{"id":652577,"date":"2026-10-20T23:32:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T23:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/652577\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T23:32:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T23:32:20","slug":"at-half-a-century-senegals-orchestra-baobab-bets-on-new-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/652577\/","title":{"rendered":"At half a century, Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab bets on new generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Sitting on a couch in their manager’s office, three of the oldest members of Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab, the legendary Afro-Cuban and west African fusion group, banter like family.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Two groups of the oldest then youngest members of the nine-person ensemble sat down with AFP to explain the enduring magic.<\/p>\n

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\n 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

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”.<\/p>\n

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\n 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“People view Senegal through us, we bring Senegalese culture with us. Those unfamiliar with Senegal see the country through Orchestra Baobab,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n

The group is even planning a concert series outside their urban stronghold of Dakar, having never gone on tour in Senegal’s regions, orchestra leader Thierno Koite, brother of “Taga”, told a press conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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\n On a recent Sunday night in Dakar, Baobab played the well-known venue Just For You.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

Listeners are “starting to realise that Orchestra Baobab isn’t just old-school. There is a new generation”, vocalist Dieng told AFP.<\/p>\n

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\n 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.<\/p>\n

Among the mix is Zinsou’s new composition “Gorgorlou”, a Wolof term for a person who works hard just to get by.<\/p>\n

“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”.<\/p>\n

Lagratte, who has been in the band the longest of all its new musicians, replaced founding member Barthelemy Attisso, who died in 2021.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\n The group’s last album of new songs, 2017’s “Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng”, itself honoured a fallen founding vocalist.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“For me, nothing changed,” he said.<\/p>\n

Even today, “as soon as Baobab’s music starts, people get up to dance”, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sitting on a couch in their manager’s office, three of the oldest members of Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-652577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}