Tankadi

Now almost 70 years old, Guinean saxophonist Mamadou ‘Maître’ Barry has been making music since the 60s, when he led Kaloum Star, one of Conakry's most legendary big bands. He didn’t record his debut solo album until 2005 when World Village released Niyo, a fine collection of Afrobeat grooves and hypnotic Mande rhythms that showed him to be the natural heir to Guinea's other great saxophone hero Momo Wandel Soumah. Backed by a talented band that fuses the experience of veterans with the energy of younger musicians, Tankadi is a more expansive affair, jazzier and funkier and taking in Latin influences alongside Fulani roots.

Barry drives the sound relentlessly on tenor, alto and soprano saxes across a bunch of his own compositions and a hypnotic cover of Mongo Santamaria's ‘Afro Blues’, but it's not a one-man show. Mamady Diabaté contributes some quicksilver lead guitar lines reminiscent of the virtuoso playing of Mali's Djelimady Tounkara and the deep, griot-like voice of Ibrahima ‘Rizo’ Bangoura features compellingly on half-a-dozen tracks. The production by Christian Mousset is top-notch, too.