Fula Flute (Blue Monster Records 002 - 4 stars)

...integrates the tambin, a three-holed yet amazingly malleable West African flute into a contemporary context without violating its native tradition at all. Bailo Bah, a Fulani tambin master taught by his grandfather during boyhood in the Fouta Djallon Mountains now lives in New York City. He has hooked up with Quebec-born Sylvain Leroux, who also excels on the meter-long, hollowed-root tube. The tambin is always overblown, with vocalisms added just as Rahsaan Roland Kirk used to mutter while he blew, yet it produces a pleasing, mellifluous air. In an acoustic ensemble with West African kora, balafon and upright bass, the two Fula flutists toss motifs back and forth, improvise with, against and around each other, producing a simultaneously edgy and soothing sonic richness.

Howard Mandel, Downbeat Magazine, May 2003