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 Orchestra Baobab

From Cuba, Via Senegal: orchestra Baobab stresses the African element of Afro-Caribbean music.
By: John Adamian

Try the blindfold test with the Senegalese group Orchestra Baobab. Listeners might swear they´re hearing Cuban dance music. And with good reason; Cuban and Caribbean music had a huge influence in West Africa in the ´50s and ´60s. Speaking recently with the Advocate through a translator by phone from Dakar as the group prepared for a brief tour of the U.S. (the Northampton gig is one of only five East Coast dates scheduled), Barthelemy Atisso, the group´s guitarist, made sense of the similarities. Atisso, whose sinuous phrasing and glassy tone can sometimes evoke Jerry Garcia, says the African connection in Afro-Cuban music makes it a natural fit for West African musicians.

"I think it´s quite easy to explain," says Attiso. "Caribbean music, Afro-Cuban music, the music comes from Africa, then it went to Cuba, and it´s coming back to Africa now, but Africa is really the root for this kind of music. Even the Cubans realize this. We´re in perfect harmony with them. We understand each other musically very well."

Cuban music is thick with the polyrhythms, percussion, call-and-response and interlocking phrasing that characterizes much African music. And Cuban music isn´t the only thing that´s boomeranged back across the Atlantic to touch base with Africa. With a film crew in tow, Trey Anastasio (of Phish) and Dave Matthews took a trip to Senegal not long ago to pay tribute to Orchestra Baobab, which was formed in 1970 and reformed after the success of the 2002 re-issue of its landmark 1982 recording Pirates Choice. Growing up in Dakar, Cuban son was a standard style to be mastered by up-and-coming musicians.

"As children we would listen to all kinds of music -- rhumba, cha-cha-cha, bolero," he says. "Afro-Cuban music was really the basis." But listen closely to the band´s most recent CD, Specialist In All Styles. Songs are sung on French, Spanish and Wolof (Senegal´s majority ethnic group). Though one can hear plenty of clave (the all-important rhythmic underpinning of much Cuban music), there is also evidence of what some call the Wolof clave (an underlying pulse that goes something like "one - ... and-three, four"). The thread of Senegalese influences runs through Baobab´s work; it was the success of the Afro-pop style known as m´balax (partly derived from the rhythms of Senegalese sabar drumming) popularized by Youssou N´Dour that initially drove the band into early retirement, but Atisso says traditional Senegalese music infuses the sound:

"We played with the great Senegalese drummer Doudou N´Diaye Rose, and the album was very good, it was authentic m´balax. But we didn´t want to just restrict our style to m´balax." As a guitarist, Atisso draws inspiration from the greats, citing Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery and Congolese guitarist Dr. Nico. And like other West African pop musicians, he´s absorbed traditional elements into his playing.

"Sometimes I try to imitate the sound of the traditional lute, the xalam, but I´m not quite there yet," he says. "I have work to do on this and I have research ahead of me. I plan to start in Senegal and go to Mali and Guinea to perform and study."

The band too has been wood-shedding, Atisso said they´ve demo-ed enough material for two new CDs, and producer Nick Gold (Buena Vista Social Club) is listening to the new tracks. Atisso sounds like a man confident that his band´s big comeback isn´t simply a fad:

"Only yesterday in rehearsal we put together a new song that in itself would sell 10 million albums."

Source: Valley Advocate