The Prague Post - At half a century, Senegal's Orchestra Baobab bets on new generation

Several evenings later, their guitar and saxophone melodies conjured the same convivial chemistry, electrifying a Dakar nightclub and getting partygoers dancing cha-cha steps and swaying their hips -- as the band has done so many times in its half-century history.

The much-loved orchestra, which blends regional Wolof griot music, Congolese rumba, Senegalese mbalax, jazz and other traditions through an Afro-Cuban filter, will release "Made in Senegal", its first album of new songs in nearly 10 years, on Friday.

Like the mighty baobab tree it is named for, Orchestra Baobab remains standing despite its age, thanks in part to a new generation of musicians slowly replacing its iconic veterans.

Two groups of the oldest then youngest members of the nine-person ensemble sat down with AFP to explain the enduring magic.

In the band's latest music "you can sense a freshness, something new, something exceptional, something people haven't really heard from the founders before", rhythm guitarist Yahya Fall, 76, told AFP.

The group's joyful swinging sound, produced across guitars, drums, saxophones and vocals, alternately rollicks and sways, at times highly energetic and at others seducing listeners with lilting refrains.

The handful of new members, mostly in their 30s and 40s, say they aspire to sustain the band's historic soul and core sound, adding only a dash of their personal flavour.

Vocalist Korka Dieng, who started singing with Baobab in 2023, jolted the group into the 21st century as its first and only woman member.

The 44-year-old said she and the other younger musicians each bring their own touch, but try "to preserve the originality that brought the legendary orchestra to where it is today."

The young members "will be able to ensure Baobab lasts a full century", 73-year-old percussionist Mountaga "Taga" Koite, the band's last remaining original member, told AFP with a twinkle in his eye.

The orchestra, which ruled Dakar's club scene and airwaves after its birth in 1970, eventually went on hiatus only to reemerge in the early 2000s and achieve international fame.

Trombone and tenor saxophonist Wilfried Zinsou, part of the new guard at 48, described the orchestra as a national treasure, touring across Europe and elsewhere when not performing in Dakar.

"People view Senegal through us, we bring Senegalese culture with us. Those unfamiliar with Senegal see the country through Orchestra Baobab", he told AFP.

- Not just 'old school' -

On a recent Sunday night in Dakar, Baobab played the well-known venue Just For You.

Friends and couples swayed at their tables until a prolonged wail of the saxophone in Baobab anthem "Utrus Horas" sent a shock through the room.

First two women jumped from their seats to dance, before others rushed to the front of the hall, swinging and stepping to the sultry rhythm.

"I danced to Orchestra Baobab at age 15-16 and still today", 62-year-old fan Moustapha Samb told AFP, describing the group as "a monument, it represents memory and resilience" for Senegal.

Listeners are "starting to realise that Orchestra Baobab isn't just old-school. There is a new generation", vocalist Dieng told AFP.

Of the 12 songs in "Made in Senegal", approximately half are newly composed, and the vast majority have not yet appeared in a Baobab album.

Among the mix is Zinsou's new composition "Gorgorlou", a Wolof term for a person who works hard just to get by.

"Wida", composed by lead guitarist "Bolero" Lagratte, 37, meanwhile references the historical slave port of the same name in his native Benin and its "door of no return".

Lagratte, who has been in the band the longest of all its new musicians, replaced founding member Barthelemy Attisso, who died in 2021.

Some of Orchestra Baobab's most iconic musicians, such as singer-percussionists Balla Sidibe and Rudy Gomis, died in the early 2020s, not long after famed saxophonist Issa Cissokho.

The group's last album of new songs, 2017's "Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng", itself honoured a fallen founding vocalist.

From the manager's office where the three Baobab veteran members had gathered, Koite, the founding percussionist, enumerated how each new musician had impeccably filled another's shoes.

"For me, nothing changed," he said.

Even today, "as soon as Baobab's music starts, people get up to dance", he said.

C.Sramek--TPP