A mix of musical cultures takes place with Senegalese bassist/vocalist Alune Wade, best known for his teaming up with Marcus Miller a few years ago for the Davis alumnus’ Afrodeezia album. Leading his own team, he gives out sounds combining vintage Weather Report with West African textures and beyond with mix and match drummers (Daril Esso/Paco Sery/Lenny White), pianists (Cedric Ducheman/Christian Sands/Harold Lopez-Nusso), vocalists (Mounir Troudi/Mehdi Nassouli/PPS the Writah/Noura Mint Seymali/Aziz Sahmaoui/Djam) with percussionist Adriano Tenorio DD and saxist Hugues.
Wade’s electric bass digs deep into an Afro Funk with chants about love and hip horns on “Nasty Sand” along with some hip hop and Middle East moods and percussion on “Celebration”. There’s a fusiony plugged in “Portrait of Maure”, a pretty caravan laden ‘Lullaby for Sultan” and a soul groove with Mayot’s tenor riding the beat on “Saba’s Journey” with hints of the Sahel desert on the dreamy “Djolof Blues”a s well as a Moroccan side trip to the Sahara on the tribal “Donso”. Each song is like tuning into a different radio station in radio Bamako.