Orchestra Baobab

Born in the vibrant nightlife of Dakar in the early 1970s, Orchestra Baobab formed as the resident band of the Club Baobab, bringing together former members of the Star Band around a repertoire blending Afro-Cuban music, Wolof rhythms, Mandingue influences and elements of Afro-Portuguese song. Through their early recordings and tours across West Africa, the collective developed an aesthetic of interwoven guitars, supple brass sections and polyglot vocals in Wolof, Bambara and Creole, anchoring Orchestra Baobab in a Senegalese urban tradition shaped as much by rumba as by dance orchestras. After an initial active period until the mid-1980s the group fell dormant, before being revived around the turn of the millennium—helped notably by the 1989 reissue of Pirate’s Choice and by Specialist in All Styles (2002), recorded with contributions from Youssou N’Dour and Ibrahim Ferrer. Returning to the international stage with Made in Dakar (2007) and Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng (2017), Orchestra Baobab continues to focus on concerts—performing in major European halls, at African festivals and on long tours—while remaining closely tied to Dakar’s musical history.