There are few places to hide on a solo piano record. The often fragile and expressive format has been a gauntlet for some of music’s great improvisers, including Abdullah Ibrahim on 2021’s Solotude and Keith Jarrett on his bestselling 1975 record The Köln Concert. Malian master musician Cheick Tidiane Seck now provides an entry into the canon with Kelena Fôly – his first solo album in an almost 50-year career.
Making a name for himself as a versatile keys player capable of backing the likes of vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman and Damon Albarn, Seck’s four albums as bandleader have experimented with synth-funk, vocoder and an earthy sense of groove.
The nine tracks of Kelena Fôly herald a marked departure from this previous output. Here we find 68-year-old Seck in an acoustic and intimate setting. Where Ibrahim and Jarrett use their voices as an intuitive whisper or yelp, bolstering the underlying melodies of their improvisation, Seck harnesses his gravelly baritone to make it the central asset of his record, displaying a lifetime’s worth of hard-won experience in its coarse expression.
Opener Kana Kassi sets the tone, playing through a cascade of bright chords before settling on a bluesy rhythm with Seck’s yearning vocal, while his tribute to Aimé Césaire sees his range reach a pleading falsetto while repeating the poet and politician’s name in an evocative, emotional chant.
It is by no means flawless – his cover of the standard Motherless Child wobbles through an extensive vibrato, while speedy descending runs on Sogomada Tchaman stop and start as if they are tripping over themselves. But the beauty of the solo format is to embrace momentary imperfection and improvise it into context. In the context of Seck’s album, he displays the freedom of his creation through this imperfection. His playing is ultimately deeply human – sometimes teetering on the edge of collapse but persisting with the driving force of its feeling.
Also out this month
Pianist and composer Surya Botofasina, a disciple of Alice Coltrane, releases his debut record, Everyone’s Children (Spiritmuse), creating an ambient soundscape of synthesisers and percussion that contains shades of Coltrane’s meditative kirtan work. Mauritian rapper Sanzman D’Akor delivers a jazz-inflected debut on Lionklash (Babani). Traversing everything from Danny Brown-style squeaking vocals to A Tribe Called Quest swagger, it’s a thoroughly entertaining 13 tracks. Turkish psychedelic singer Gaye Su Akyol brings a powerful blend of group vocals and driving guitar lines on her latest, Anadolu Ejderi (Glitterbeat). Highlights come on the synth syncopations of Gel Yanıma Gel.
