Djam Leelii

Pleasant enough but it all felt a bit background music for me.

I suspect my engagement may have been increased if i understood the lyrics, which alas i dont.

About 2 minutes into track one I was thinking the rhythm was really pretty and atmospheric. By minute 4 I was losing patience. By minute 6 it had completely lost me. And that's basically how the rest of the album went.

I assume that the repetitive melody patterns are a traditional Senegalese music thing, but it's just not for me. Or rather I'd have been able to appreciate it more had each song been half the length. It's also no fault of the artist obviously, but I'm finding I generally appreciate albums more if I understand the lyrics (my attempts to find English translations on the internet failed).

I certainly didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either.

2/5

I liked some of the guitar work, but I didn't connect with it at all. I didn't look for the skip button so that has to count for something, I guess.

This was pretty hard to rate. I liked the intricate guitar work that seemed very easy and relaxed. I still can't get into the genre or sound as a whole.

The music isn't bad, although it is extremely repetetive. If it was just instrumental it would be fine background music, but that nasally voice over everything takes away my enjoyment.

Baaba Maal, we meet again. And so soon. Better than the other album, but I still cannot enjoy his nasal voice.

Didn't understand a word, but was pretty cool.

Never heard of this before, but I think it's great! Absolutely lovely guitar playing, and some very interesting percussion. It's a great recording as well, sounds very lively. Obviously I don't have a clue what any of the songs are about, but the singing is very emotive. Will definitely be listening to this again.

Music that makes you smile.

I will only focus on the eight tracks of the original release for this review.

This looks to be another one of those world-view-enriching experiences for the list. In this case, Djam Leelii is the first collaborative album between Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, two Senegal-based singer-songwriters and guitarists. These two studied the musical traditions of the West African regions of Mauritania and Mali, and the two formed a band known as Dande Lenol which translates to "The People's Voice", and would play for the Senegalese immigrant communities of Paris. Their hard work bore fruit in the form of this album with its title translating to "The Adventurers".

Sonically, this is a delightful indulgence of two men with their acoustic guitars singing wonderfully. Baaba and Mansour showed such wonderful chemistry for each other, aided by the light percussion from Papa Dieye, and the incorporation of more common Malian ensemble instruments such as the kora which is a lute-harp, and the balafon which is a slat xylophone with small gourd resonators. One of the best examples of this unison of instruments is on "Muudo Hormo" where the balafon acts as a sonic anchor for the group to follow suit in a melodic sway.

As much as I enjoy Djam Leeli from a pure audible standpoint, it is unfortunate that there have been no posted lyrics for this album. Baaba Maal primarily wrote the lyrics in the native Palaar language, and it would be nice to translate them and have some insight into what they wrote about outside of speculation.

Even without the context behind these songs, Djam Leelii is still a pleasant listen and worth the inclusion on this list.

I wasn't sure at first but it grew on me. Maybe slightly too long and rather repetitive, but I still enjoyed it

The vocals were good and fit the music well, especially on Ko Wone Mayo

Foreign music is hard. Sure, it should probably be on the list but I'm not familiar with the style, language or culture. It's just too inaccessible for someone raised on a western diet. 1.58

It's great to hear some African music on this list. There are so many great artists and genres there that I don't get enough exposure to. This one was new to me and a really enjoyable ride.

This is what I thought this list was

I probably don’t have the opportunity to give this album the attention it deserves during the day. Very low key, tough to get into.

Besides the great music, the liner notes of Ian Anderson about this album are fascinating:

"The tale of how this record finally got released here is too involved to repeat in full. One copy of the original cassette found its way to Britain and acquired legendary status among devotees of West African music. Dreams of tracking down the tapes continued unfulfilled for several years until Baaba's English debut in 1988.
By then, the original mixes were long lost, but the multi-track tapes of most of the songs were unearthed in Dakar. Hunting for the remainder met a dead end but, to our joy, produced the tapes of another whole session recorded some months earlier. What you have here is a nearly-lost classic of Senegalese music.

In November 1988, Baaba and Mansour got together again for a triumphant London concert, proving beyond doubt that this acoustic setting for his music remains equally powerful alongside the complex might of the current electric band"

Nice, chill, great sounding music. 3/5

I found the music to be a bit too long and repetitive for me.

Wonderful, and so different from most of the list. I didn't understand a word, but I didn't need to. An artist whose name I had heard, and whose work I look forward to exploring when I'm done with this list

Awesome Melodic sound