These twelve classic tracks were recorded in 1982, as Youssou N'Dour was about to take over the Selegalese pop scene with his new Super Etoile de Dakar and their rowdy mbalax sound. Baobob's performance here of far gentler, more romantic and Latin-based African pop plays as the summation of an era about to pass. In retrospect, the music sounds sweet and sensuous, not unlike the best Congolese rumba of the era, but with many uniquely Senegalese elements.

This two-CD package delivers both the Pirate's Choice album as released internationally in the early 1980s, and also six additional songs from the same session. CD 1, the original release, features the strongly Latin-tinged vocals of Rudy Gomis. His "Utru Horas" is a sultry, melancholy meditation on the struggle in Cassamance, replete with tasty, jazz-informed guitar work from Barthelemy Atisso. Atisso's guitar work lacks the fire and virtuosity of contemporaries like Sekou "Bembeya" Diabate in Guinea, or Djelimady Tounkara, but it is lyrical and seductive, harmonically adventurous, and beautifully paced.

Horns, particularly saxophones, are as important to this band's sound as guitar. They harmonize playfully on Gomis's rumba-like "Coumba," and tangle with Atisso's guitar on the more hard driving "Ray M'Bele," sung forcefully by a young Medoune Diallo, these days of Africando fame. "Ledi Ndieme M'Bodji" is a loping Wolof melody sung by Ndiouga Dieng in an intriguing blend of Wolof folklore and Latin dance pop. Dieng's two tracks on CD 1 certainly do not arrive at the hard fusion mbalax would soon deliver, but they point the way.

CD 2 features three tracks sung in Mandinka by Balla Sidibe of Senegal's southern Cassamance region. Not surprisingly, politics figure into the lyrics here, but there are different musical characteristics as well. The lively 12/8 feel of "Toumaranke" sounds a bit like Cameroonean bikutsi, and "Balla Daffe" veers toward reggae. Mapenda Seck's gloriously clear, high voice graces "Ngalam," a song rooted in the griot tradition of the Wolof people.

This is a landmark release that powerfully evokes the atmosphere and sentiment of pre-mbalax Senegal. As such it has special interest for students of West African music. But on a more basic level, Pirate's Choice delivers sweetly swinging big band African pop, music that easily transcends its historic context.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org