LABOUR w/ Dial Mbaye

This month’s show features the great living Senegalese griot singer, Dial Moussa Ale, aka Dial Mbaye. Featuring such classic tracks as Bété Bété and Mariages Precoces, her lyrics deal with dynamics of Senegalese social life, including themes of inter-familial dynamics, generational hierarchies, social structure, and relationships of disciple and guide on the path to spiritual understanding. Focusing on her albums from the 1990s such as Bacarec Daramane, Ziar, Saxiir Caam A Fi Sargal Jigeen and others, the instrumentation includes a classic mbalax lineup of keys, guitar, drumset and talking drum in a band formation fundamentally built upon the sabar drums, and sometimes here including kora and xalam, as heard on the Bete Bete album with Le Groupe Fulle.