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Album review
Naby
Dem Naa
Paris
01/12/2010 -
Aware that he needs to remain visible on the international circuit, one year after winning the RFI Découvertes award, the Senegalese singer Naby has brought out a completely reworked and much better version of Dem Naa, his first album released in his country.
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It was at the Musiques Métisses Festival in France, where he met the team accompanying the Malian star Salif Keita, that the process sped up and became more defined. Instead of contenting himself with targeting an international market with the album he had released in his homeland in 2008, the thirty-something Senegalese realised that he should retain the essence, but add to and improve it.
So he worked with these two targets in mind. First he introduced kamala ngoni string sounds into five tracks, along with the percussion instruments calebasse and tama, a small underarm drum with a distinctive sound. Then, he reworked all of the tracks with new mixing, taking the total number from nine to eleven, with the addition of Rew Mi and a reggae version of Suma Réeré.
The sound engineer and producer Jean Lamoot was used to working with the top West African artists, and quickly understood what Naby was looking for. His choices add more energy and resolve to the album and the result is denser and more solid. Out go the drum machine rhythms that made Njiite sound more like a demo than a finished track. An extra minute has been added to add some ngoni to the dub part, which turns out to be one of the high points of an album now stretched to fulfil its potential.
Lu waral
Dglu len
On tour in Quebec until 4 December and on 7 may in Divan du monde in Paris
Bertrand Lavaine
Translation : Anne-Marie Harper
11/11/2009 -
