■CD RELEASE■

Beautifully packaged CD includes 24-page booklet with comprehensive liner   notes, photos, and interviews with Idrissa

Teranga Beat's first release is a compilation of tracks and unreleased material by Idrissa Diop, the acknowledged progenitor of a subtle fusion of Latin and Senegalese styles known as mbalax. Idy, as he's better known, grew up in the Guelle Tappe district of Dakar, and would go on to form the influential Sahel group under the auspices of impresario Bass Goumbala, uniting with producer Moussa Diallo to create the nascent sounds which became mbalax and would inspire the likes of Youssou N'dour, Thione Seck and Omar Pene. These 12 tracks highlight his recordings made from 1969 to 1976 when he left Senegal to live in France.