Gombo Salsa

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[12]
MusicHound World: The Essential Album Guide	[10]

The New York Times wrote: "Two songs with lead vocals by Sekouba Diabate, a jali from Guinea, use the unexpected leaps and modal scales of jali songs, but most of the album resembles classic salsa, discreet yet propulsive. The wild cards are the singers, who mostly follow Cuban and Puerto Rican models but also reveal the gentle, pleading tones of African lead tenors."^[13] The Gazette deemed it the third best "worldbeat" album of 1996, writing that the "tropical-dance-floor release ... has more salsa energy than your feet will ever need."^[14]

The Miami Herald concluded that, "while salsa in North America remains stuck in place, the music by Malian flutist and arranger Boncana Maiga echos tradition but nudges it forward... The best salsa of the '90s is African."^[7] The Star-Ledger lamented that "the band is so high-powered, the drumming and instrumental solos so hot, that the group, singing in the laid-back African style without the intensely rhythmic attack of Latin singers like Celia Cruz or Ruben Blades, are often overshadowed."^[15]

AllMusic called the album "an instant classic," writing that "the band continues to polish its radiant mixture of classic mambos, sones, boleros, and cha-chas."^[11]