Kadior Demb

Thiès, Senegal’s third largest city, is a sleepy town at a major railway junction and home to one of the country’s great legendary bands, the Royal Band of Thiès. Founded in 1972 they are still just about in existence. There was a compilation a few years back on Dakar Sound, but this beautifully packaged CD of their never-before-released recordings is our first real opportunity to assess the significance of this mythic combo.

Taken from the original masters, the sound is superbly clear and the performances sound like a well-honed live set belted out on banging form. While the scholarly liner notes make much of founder and lead singer Mapathe ‘James’ Gadiaga’s reputation as a ‘ salsero’, he and co-singer Adama Secka exchange lead and chorus roles with the dark, invocatory intonations of a couple of real old-school griots, though they were probably still only in their 20s. Propulsive guitars and thumping, rattling sabar percussion power things forward, engaging in dialogues with the horns, which feature nice interplay between alto sax and a deep-toned trumpet. ‘Cherie Coco’ makes a great swinging opener, while ‘Ma Kodou Deguene’ and ‘Hommage à Mbaye Fall’ are beautifully paced slow-burners, and ‘Dagath’ has a Latin touch. If these recordings really are from 1979, the prominent use of sabar was ahead of its time. And there is a subtly different feel and considerable originality in the instrumental interplay, particularly apparent on the interweaving fanfares of the magnificent closer ‘Dighie Dighie’. This is classic rocking music that still sounds fantastically fresh, and more than confirms the status of a legendary group.