Tag Archives: Orchestra Baobab

From inauspicious beginnings as the weekend house band at a Dakar club for authorities officials, Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab, named for the club (which took its name from your native baobob tree), continued to become among the seminal bands of globe music, with an influence that extended far beyond their national …

Etoile De Dakar was perhaps one of the most influential rings to emerge from Senegal. Most widely known for its use vocalist Yassour N’Dour, an associate from 1975 to 1978, the group made a Latin-tinged design of African pop that inspired such western performers as Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon and …

Salsa and Afro-Cuban rhythms were fused using the music customs of Senegal by Magay Niang and his sibling Prosper. Developing a music group, Xalam, called after a Senegalese lute, in 1969, both brothers centered on the funk and jazz-influenced aspect of their repertoire. Relocating to Paris in 1973, the group …