Customer Reviews

Guitar Fo

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After listening to this glorious music many times over, I wonder why this man is not an international superstar. The master of a singular guitar style--widely imitated, never duplicated, let alone surpassed--Sekou Diabate still remains a figure of some obscurity. Yes, he has a reputation among cognoscenti of Guinean popular music, most accessibly purveyed through the group Bembaya Jazz, around since 1961 (!). Yet one wonders why a player of his accomplishment nevertheless languishes is relative obscurity.

This self-taught master of acoustic/electric guitar, who has forged a sound uniquely his own, a kind of amalgam of kora and balafon styles adapted to guitar and filtered through West African popular music approaches, surely belongs atop any delineation of guitar herodom. One detects everything from country blues to Bayou to reggae to sui generis Africanisms in his uniquely crafted approach to his instrument.

Pure joy.

Most regular listeners of African popular or world music are already familiar with Sekou Diabate as 'Diamond Fingers" Diabate, the leader of Guinea's most popular band Bembaya Jazz National.
 Sekou Diabate's GUITAR FO is a bit different from Bembaya Jazz recordings, as it's not with a full band playing loud electric dance music - in fact, on some tunes the guitar sounds completely acoustic and on others, like a fat-bodied, semi-acoustic electric guitar.