Dounia – Mokhtar Samba, 2005

🇸🇳 🥁 🎷 🌍 🎶 During a conversation in the basement of Le Baiser Salé, Jean-Philippe Fanfant once confided in me that Dounia, the newly released album by Senegalese drummer Mokhtar Samba, was the record every drummer dreamed of making. Could there be a higher compliment? By 2005, Samba was already an established musician, particularly since his contributions to Ultramarine’s last two albums fifteen years earlier. This collaboration opened doors to numerous projects spanning jazz, Africa, and the Caribbean. His drumming could be heard alongside artists like Jean-Luc Ponty, Ralph Thamar, Mario Canonge, Sally Nyolo, and I Muvrini, among many others. Alexis Blanchard then invited him to release his own album on the O+ label. Dounia is a celebration of Africa in the broadest sense, embracing a palette that stretches from Central Africa to Senegal and the Caribbean, blended with jazz, marrying traditional rhythms with modern urban pop. The album features a dazzling array of talent and is elevated by Celia Reggiani’s arrangements. With contributions from Etienne Mbappé, Jean-Philippe Rykiel, Jean-Christophe Maillard, Fifi Chayeb, Guy N’Sangue, Nguyen Lê, Mario Canonge, Mama Keita, and Andy Narell, no one is missing from this true Afro-Caribbean opera. To this day, it remains a remarkable milestone in the modernisation of these musical traditions at the dawn of the 21st century.