Editorial Reviews

The search for the missing Senegalese salsa link apparently started some time before the double-barreled Africando/Orchestra Baobab connection. Sopenté is drawn from 1994 and 1996 cassettes by a young group that formed in 1992 and switches between salsa and mbalax. Surprisingly, the more traditional Latin pieces come from the 1996 recordings, but the lead vocals by Mame Pathé Gadiaga are the real bright spot here. "Xamsa Bopp" is full-on salsa with skittering African lead guitar, and halfway through the song Gadiaga unleashes a great downward vocal run, changing his voice from falsetto before the backing singers chip in with some fine call-and-response action. The lively title track also features strong vocal interplay, while "Dëgoo" visits clave city behind the guitar before organ and horn punctuations jump in. You kinda wonder if Super Cayor moved forward to the past with its later salsa focus because the three mediocre mbalax tracks from 1994 aren't convincing or distinctive -- the best is "Diankhe Ndaw" with its near-skank rhythm guitar. "Capitale-Region" drops reedy synthesizer over a pure Cuban piano-cowbell drive that luckily creates a strong enough groove to counter the lack of variation. "Nampalal Sa Dom" successfully revisits that cowbell/piano clave groove, this time sans synthesizer and with strong vocals. "Guënt" is stronger, kind of a funky, quasi-reggae with a Cuban-ish piano that turns into pretty straight salsa halfway through -- it's a good song that doesn't suffer from the transition. The spare "Waxumag" is the best of the mbalax tracks, with strong bass and clattering percussion joined to poignant vocals, which only makes you wonder why it went unreleased until now. Sopenté isn't an accomplished disc by veteran masters revisiting a classic form. Super Cayor is still in its baby-steps growth phase here and has some strong foundations to build on, from a good grasp of arrangements to the prominent piano (the latter pretty unusual for a Senegalese band). And any group with a lead singer as compelling as Mame Pathé Gadiaga -- his voice cries, it cuts through the arrangements, it commands -- bears listening to. Don Snowden, All Music Guide

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