A few years ago, the man behind the Buena Vista Social Club, Nick Gold, approached a group of Senegalese musicians he was crazy about — the Orchestra Baobab. In the 1970s and '80s, they were masters of blending African and Cuban dance rhythms. Gold convinced them to get back on the road, and now they're more successful than ever, melding salsa rhythms with African beats on stage at Carnegie Hall.
These guys are awesome. (The link at "crazy" above is an entire concert!)
The Guardian reviewed their latest album:
Whoever coined the term "intelligent dance music" was probably thinking of digital basslines and tricky breaks, but the phrase will also do nicely for this set of newly recorded songs by the legendary Senegalese band. Orchestra Baobab, who reformed in 2001 after a 16-year break, are masters of an urban style that pairs rippling, fast-flowing guitar lines with impassioned vocals and sophisticated dance rhythms. These move effortlessly from rumba, reggae and highlife to more indigenous grooves such as mbalax and their own "mbalsa", an infectious salsa hybrid heard on the track Ami Kita Bay. The four vocalists - augmented by Youssou N'Dour for a new version of their 1970s hit Nijaay - are superb. Nick Gold's production and sequencing ensures we are never bored: there is always a new voice or groove around the corner. Star of the show, as always, is musical director and guitarist Barthélemy Attisso, whom I once compared to Hank Marvin and Mark Knopfler; that wasn't hyperbole.
Here's the back-story:
Orchestra Baobab are one of Africa’s great iconic bands, creators of one of the world’s most sublime and truly distinctive pop sounds. Founded in 1970, Orchestra Baobab fused Afro-Cuban rhythm and Portuguese Creole melody with Congolese rumba, high life and a whole gamut of local styles – kickstarting a musical renaissance in their native Senegal, which turned the capital Dakar into one of the world’s most vibrant musical cities. They produced more hits in less than a decade than other bands in a lifetime. While Baobab found themselves sidelined by the revolution they helped create and disbanded in 1985, a huge groundswell of international interest led to their triumphant reformation in 2001. Orchestra Baobab are still very much in business today.
You can listen to A Night at Club Baobab for free on Rhapsody. Try the first track, "Jin ma jin ma". (This is also the second song at the Zankel Hall performance, above.) Also try "Liti liti".
Watch a live performance:
Orchestra Baobab performing live at the Roll Back Malaria Concert
About their recent show in London, a reviewer wrote in The Independent:
