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Sounds of Senegal on Baobab bus
PREVIEW
Orchestra Baobab
Jazz Café
ORCHESTRA Baobab’s background has laid the basis for their musical brilliance.
The musicians have played together for more than 30 years and this means they have grown together as a unit.
They became established heroes in Senegal, renowned for their sets at the Baobab club in Dakar.
It is only surprising that it took the rest of the world so long to wake up to their soaring jazzy guitar licks, catchy bass lines, brilliant arrangements and question-answer style of vocal harmonies.
Their album Specialists In All Styles catapulted them from being well-known and much loved in west Africa to becoming a truly global band.
I caught them first at Womad, a world music festival in Reading, a few years back. Their music transcends the sort of crusty avant-garde stuff Womad often puts on, which can be hideously unapproachable. Instead this lot rock: they have a simple, downplayed style which their up-tempo rhythms lay comfortably over. It sounds Cuban – you can trace the influences in Caribbean music from the west coast of Africa by listening to this band.
Their latest recordings return to the melodic sounds of their Afro-Cuban roots with the harder influence of contemporary African dance music. They will be showcasing their first new album for five years. Visually stunning (there are 15 members of the band), catching them in an intimate venue like the Jazz Café is probably the best way to enjoy their music.
DAN CARRIER
Orchestra Baobab play the Jazz Café, Parkway, on November 18, 19 and 20 at 7pm. Tickets £23.50.ORCHESTRA Baobab’s background has laid the basis for their musical brilliance. The musicians have played together for more than 30 years and this means they have grown together as a unit.
They became established heroes in Senegal, renowned for their sets at the Baobab club in Dakar.
It is only surprising that it took the rest of the world so long to wake up to their soaring jazzy guitar licks, catchy bass lines, brilliant arrangements and question-answer style of vocal harmonies.
Their album Specialists In All Styles catapulted them from being well-known and much loved in west Africa to becoming a truly global band.
I caught them first at Womad, a world music festival in Reading, a few years back. Their music transcends the sort of crusty avant-garde stuff Womad often puts on, which can be hideously unapproachable. Instead this lot rock: they have a simple, downplayed style which their up-tempo rhythms lay comfortably over. It sounds Cuban – you can trace the influences in Caribbean music from the west coast of Africa by listening to this band.
Their latest recordings return to the melodic sounds of their Afro-Cuban roots with the harder influence of contemporary African dance music. They will be showcasing their first new album for five years. Visually stunning (there are 15 members of the band), catching them in an intimate venue like the Jazz Café is probably the best way to enjoy their music.
DAN CARRIER
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