Soro

A breakthrough classic for "world music" in the late 1980s - alongside other key artists such as Youssou N'Dour and Baaba Maal.The production and singing were and are exotic and enticing.

Salif Keita has a great voice, but this album will take a few listenings before I make a judgement on the content

Still as powerful as when I first bought it as a cassette.

Recently repurchased this album. Still as good as I remember and remains fresh with some wonderful sounds. A highly recommended album.

This is very much a "crossover" world music album from Mali's Salif Keita, who had cut his teeth with the rhythmic Super Rail Band De Bamako before re-locating, as many West African musicians did, to Paris, in the 1980s. The album blends traditional Malian sounds of female backing vocals, lilting, slightly skanking guitars and rhythmic percussion with the curse of eighties music - synthesisers and programmed drums. The latter is one of my least favourite styles of music, but it works here because Keita's nasal, distinctive voice soars atmospherically over it, and seems to even enhance it. It provided the perfect album for trendy wine bars in the eighties/nineties who wanted to show how turned on they were to "world music". It certainly got a lot of people interested in this sort of music and sales of the album were huge.Either way, it is an evocative, addictive album although I have to say the eighties instrumentation does date it somewhat. I prefer my Malian music to be more authentically ethnic, leaving out the synthesised European backing. That said, There is still a lot of appeal to this album. The sound on it is superb too.

It's several years since the last reviews of this essential album and it is time, in the light of what seems to be a revival in popularity of West African music, to re-assess it. And it still stands up!! Although I had listened to quite a lot of world music when this came out in 1987, this was the album that really opened the music up to western audiences with its great mix of western production values (recorded in France), its toe-tapping beat throughout, the backing vocals (unmatched for many years after) and the awesome voice of Salif Keita. I don't altogether disagree that it might seem a bit dated now, nearly a quarter of a century later, because Keita has gone on to make a number of masterpieces since (look for M'bemba and Mouffou) and there have been some extraordinary albums from the likes of Nahawa Doumbia, Rokia Traore, Fatoumata Diawara, Vieux Farka Toure and so on.But this electrifying album started all that, and the concert tour that accompanied it was mesmerising, one of the best gigs I have seen in nearly 50 years of concert-going, where all the stops were pulled out with his voice, the choir and the band (virtually unchanged from the studio musicians that made the album).If you need to be reminded of its greatness, listen to the first two tracks while trying to transport yourself back to the late 80s and ask yourself, honestly, if anything you had heard before in world music had prepared you for the fantastic guitars, the horns, the extraordinary female chorus, the thumping rhythm section, and that searing, soaring voice, still a wonder to hear in modern music of any genre.This is the album that should kickstart your world music collection!

This landmark album, recorded in Paris and released worldwide in 1987, took Salif Keita from local popularity in Mali, Senegal and the "ethnic West African Music scene" in France, to world recognition. It's therefore fair to say that "Soro" was the first time that music from West Africa gained a true international audience."Soro" is rooted in "griot" blended with playing from American-influenced, Paris-based jazz musicians. Influences from Latin America may also be detected. This was the first time Keita used a small chorus of female backing singers to anchor the melody and act as a counterpoint to his own soaring vocals, later to become one of the trademarks of his sound as it developed into maturity. Complex percussion lines and beautiful, crisp bass playing overlaid with superlative brass create a melodic, soulful sound.Keita's voice is in its prime, with the exuberant confidence of youth married to the disciplined and controlled delivery of an experienced professional artist. Production values are first class, and even after 20 years the sound is beautiful, rich and deep, as fresh as the day it was recorded.The accompanying booklet (CD only, not the MP3 download) offers all the song lyrics translated into English - useful, as Salif does not sing in English but mainly in West African languages and occasionally in French.

Soro turned into a great hit for Salif Keita in the late 1980s and was the album that established him on the international scene. Keita¹s music is a successful blend of the traditional griot style with influences from Latin America and other West African pop styles. The female backup singers play a prominent role in the arrangements, at least equal to Keita's own searing vocals.The music is a happy mix of percussion, bass, guitar, congas, saxophone, trumpet, trombone and keyboards. Soro (Afriki) is a long piece in three parts with different percussive tempos and instrumental breaks. Souareba is a particularly moving song with a spiritual undertone, orchestral arrangement and soaring vocals.Sina (Soumbouya) is a more traditional piece with a bubbling rhythm, flashes of trumpet and the intricate vocal interplay. With its slower pace and gently lilting rhythm, Cono is a soulful ballad with a lovely melody, whilst the mournful Sanni Kegniba is more traditional with intense soaring vocals.Soro from 1987 is considered his masterpiece but I like Keita¹s albums Amen and The Mansah Of Mali even more for their greater variety. This however remains a classic of African crossover music.