I’ve never encountered an album on the Cumbancha label that I didn’t like. Some more than others, certainly, but none that didn’t deserve at least two or three listens (most of them much more than that). Dindin by Kimi Djabaté falls into the category of those that you will listen to a few dozen times, I tell you. A delicious amalgam of Afrobeat, Mandingo sunnyness, Afro-Blues resilience and Afro-Portuguese melancholy (Kimi was born in Guinea-Bissau), Dindin is a journey that is partly autobiographical and a vehicle for hope. Djabaté recounts a difficult youth, but takes a lucid and tender look at the ability to rise above one’s initial condition, and at the hope of which the future can and must be made. Fans of Habib Koité and Daby Touré will be charmed. All others will be too. In short, listen to it as soon and as often as possible.
