Soro – Salif Keita, 1987

🎶 🌍🎤🥁🎹 I discovered Soro around the time of its release, in 1987 or 1988, when I was living in Brazzaville. Suffice to say that the musical landscape around me, overdosed on rumba and kwasa kwasa, had little to do with the Mandingo afro-pop of Salif Keita. Hence the bewilderment I felt about this album at the time. But in fact, for his first solo album under his own name, Salif Keita, backed by the Syllart label, had just struck one of the biggest blows of the birth of this irresistible surge of the so badly named  » world music « . An explosive mix of Jean-Philippe Rykiel’s arrangements and the support of a host of Afro-Caribbean talent from all over the world: Brice Wassy, Yves Ndjock, Douglas Mbida, Michel Alibo, Georges Seba, Nayanka Bell, Ibrahima Ba, Cheick Tidiane Seck, Udoh Essieh… and the list goes on. In short, Soro is and remains a cornerstone of African music, and the starting point for Keita’s international career, which continues to this day.