Djam Leelii - The Adventurers

Djam Leelii is nothing less than an acoustic masterwork of Northern Senegalese music, performed by Baaba Maal and his mentor, genius griot Mansour Seck. In the hands of these two masters, guitars chime out melodic strings and then shift from delicate strokes, painting a picture that's serene, mystical, and true. Baaba Maal, whose voice can melt hearts or glass, gives a more restrained performance here than on later albums, letting his voice blend into the musical trance, while Seck's grittier voice lends earthy textures. Not all Fulani music is this gentle, but the quietude results in no loss of power. if anything, the music pulls one into its magic with a gentle but undeniable insistence. The heart of this album is two men, after years of practicing and performing together, reaching an album's worth of musical transcendence together.