No need to consult Ousmane Kouyaté's musical CV before listening to his new album. The veteran guitarist's experience and musical culture shine through on all ten tracks on Dabola. The Guinean guitarist has never gone in for flashy demonstrations of his fast-fingered prowess and he remains elegantly understated here, even on purely instrumental tracks like Yarabi. Ousmane's sole motivation, it seems, is to take listeners by the hand and then hold them close right up until the final note, remaining as open and accessible as he can.

It would be reductive to define Dabola solely as Mandingo music, although Mandingo culture is undisputedly at the album's core. Ousmane Kouyaté comes from a long line of 'griots' (traditional singers and story-tellers) and he started out in Bamako playing with Les Ambassadeurs du Motel. However, the strength of Dabola lies in this album's willingness to reach out and embrace a broad range of musical genres. Ousmane achieves this in the greatest of style, without losing his own cultural identity in the process. He deftly tries his hand at salsa on Djeliya and makes an even bolder departure from West African music on the title track (named after his home town), delving into the repertoire of the Cape Verdean diva Cesaria Evora. Not content with this, Ousmane serves up another bold musical surprise on Super Kefimba, launching into an unexpected burst of funky urban groove.

Ousmane Kouyaté has favoured this modernist approach throughout his solo career,  with varying success to date. His last solo album, Domba (released in 1990), has not really withstood the test of time, its tracks sounding undeniably dated to contemporary ears. However, Ousmane's debut LP, Beni Hainan (recorded in Ivory Coast in 1982) has now achieved cult status, exchanging hands for considerable sums on the second-hand market.

On his fourth solo offering, recorded between Paris and Abidjan, the Guinean guitarist called in an all-star supporting cast, working with the renowned kora-players Toumani Diabaté and Djely Moussa Diawara, bassist Etienne M’Bappé and  percussionist Mokhtar Samba (former colleagues from Ultramarine) and the brilliant salsa pianist Franklin Lozada (who performed live on tour with Africando last year). Each of these guest musicians is assigned the perfect role on Dabola, slotting neatly into an organic whole. In short, Dabola is as rich, juicy and redolent as a mango ripe for the plucking! 

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 Listen to an extract from Dabola

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