The previous solo album from the Bembeya Jazz/Africando singer and voice of Guinea to receive an international release was Sinikan, a decade ago [reviewed in #15]. Now two arrive in the post in the same week. As he's now in his 40s, it ought to be time to drop the ‘Bambino’ tag: he's Sékouba Diabaté, a proud scion of a long-line of Mande griots, who can trace his heritage back to the days of empire. But the name has stuck and so Bambino it is.

Although both albums contain new and recent recordings, they are quite different in style and character. The Griot's Craft was recorded in Bamako and features largely acoustic songs. As the Sterns’ press release wryly notes, ‘stripped down’in Guinea still means 15 musicians, who create a felicitous blend of Western guitars and bass and traditional West African instruments including kora, ngoni, kamalengoni and balafon. It's high class roots-pop with a griot flavour and Bambino's sweet but soulful voice is to the fore, with cooing call-and-response from the female backing singers.

Innovation, recorded in Paris with some but not all of the same musicians, is substantially different. Bambino's high, soaring voice is underpinned by arrangements dominated by layers of synths, swooning strings and blaring horns and with some of the lyrics sung in French. The obvious reference point is the Afro-Parisian sound pioneered by Salif Keita on Soro. No surprise, perhaps, as both albums were produced by Ibrahima Sylla and in the quarter of a century between the two albums, he's found little reason to alter his production style. The difference between the two albums is not as chalk and cheese as the above might suggest; but the days of African artists releasing different recordings for different markets should have long gone. What we are left with is one very good album – The Griot's Craft – and one OK album. The best tracks from both could have been combined to create one great record.