Specialist in All Styles (2002)
9 tracks, 50 minutes
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Orchestra Baobab do well with their album titles. I reckon they have two of the best: the compilation Pirates Choice from 1989, which was followed by Specialist in All Styles in 2002. How cool and self-assured are those? I reckon Pirates Choice probably pips it in terms of title - and legendary status - but for me, it’s Specialist in All Styles that is the real stand-out musically.
The band are one of the premier exponents of explicitly Afro-Cuban son-derived music in West Africa. The Cubanity is all-pervading in Baobab’s music, but it couldn’t be from anywhere else but Senegal: the traditions of the géwél and jali (the Wolof and Mande griots) are strong, especially in the declamatory vocal style, and the transposing of the signature sound of son, the montuno riff, from the piano to the electric guitar makes theirs a style that straddles continents. It was the pop of 70s Senegal, before it was usurped by the behemoth that is mbalax. The band fell from favour and eventually split up; this album was their triumphant return after 14 years.
The quality of music and production is exquisite throughout Specialist in All Styles, but it’s a particular bit of album sequencing on the second half of the record that really does it for me. Three tracks: ‘On Verra Ça,’ ‘Hommage à Tonton Ferrer,’ ‘El Son Te Llama,’ one after the other. Amazing! The first is probably the best track on the album, the one I play again and again. The second is a slow, sultry piece with guest vocals from legends across an ocean, Ibrahim Ferrer and Youssou N’dour. The third is a Cuban classic, played at a lightning pace and rendered extra spicy with Senegalese flair. Bam bam bam. Excellent. This record could just be these three tracks and clock in at 16 minutes and I’d be happy.
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