Orchestra Baobab

The Baobab Club

Orchestra Baobab formed in Dakar in 1970 as the house band of the Baobab Club, named for the baobab tree. Six musicians led by the saxophonist Baro N'Diaye were lured from the Star Band de Dakar, and the band mixed Cuban standards with West African music, with Mandinka and Wolof singers; World Circuit says it called its style variete and recorded 20 albums between 1970 and 1986. The Conversation says Rudy Gomis, a trained language teacher who ran a language school in Dakar, co-founded the band with the singer Balla Sidibe and the guitarist Barthelemy Attisso, who had played together before in a band called Standard. Issa Cissoko replaced N'Diaye as leader on tenor sax in 1971, the singer Laye M'Boup was a Wolof griot-style voice until 1974 or 1975, and Thione Seck sang from 1974 to 1979 before a solo career; Ndiouga Dieng sang from 1975 to 2016.

Five albums on Buur came out in 1975 and 1976. In 1978 sessions in Paris with Abou Sylla produced On verra ca and Africa 78, acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful. The Baobab Club closed in 1979. In 1981 and 1982 the cassette era produced the hit "Autorail" by Medoune Diallo and the sessions known as Ken Dou Werente, which World Circuit later issued as Pirates Choice. As mbalax, led by Youssou N'Dour, took over, the band broke up, in 1985 per The Conversation and 1987 per Wikipedia and Songlines. Charlie Gillett and John Peel championed them on radio, and World Circuit issued Pirates Choice in 1989 (WCD 014).

At Nick Gold's persuasion they reunited, with help from N'Dour, at the Barbican in London in May 2001, and the double-CD Pirates Choice followed (WCD 063). Specialist in All Styles (2002, produced by N'Dour) and Made in Dakar (2007) won an A each from Christgau, and Rolling Stone gave Made in Dakar four stars. They won two BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards in 2003, played Later with Jools Holland in October 2002, Letterman in May 2004 and Live 8 in Johannesburg in 2005. Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng followed on March 31, 2017, the single "50 ANS" on November 24, 2023, and Made in Senegal on Strut in 2026.