Pirates Choice

Album Review

Orchestra Baobab returned to rhumba with a vengeance on Pirate's Choice, but you have to wonder a little why this two-CD deluxe edition of the 1982 album received such unanimous praise from the world-music press. It's a strong album but positively sedate compared to the wild and woolly Bamba —guess it's a question of whether you prefer your African pop looking back to faithfully reflect its early roots or charging forward in new directions. The slow, measured "Utru Horas" and the gentle, lilting "Coumba" — both featuring Issa Cissokho's sax as the principal solo instrument — are the flipside to the hell-for-leather energy of Bamba. "Werente Serigne" gets that clip-clop galloping rhythm guitar, interwined lead guitar and sax lines, and magical Baobab harmonies working again, and "Ray M'bele" keeps the momentum high with a Barthelemy Attisso solo, who seems to have left his wah-wah and fuzz box at home this time. It's one of three Cuban songs Baobab reworked for the album, and maybe the fact that the singers are credited with writing all the originals (unlike Bamba, where Attisso's name is prominent in the credits) accounts for the mellow feel. The extra tracks are solid but none of them stand out enough to make you wonder why they weren't on the original LP. "Ngalam" and "Balla Daffe" have a slight reggae feel, and "Tourmaranke" could be an On Verra Ça outtake with its choppy syncopated riff and call-and-response vocals — the mid-song handoff from guitar solo to sax to percussion breakdown is really nice, but it goes on a little too long. It's great to have a cover booklet with Malick Sidibe's excellent photos of late-'60s African music hipsters, but there's also a musical mystery — the original World Circuit 1989 CD issue of the Pirate's Choice LP had alternate takes of "Utru Horas" and "Coumba" that aren't included here. This deluxe edition is full of solid music, but basically it's just too restrained to fully justify all the fuss surrounding it.