Volume 3 - Lay Suma Lay

Album review

Vol. 3 in the series tracing the early Senegalese recordings of the group founded by Youssou N'Dour shows hardly any lingering traces of the old rhumba influences apparent here. The new mbalax sound is pretty well formed on these 1981 studio tracks, as evidenced by the up-tempo title-track opener pitting horns against an under-recorded lead guitar. The general model on the best songs, like "Walo" (with N'Dour in excellent vocal form), is horn response to the vocal over the guitar melody and percussion. The expanded horn section falls right in the pocket on "Djanka Demal," and another new touch is the braying, almost Dixieland trumpet solo on "Fontaane" to complement the extended guitar solo and that galloping, near-reggae skank rhythm. The 11-minute "Soula Sadoome Toogne" is a light, lilting romp with trumpet soloing again over the mbalax gallop, but the music is so consistently solid that picking particular highlights is almost beside the point. What Lay Suma Lay shows is a young band peaking, one with a firmly anchored foundation but still excited about stretching out...not to mention that little matter of being smack dab in the middle of creating a sound that would rule Senegalese music for the next 15 years.

© Don Snowden /TiVo