Label: Pi Recordings, 2022
Personnel - Steve Lehman: alto saxophone; Maciek Lasserre: alto saxophone; HPrizm: vocals (English); Gaston Bandimic: vocals (Wolof); Damion Reid: drums.
Sélébéyone is a groundbreaking collaborative outfit involving American, African and European musicians. These fusion practitioners bring together left field rap, nu-break flows, modern jazz eloquence, African rhythmic concepts, and experimental electronics in a collage of seriously infectious sounds inspired by the Islamic mysticism of al-Ghaib.
Declaring the two front-line saxophonists - trailblazing American Steve Lehman and French dynamo Maciek Lasserre - as producers, the group’s sophomore album, Xaybu: The Unseen, is bookended by the offbeat and vibing pulsations of “Time is the First Track”. The skillfully programmed disparities and juxtapositions of this piece continue on “Djibril”, a tribute to the Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty. On top of the ecstatic beatmaking there’s not only torqued freak saxophone notes forming angular heat waves and intervallic unconventionality, but also the Wolof, French, and English words pronounced by the two MCs - respected New York underground hip-hop artist HPrizm and young Senegalese star, Gaston Bandimic.
Both the African-flavored “Lamina” and the more aggressive “Liminal” deal with easily shiftable broken rhythms. The former piece, being very electronic-oriented, is surrounded by mechanically surreal patterns and synthetic grooves; the latter, instead, was made slightly more ominous through persistent drones, effusive percussion, and volcanic saxophone playing. The meaning of the words in “Gagaku” ('guided through illusion in the land of the lost'), where New York City life is addressed with hopelessness, is complemented by a voice sample of legendary jazz drummer Billy Higgins.
The top-to-bottom push-pull in terms of sound design is not to be ignored, and “Poesie I” is a superlative example of how to do it. Damion Reid’s versatile drumming locks in the group’s explosive chemistry on numbers such as “Dual Ndoxol” and the more straightforward “Zeraora”. He brushes his kit with swinging elegance on the former, creating a cool jazz atmosphere that later morphs into chilled-out electronic riffery stirred by caustic saxophone forays.
To like or not to like this post-electro-jazz-rap album is likely a matter of genre-related taste since one can’t find dubious choices in Sélébéyone’s response to their already highly raised bar. Anyone seeking boldness, complexity and fire in music should look for this.
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Djibril ► 06 - Gagaku ► 13 - Zeraora
