Imagine yourself stopped by a highway patrolman for weaving all over the highway. "No, officer, I'm not drunk! Rokoto Make Me Dance-Dance!" That is likely what you will be doing if you listen to Abdul Tee-Jay in your highway ship, dancing all over the highway! So beware!

Abdul Tee-Jay is originally from Sierra Leone, but has lived in the United Kingdom for many years. He plays seven string electric guitar, and, though he has backed various non-African artists like Ron Kavana, he has also played Afropop folk-dance music in a sort of Pan-African style. Rokoto Make Me Dance-Dance is a compilation of "best" tracks from three albums, Kanka Kuru (1989), Fire Dombolo (1992), and E'Go LefPan You (1997), in this African style.

Tee-Jay's peppy guitar dances with fast chimes and rolls. Afropop is hardly my specialty, but I can hear traditional kora, highlife and Brazilian influences in some of the songs; Charlie Gillette's liner notes implicate soukous and "influences from Sierra Leone." Most of the songs are light-hearted and bubbly but strong plays for the dance floor, assisted by Rokoto's percussion and sometimes very prominently backed by brass. A few from the last album feature African balafon, thumb pianos, and cowhorns, but the tracks are mixed up so that what you hear is variety rather than evolution.

The liner notes explain Tee-Jay's vocals for the majority of us who cannot understand "Krio, Temne, and Slang." The track "Araba Jorlay" is actually done in an English slang. Tee-Jay and his friends tell African tales about women, monsters, false friends,and music. A few songs break the pattern: "Ro Manke" shifts to a darker and more jazzy ending and "Bubu" is a Ramadan song.

The whole album, though, is very boisterous, and Abdul Tee-Jay is a wizard on the guitar! Operate heavy equipment at your own risk, because this is strong medicine.

[Judith Gennett]