Revolution Sabar

The Senegalese percussionist Aba Diop is a master of the ancient sabar drum of the Wolof griots, a sound heard most famously as the rhythmic backbone of Youssou N’Dour’s band. On Revolution Sabar Diop’s sabar grooves and the solid basslines of Thierno Sarr create a polyrhythmic undercurrent over which the kora of Noumoucounda Cissoko and the guitar riffs of Jason Hosier extemporise to create an Afro-pop fusion that draws on traditional forms, the mbalax of N’Dour and western rock and jazz. The songs are chanted rather than sung, with Zeyna Diop backing Aba in traditional call-and-response style, but it’s essentially an album about rhythm rather than melody. When the sabar is joined by the talking tama drum of Samba Ndokh they turn into an unstoppably percussive African jam band – on the wondrous ‘Senegal’ they even sound like the Grateful Dead on one of their more cosmic flights of fancy.