Orchestra Baobab

Orchestra Baobab is a Senegalese Afro-Cuban, Son, and Pachanga band. Organized in 1970, as a multi-ethnic, multi-national club band, Orchestre Baobab adapted the then current craze for Cuban Music (growing out of the Congolese Soukous style) in West Africa to Wolof Griot culture and the Mandinga musical traditions of the Casamance. One of the dominant African bands of the 1970s, they were overshadowed in the 1980s and broke up, only to reform in 2001 after interest in their recordings grew in Europe.



ORCHESTRA BAOBAB
''MADE IN DAKAR''

While not quite in the Buena Vista Social Club class as a romantic story of veteran virtuosity rediscovered, the 2002 comeback of Senegal's Orchestra Baobab almost two decades after they split up was spectacular enough. Five years on comes the second reunion album and, listening to its warm melodies and lilting rhythms, it's hard to argue with the record company's press release which excitedly announces `Africa's perfect pop group are back!' Mixing new compositions with reworked songs from their 70s heyday, Baobab have probably never sounded better. First, Nick Gold's production leaves the sound quality of those early recordings in the shade. And secondly, their return to playing live means that their musical chops are in much better shape than on 2002's Specialist In All Styles. Each of the group's six lead vocalists brings a different soulful nuance, but in many ways the album belongs to guitarist Barthélemy Attisso. You'd never have guessed on their last album that he hadn't touched a guitar in years but on this one you can definitely hear that he's been playing regularly ever since and his fluidity now rivals the Rail Band's Djelimady Tounkara. The stand-out track is probably `Nijaay', a 70s epic reinvented by Attisso's wah-wah guitar and great guest vocals from Youssou N'Dour. But the overwhelming feeling of Made In Dakar is of a band having fun, from the infectious rumba of `Aline' via the speeded-up chachachá of `Jirim' to the last track, `Colette', on which they sound like a Senegalese Skatalites. Perfect African pop, indeed.

1. Pape Ndiaye 3:41
2. Nijaay 7:15
3. Beni Baraale 5:51
4. Ami Kita Bay 5:25
5. Cabral 4:32
6. Sibam 5:23
7. Aline 4:05
8. Ndéleng Ndéleng 5:40
9. Jirim 4:48
10. Bikowa 4:24
11. Colette

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ORCHESTRE BAOBAB ''GOUYE GUI DE DAKAR VOL. 3- HOMMAGE A LAYE M'BOUP'' (SENEGAL,1982) @ [192k]

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It's ironic that Youssou N'Dour coproduced Specialist in All Styles. After all, it was the emergence of N'Dour's upbeat mbalax music in the early '80s that hurried the passing of Orchestra Baobab, which had been the most popular band in Senegal for 10 years. Baobab's Afro-Latin blend was unique, but it sounded like fond memory next to the in-your-face mbalax. Following up the reissue in 2002 of the legendary 1982 album Pirates Choice, Baobab has returned to active duty after a 15-year hiatus. Specialist features many of the original members and recaptures the classic sound. The band revives great older Baobab songs like "On Verra Ça" and "Ndongoy Daara," brings in a few folk tunes, and rounds out the album with strong new material. "Homage A Tonton Ferrer" is a rollicking vocal tour de force featuring Cuba's Ibrahim Ferrer and N'Dour. Moreover, the band is tight throughout, with fantastic solos coming from guitarist Barthelemy Attisso and saxophonist Issa Cissoko.

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La Belle Epoque - a double album accompanied by an in-depth biography by Radio France Internationale journalist Pierre René-Worms - celebrates the heyday of this legendary orchestra's career.

Volume I, recorded at Club Baobab, in Dakar, in 1971 (with a few additional recordings made between 1973 and 1976) may leave some listeners a little underwhelmed owing to its mediocre sound quality.

But Volume II more than makes up for any technical shortcomings. This second offering revolves around original recordings for the album Baobab à Paris, made in 1978 - the first time Orchestra Baobab came to Europe and set foot in a proper recording studio!

In short, La Belle Epoque is a godsend for those enamoured of Orchestra Baobab's Cuban-African melting-pot sound. Many of the tracks featured on this double album have been re-recorded by the group over the years and included on new albums. But nothing beats listening to the raw, uncut originals of Baobab classics such as Sibam and El Son te llama (written by ex-Africando star Medoune Diallo) and Balla Sidibé's On verra ça.

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Orchestre Baobab - Specialist in all Styles @ 320 (2006)

01. Bul Ma Miin
02. Sutukun
03. Dee Moo Weer
04. Jiin Ma Jiin Ma
05. Ndongoy Daara
06. On Verra Ca
07. Hommage a Tonton Ferrer
08. El Son Te Llama
09. Gnawoe

Total Size: 115,19MB

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