Sultan, by Alune Wade

Sultan

by Alune Wade

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The list of collaborations Alune Wade enjoyed over the decades read like a Who’s Who from the worlds of jazz and crossover music: Joe Zawinul, Marcus Miller, Oumou Sangare, Bobby McFerrin, Youssou N’Dour, Cheick Tidiane Seck, Harold Lopez-Nussa, Lokua Kanza, Blick Bassy, Fatoumata Diawara… the list goes on. His inspirations – Weather Report, Charlie Parker, Salif Keita, to name but a few – reflect musical choices he made. Many were distilled in explorations with the aptly named University of Gnawa, an ‘institution’ Alune co-founded with the mesmeric Aziz Sahmaoui – the virtuoso singer and sinter player, formerly of L’Orchestre National de Barbès, also makes an appearance in Sultan.

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limited edition gatefold vinyl, with extra track

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1.	Saba's Journey 05:28	info	buy track
2.	Donso 06:36	info	buy track
3.	Sultan 05:38	info	buy track
4.	Nasty Sand 04:18	info	buy track
5.	Uthopic 04:37	info	buy track
6.	Portrait De Maure 04:26	info	buy track
7.	Djolof Blues 05:39	info	buy track
8.	Dalaka 05:12	info	buy track
9.	L'ombre De L'ame 06:01	info	buy track
10.	Lullaby for Sultan 04:14	info	buy track
11.	Celebration 04:27	info	buy track
12.	Café Oran 04:45	info	buy track

about

Few artists would dare to tackle quite such a kaleidoscope of music styles and accompanying socio-political issues in the space of 12 songs and 66 minutes. And yet, in this fifth solo album in 15 years, Alune Wade achieves this with effortless mastery. On this epic record, the 43-year-old journeyman is accompanied by his faithful band and a couple dozen guest stars who have been regular accomplices in the bass player’s 37-year music career. You read that right: this Dakarois musician began strumming guitar frets at six years old, egged on by an inspirational father who, at the time, was conducting Senegal’s Symphonic Army Orchestra.
Precociousness was Alune’s middle name. Within years, he learnt scales for the piano, guitar and bass. Ismaël Lo’s bass player, Samba Laobé N’Diaye, lent him his first bass guitar at five and, irony of sorts, he took over from N’Diaye’s successor 12 years later. In 1999, he began his recording career at the singer’s side for Lo’s seminal albums, first with Jiguen and, two years on, Dabakh.
This was just one of a list of collaborations Alune Wade enjoyed over the decades. They read like a Who’s Who from the worlds of jazz and crossover music: Joe Zawinul, Marcus Miller, Oumou Sangare, Bobby McFerrin, Youssou N’Dour, Cheick Tidiane Seck, Harold Lopez-Nussa, Lokua Kanza, Blick Bassy, Fatoumata Diawara… the list goes on. His inspirations – Weather Report, Charlie Parker, Salif Keita, to name but a few – reflect musical choices he made. Many were distilled in explorations with the aptly named University of Gnawa, an ‘institution’ Alune co-founded with the mesmeric Aziz Sahmaoui – the virtuoso singer and sinter player, formerly of L’Orchestre National de Barbès, also makes an appearance in Sultan.
And now to the present: this 2021 apparition first germinated in the bassist’s mind as he was wrapping up album number four, African Fast Food. “The song ‘Pharaoh’s Dance’ allowed a peek into what I was wanting to develop for some time,” he tells me from his home base in Sartrouville, near Paris. “In 2018, I was fascinated by a potential meeting between the musics of East Africa – notably Ethiopia – and Egypt. My ensuing travels – and there were many - allowed me to meet artists from the diaspora that you find in New York and Paris. This dynamic melting pot was enriched by my passion for jazz, highlife and Afrobeat. So, I just went deeper and deeper into my private musical laboratory, seeking to fuse these styles without losing any of their respective textures.”
But Alune’s reflections go well beyond mere music spheres. He has always displayed a sensitivity to the historical, social and political turmoil of our times and these infuse these 12 songs, as explained in the adjoining liner notes. “I have never stopped reading. And I decided to go on a philosophical mission based on Africa’s untold history: I wanted to recount it in another way, take off layers of revisionism, inch closer to the original sources.” The COVID-19 lockdown gave him some breathing space in an Ile-de-France home shared by his partner and their child. Alune’s vision sometimes strayed the Mother Continent’s diaspora: “I read a book on the Falasha and their tragic uprooting and experiences in Israel. Its author, French Senegalese intellectual Tidiane Ndiyae, reflects on the deep injustices and mistreatment these Ethiopian Jews went through in their odyssey, both at home and in the country that ‘welcomed’ them. Despite this, however, it made me feel that there remains an unbreakable link between Africa and the Middle East. I’ve been trying to expand on it.”

credits

released May 20, 2022

Alune Wade – bass, vocals;
With: Adriano Tenorio DD, Cédric Ducheman, Carlos Sarduy, Hugues Mayot, Daril Esso,Paco Sery, Cyril Atef, Lenny White, Josh Dutsch, Ismail Lumanovski, Hein Benmiloud, Mustapha Sahbi, Nasriddine Chebli, Harold Lopez Nussa, Christian Sands, Leo Genovese, Bobby Spark, Daniel Blake, Faris Ishaq
and the voices of Nora Mint Seymali, Mounir Troudi, PPS the Writah, Aziz Sahmaoui, Mehdi Nassouli, Djam.

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Alune Wade Paris, France

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