Orchestra Baobab


In the 1960s, politicians in the freshly-created nation of Senegal sought respite from their hard day’s labour in Dakar’s “Baobab” club. As a result, a band was specially created in 1970 to rest their ears and, naturally, took the name “Orchestra Baobab”. The musicians were a composite bunch, and included six musicians from the illustrious Star Band that performed at the rival Miami Club. These artists were from as far afield as Casamance, eastern Senegal, Mali, Morocco and Togo, and came to symbolise a nation that had vigorously been united by its first President Leopold Sedar Senghor. They integrated a diversity of Senegalese styles with Latin influences and featured one of Africa’s most outstanding guitarists, Barthelemy Attisso.

By the Eighties, their fame had spread throughout West Africa with hits like “Ni diaye”, “Coumba”, “Autorail”, Sutukun”, “On verra ça” and “Utrus horas”. By 1985, they had recorded 20 albums and bootleg versions spread as quickly as the band’s notoriety. They had lost their lead singer Laye Mboup in a mysterious car accident in 1974, but the arrival of young singer Thione Seck had helped the Orchestra remain in the public eye.

However, the arrival of Abdou Diouf to the Presidency in 1981 heralded a new musical mood characterised by wolof mbalax. Championed by Youssou N’Dour, it swept away the mellower sounds Orchestra Baobab had promoted for over a decade. The Baobab club closed down in 1979, and the group members gradually drifted away, either to other bands or to their original professions. Attisso returned to legal matters by becoming a lawyer in his native Togo and forgot his guitar playing until 2001. Officially, Orchestra Baobab disbanded in 1987.

Thankfully, Nick Gold and his World Circuit label organised a re-release of the album “Pirate’s choice” in 2001, adding six new tracks from the 1982 sessions that had provided all the material for the original record. Co-producer of this landmark CD was none other than Youssou N’Dour, who had unwittingly put an end to the Baobab’s golden era, but who admitted to being one of the band’s greatest fans: “They had such a clean sound, and they were Pan-African,” he said. “They were using Cuban music to play African folklore. We’re ready for this to come back.”

And come back the group did. Uniting the three core singers for a reunion concert at the Barbican Centre in London, Orchestra Baobab proved that their live sound remained one of Africa’s most gracious and timeless. After an intense period of re-adaptation, Barthelemy Attisso found his magical guitar touch with breathtaking solos that featured prominently in the follow-up album, the live Specialist in all styles.

Since then, the pappies of Senegal’s classic sounds have gone round the world several times over. They have combined four veterans from the original line-up with the young Assane Mboup and two promising saxophonists. Their rousing live performances have guaranteed a new lease of life to the subtle and graceful hits they composed three decades earlier. Singing in Wolof, French or Spanish they prove that cha cha cha and pachanga from Cuba can harmonise effortlessly with the very core of traditional West African music. In October 2007, they released Made in Dakar, which proved their sound is as seamless as ever.

Daniel Brown, December 2007.

Bertrand Bouard

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