Djam Leelii

Ei kukaan

Fu, vegyes erezesek de ezt most nem elveztem, viszont nagyon erdekes, visszahallgatnam, mint vibe, de egy zene se maradt meg, az album tul egyseges es osszeolvadtak a szamok, ezert elegem lett belole a vegere, pedig pozitivan indult. Lehet ha rovidebb lenne az album jobb lenne Eloszor 3at akartam adni de a masik harmasomhoz kepest nem tetszett annyira, es osszessegeben nem volt elvezetes most nekem

pleasant, but the texture is monotonous and the elements unexciting

I’m enjoying this a lot, but I’ve been spoiled by the likes of Mdou Moctar when it comes to the guitar so this doesn’t feel quite as dynamic as I’m used to.

🇸🇳🇸🇳

Albums like this are why this list and this site are important. I never would've thought to listen to Senegalese music beforehand, and even if it wasn't totally for me, my view has been expanded that much more.

all right but too long and too static. there’s better west african guitar music

2/5 Not as good as previous day world music

Fun listen, but I don’t know about essential. I’ve heard other music I’ve liked better in this style

Most of these sounded like 20 second songs on a 5-6 minute loop

721/1001 2026.10.12 🌕🌗🌑🌑🌑

Not exactly what I wanted, needed or expected in my deck of cards for today. Pleasing yet distracting. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it. There’s no English if that’s what you’re looking for. Not too tribal sounding yet still unfamiliar. I won’t be recommending this to anyone, like, at all but I respect the art.

RATING: 6.5/10 HIGHLIGHT: Loodo LOWLIGHT: Salminanam

i had Senegalese food once at work. i didn't what i was eating but it tasted really good. idk what to say about but i like it. interesting little change of pace i like it

Ganz ok

There's been a big blind spot for world music thus far in the 1001 so I was pleased to have a Senegalese album pop up today. This would be the first of many collaborations between Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, two lifelong friends who had a goal to share the stories of life along the Senegal River and about the ancient kingdom of Futa Tooro. Djam Leeli (translated as The Adventurers) does exactly that, conveying a true sense of adventure and richness of life through the sharing of music. Even though I didn't understand a single word being said, the duo manage to connect with their listener all the same. It's a beautiful album, though I'd say that the eight tracks of the original release perform better than the additional four added to later versions. I think my favorite takeaway is that even though the instruments, vocals, and languages may be different, traditional folk music stories from Senegal aren't so different than those told in other parts of the world, from Ireland to the Appalachian foothills. It shows we are all more connected than we understand. Highly recommended!

Super rich guitar tones throughout the whole record. There’s a warmth and ease to those guitars. It’s really pleasant. That was the most immediate and consist any quality about this project. I was a bit surprised at how many of the melodic qualities could be fit into boxes of western tropes. The descending looping melody on “Muudo Hormo” sounds like a post-rock lick as much as it sounds like a Senegalese track. Either way, the song is excellent. It’s firm but a little melancholic, sprinkled with some mallets coming onto the second half of the song. “Ko Wone Mayo” Al’s has a guitar that sounds like it’s lifted right out of “Helplessly Hoping” by CSN. Excellent fusion of styles. There’s a deliberate contentment in how many of these songs are played. They’re not at all worried about the space they take up or what they fill it with. Sometimes it drones on a bit long, but it’s otherwise easy and meditative. Some rich singing on “Bibbe Leydy”. Strong 3/5, it feels longer than it is at times but there’s some pretty songs peppered about

No idea what they were singing about. Very piezo sounding acoustic guitars. A groove so strong I was locked in tight after about 3 seconds. Loved it.

Interesting dessert blues.

Interesting

Never really heard anything like this. I thought it was nice, I liked the guitar sound

this ain't for me

Wellll…. Not for me. I think it all sounded very similar and honestly nothing stood out to me, I was also listening it whilst doing one of the most mind numbing tasks possible so i think that added to my dislike of the album

Nice, but so repetitive. I’m sure there’s a good reason for this, but my ignorant ears didn’t get it

It's ok to listen to if your alternative is country music, but I would not seek this out - just too repetitive.

pretty, but kinda boring. there had to have been more exciting senegalese projects for the list

Of all the albums so far this is definitely the firthest from anything I've heard before. Some parts sound only nostalgic though, especially Lam Tooro and Muudo Hormo.

An album I've never would've listened if it wasn't for this list. It's unique, rhythmic and even though I can't understand the singing the melodies move me.

Bien.

Enjoying the cultural exposure through music.

Interesting music that isn't really my vibe. It was fun hearing a kind of music that I haven't listened to before and it wasn't a hard album to get through but nothing made me bop along or fell anything at all really.

Very good. But it was a bit too long

It ain't for me!

I didn't understand what he was saying but I could feel it. There was joy, sadness, excitement and love in this album. I liked that the songs all sounded different. It was a mix of new and traditional african and indian sounds.

This was incredibly pleasant and soothing, and I enjoyed the instrumental arrangements. A nice world music discovery!

Succulent Senegalese music, the vibe was all pretty similar but was good background music

I think if I understood Senegalese I would have liked the album more. Music was pretty, but it was lyrically heavy so the voice was more a musical sound. Some of the songs seemed very long, but, again if I knew what was being said I’d might not mind.

Good afro music

Interesting album, but not the most amazing. Not upsetting.

What was this? This was utterly boring. Every song sounds the bloody same. I tried listening to it, but I could not listen to the entire tracks. So: 1/5

Pas trop mal mais ça pourrait être cool que le dude du livre sorte de chez eux et découvre des artistes africains pré-80s un moment donné.

..

I always love the opportunity to listen to a good, lowkey album of world music <3

This was a nice listen but nothing in here hooked me enough to add to my playlist.

Nice groovesly music! Would listen again :)

enjoyed this a lot. is it just me or does Daande Lenol sound like Street Spirit by Radiohead?

# Album Name: Djam Leelii # Artist: Baaba Maal # Rating: 1/5 # Comments: A big fucking no. Good lord, 70 minutes of it too. # Top Tunes: # Would I listen to it again? No

Really nice. Beautiful sounds. Love the pure sounds of harp type instruments like this. The vocals are raw and honest too.

This was a very interesting album with music sounds I am not very familiar with but enjoy listening to. Very relaxing smooth grooves rhythmically interacting with the vocals.

Härligt men lite enformigt. Inte riktigt fyra men stark trea kan den få.

Treeeeeeeeeeeee

Kul när listan levererar grejer utanför den västerländska rockbubblan. Det här var lite ball men inte skitkul. Stark 2a

Kan inte säga att jag njöt

2,5 kanske

Sounds great. I don't know that I was so caught up that I'll return to it.

I'm going out on a limb by saying this is a perfect album. I know almost nothing about Senegalese music, so my frame of reference lacks a lot of context. But I first heard Baaba Maal about 5 years ago and his playing completely blew me away. This music totally changed how I understand the guitar as an instrument and how it can be used to create ambient textures. Also, I think Baaba Maal does a good job of conveying how the blues is a transatlantic phenomenon.

It was ok and relaxing the instrumentation was excellent and I haven't really heard much like this, its definitely something I don't listen to much but was good for a change but ultimately I probably won't listen to this again

Some absolutely lovely music, with gorgeous guitar layering, singing and overall atmospheres. It flows quite a bit better and has more variation than most collections of regional music - which typically isn't created with the album format in mind anyway. Still, things do end up blending together a bit in the end, so I wouldn't blame anyone for contently turning the album off after track 8, upon which the bonus tracks start giving you more of what you've already experienced.

No

I actually enjoyed discovering this one. Would probably never have come across that on my own. I did think I would have enjoyed it a lot more as pure instrumental or at least mixed with the vocals a bit less in-your-face.

#95 One of the more unique albums the generator has given us so far. Chill and relaxing, somewhat hypnotic. Excellent guitar work throughout, paired nicely with tribal percussion. Highlights: Lam Tooro, Djam Leelii, Sehilam

#245/1001 🇸🇳 First and second listens today. Its a fabulous record and one that i'll definitely add to my rotation. Best tracks: Muudo Hormo, Maacina Toordo, Kettodee

no es mi estilo

another album from baaba maal and friends, a collaborative work between him and lifelong close friend mansour seck. despite releasing in 1989, the material itself was recorded in 1984. like with the last album, there's not too much information about this album on the 'net. the last album i listened to that featured him really didn't have a lot going for it... i wouldn't be surprised if the same critic that recommended that album also put this album on the list. compared to the last album i heard from baaba maal, this one has a softer and more relaxing quality to it. even so, a lot of it is just the same as last time. a guitar strums a riff and plays the same riff for almost 7 minutes long, then percussion comes in, then the vocals come in and it's essentially just a loop. baaba and mansour just reinstating the same thing again and again and again and again and again. it's fine. but it's really another album where i don't have anything to say about it.

Very confused. Musically some tracks are awesome but they’re sandwiched between tracks that are almost unlistenable. The mix is kinda odd. The vocal is in a weird spot. It’s not anything I’ve heard before. Not really for me. But then it’s randomly cool as hell. Every track is 1:30 - 2:30 too long. The album is 30 minutes too long idk.

hovered between a three and four. Really enjoyed this but I think it just barely shuffles over to three? Beautiful guitar work but it was a little too repetitive (not necessarily in a bad way) to stand out for a four

Some really cool musical stuff going on here. A treasure trove of guitar licks from bluesy stuff to African clave style things.

Not bad in many ways but I just find this and others of a similar genre just sound a bit samey

La música está bien, pero las voces son molestas. Tampoco hay que pasarse con la world music.

global rating seems more like global hating at times... (3.5/5.0)

They say oh we have too much classic rock, too much Neil Young, too much Beatles, too much Clapton! Nah lets add world music that right from the start sounds like what you hear in a waiting room. To each their own if you like this music, but I don't get having more than 2 albums of this genre. I feel like I heard this exact album sometime two months ago and even if you tell me the title I would still not recall it. 1/5- couldn't finish on one sit down and almost fell asleep by end. Apologies for being ignorant, but at this time, no....

I was fortunate that I had this album on a beach day I think. I was still able to hear the waves through my headphones while listening to these sometimes very cheery and simple songs. I enjoyed it, I doubt I would have otherwise. The songs are very stripped back and repetitive.

This was a good one! I listened to it throughout the day while driving and had a good time. I am not familiar with a lot of World music for lack of a better term, but have gotten Baaba Maal before and enjoyed that one too. I dig it, though I am not sure if I will listen to it all in one chunk, but it was pleasant overall!

This is obviously good music that requires a lot of talent even if it isn’t for me, I really struggled with the repetitiveness and length of the songs

It’s ok. 2.5

When I reviewed Baaba Maal's Lam Toro album, I accidentally played this first. And I much preferred the less obviously "sweetened for Western audiences" production approach. I don't want to get into arguments about 'authenticity' or engage in the fetishization of 'realness' that plagues much rock criticism. Suffice it to say that I prefer the less polished approach; fewer synthesizers and drum loops and expensive reverbs and other aspects of 90s production that are irritating and unfortunately date the production. This was a pleasant listen and feels more straightforward and timeless.

About 200 albums in, it is obvious this list has a heavy anglo bias. Putting it mildly. This is the first African record I encounter. Surely there are better African records out there I should hear. The songs on this record all sound verry much the same to me, somewhat flat and the album goes on too long.

Awful

You know I'm going to bump this to 4 not because I loved it, but because it's different and worth adding to the digital collection as part of an international channel.

Meditative, steady interesting loopy.

Not even sure how to review this other than to say this isn’t for me.

Nope. Not my jam. This genre of music does not interest me in the slightest.

Some interesting musical explorations around droning, repetitive patterns. Not much to hate or love beyond that for me, since I had no real entry into anything deeper than the notes and rhythms.

Music for yoga studios.

So good, so mellow. Can listen for hours.

Plinky-plonkly African noodling. To me these sound custom-made to be backing music for a documentary or slideshow, they just don't do enough to justify an active listen for me, although I do appreciate that this is not Another American Rock Group, although I would replace this with some desert blues, Afrobeat or Zamrock if I wanted to keep it African.

Strong acoustics

We could have had an album from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan instead of this snoozefest.

I really don’t know much about African music to be critical of this, but I did not really enjoy it. There is beauty to this music throughout this album, but it’s long and the singing style is difficult to appreciate as a western music lover. I am, however, glad these types of albums are on the list so that I am exposed to them.

Album #174: Baaba Maal & Mansour Seck – Djam Leelii: The Adventurers ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Here we go. This is the kind of shit I’m talking about. I want to broaden my horizons, and there would have been zero chance of me discovering this album in the wild. Senegalese fucking folk music. Absolutely great. Obviously, I’d never heard of these guys or anything to do with them. Reading a bit about them, they’ve got a blind guitarist in Mansour Seck, and that always seems to be a recipe for great music. It’s long, rhythmically repetitive, acoustic and semi-acoustic folk music, with these really interesting higher-pitched, kind of shrill vocals. It’s a voice I’ve never really heard before or can compare to anything else in Western music. It’s a really alien sound to me, in a great way. I’ve complained before about how foreign albums (that are not made in America or England or whatever) have been presented on this list and how the list sometimes seems reluctant to throw us into the deep end with them a little bit. Like that Ananda Shankar album, where he does covers of Western songs but under the guise of traditional Indian music. This feels much more like we’re being thrown straight into the deep end of Senegalese folk music, and I’m all the better for it. I think it’s a real experience listening to this. The songs are very long, but I think that’s part of how they work. They start to suck you in. You get stuck in the rhythm of them, it stays in your head, and you move to them as they go along. By the same token though, I did find it quite an exhausting listen. Obviously, I have no idea what he’s talking about or singing about, but it’s sung with a huge amount of passion. The guitar tone is really interesting as well, with that very staccato-y kind of note picking and a hollow bodied sound. Highly recommend this one. I’ll probably come back to it because it feels like a bit of a grower, but definitely four stars for how unique it is.

Favorite songs: Lam Tooro, Muudo Hormo, Salminanam, Maacina Tooro, Sehilam

I wish I understood what they sang about.

Holy mixed bag, Batman! The guitar is quite lovely (albeit repetitive), but the vocals are...quite grating if I'm being honest. 72 minutes of this might be too much to ask (by which I mean I'm tapping out early).

Not really my djam

this is why i love this challenge!! despite not speaking the language, this album deeply resonated with me, there's this beautiful guitar throughout. i've been going through a VERY rough time at the moment and this album kind of calmed me down for a brief moment. definitely one i will revisit

On Djam Leeli, Maal and Seck jam freely. Vocals sweetly free-wheely over neatly dancing steely guitars. Damn funky

572/1089 - Seems more authentic than some of the other World picks. A lot of ||: this :|| going on.

Interesting, but I'm never going to listen to this again

Solid, but not really for me. I think Baaba and Mansour are fantastic musicians, and I love that this album is on the list, I'm just not really feeling it. It doesn't help that it's a 75-minute album and a lot of the songs sound very similar. Still, not upset to have listened to it.

OG Graceland! Entrancing music, great atmosphere. Love the repetitive guitar combined with marimbaesque percussion. Had another Baaba Maal album earlier this week, but this vibes a little bit better.