It’s the weekend. This often means rum, red wine and late-night salsa, West African style.

Two groups today. First, Africando, the project of Senegalese producer and musician Ibrahim Sylla, some of Senegal’s top vocalistst and a bunch of New York salsa musicians. Sylla mixes West African star power with a contemporary American salsa sound.

The project has been amazingly successful having released over 10 discs in 10 years. The latest, Martina, is great. Especially if you have a sexy girlfriend to dance with – thanks, K. Today’s track is off this album and features the vocals of Senegalese Adama “Seka” Seck.

Secondly, we have the Congolese-Cuban combination of Papa Noel (great name) and Papi Oviedo. Their album, Bana Congo, is a great combination of two masterful guitars. Papa Noel, product of the Congolese rumba generation, used to play with Franco and was raised on Cuban music. Papa Oviedo is a Cuban big band legend and master of the double-stringed Cuban mini-guitar, the tres.

Have a good weekend.

Africando – Dioumte
Papa Noel & Papi Oviedo – Bana Congo