the bassist’s onstage band: percussionist Adriano Tenorio DD, pianist and keyboardist Cédric Ducheman, trumpeter Carlos Sarduy, saxophonist Hugues Mayot, and drummer Daril Esso.
The album’s 12 tracks represent distinct chapters of “a philosophical mission based on Africa’s untold history,” says Wade, addressing the continent’s historical, social, and political turmoil, with the context of the songs detailed in liner notes.
The opener, “Saba’s Journey,” casts a cinematic spell with its ominous piano and with a punchy groove that draws on Ethiopian pop music of the mid-20th century and a modern jazz sensibility. “Nasty Sand,” which chronicles the burden of Africa’s petroleum resources, finds American blues crossing the ocean to rub shoulders with Gnawa rhythms. Modern Ethiopian music appears on the explosive “Uthiopic,” which features an African groove under American jazz lines, with a hip hop flow from PPS the Writah. The trancey “Djolof Blues” offers a Senegalese history from the majesty of the pre-colonial era to modern times, mixing African percussion and jazz piano. The light-on-its-feet “Dalaka/Open the Door” dances with a carefree feel, and López-Nussa’s piano slides the clave seamlessly into the groove.
Throughout, the arrangements and mix marshal the album’s distinctly different components into a unified whole, creating a sui generis genre that offers many welcome surprises, all of them riding captivating grooves. At once exotic and familiar, Sultan casts a multicultural spell.
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