Diop, Wasis

Judu Bek [Weltmusik]

RELEASE: 18.07.2008

LABEL: Wrasse Records

VERTRIEB: Harmonia Mundi GmbH

The traditional sounds of Senegal are combined with contemporary world music influences to create the smooth-edged global fusion of Paris-based guitarist Wasis Diop. His song, "African Dream", was a top forty hit in England, while, his soundtrack for his brother, Djibril Diop Mambety's film, "Hyenes", was an international success. "USA Today" praised Diop for his "sensual rhythms, gorgeous harmonies and mystical melodies", while, Paris-based magazine, "Le Matin", observed that Diop "strikes a balance between the songs of a hallucinating Muslim priest calling his flock and the ageless gentle storyteller of the Savannah".. "Exclaim" magazine wrote, "Diop's voice is key in the framework of the songs; deep, dark and delicious". Emigrating to Paris in the late-1980s, Diop shifted his focus from engineering studies at a university to touring and recording with a jazz band, West African Cosmos. Encouraged by the band's singer to visit Jamaica, Diop made the trip in 1989. While there he was befriended by influential record producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, and played guitar on several of Perry's dub singles. Returning to Paris, in 1990, Diop began working with Morrocan-rooted vocalist Amina Annabi. The following year, a song he composed for her, "C'est Le Dernier Qui A Raison (It Is The Last One Who Speaks Who Is Right)", placed first in the Eurovision Song Contest. Introduced to Japanese saxophonist Tasuaki Shimizu, shortly afterwards, Diop spent the next two years recording and touring in Japan as a member of Shimizu's band. Launching his solo career with the soundtrack of "Hyenes", Diop quickly achieved international acclaim. That success has continued with his extremely-eclectic solo albums, "No Sant", released in 1995, and, "Toxu", released in 1998.

Wasis Diop returns 2008 with a new album Judu Bék.

His voice is warm and sensual. His songs are like pearls composing the work of a master jeweler. The whole album is an invitation to a journey, maintaining the strength and authenticity that Wasis Diop inherited from his roots. Judu Bék is an album that evokes reminiscence, like an ode to childhood and a homage paid to beings and spirits. He speaks of the lives of outcasts, he remembers the streets of Dakar where he wandered as a child and gives his vision of the world.

This album is an intimate journey, Wasis Diop invites us in the depth of his own world.
Tracklisting

CD1: 1. So La La!
CD1: 2. Gudi Diop
CD1: 3. Let It Go
CD1: 4. Kula Soxla
CD1: 5. Anna Mou
CD1: 6. L’ange Djibril (Hallelujah)
CD1: 7. Ndiago Pop
CD1: 8. Dans L’arene
CD1: 9. Judu Bék
CD1: 10. Automobile Mobile
CD1: 11. Galu Nobeel
CD1: 12. Jiné Ji
CD1: 13. Tuti Sop

(Quelle: Wrasse Records)

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