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4 unusual facts about Orchestra Baobab


Aurelio Martinez

In 2011, he released an album entitled Laru Beya, which included collaboration with Youssou N'Dour and Orchestra Baobab members and a tribute to Martinez's friend, the late Andy Palacio.

Orchestra Baobab

The original frontmen of the band were the Casamance singers Balla Sidibe and Rudy Gomis who came from the melting pot of Casamance musical styles, and most famously Laye Mboup (killed in a 1974 car accident) who provided vocals in the Wolof griot style.

Unlike other Senegalese bands, they combined the Casamance harmonies and drumming from southern Senegal with melodies from Togo and Morocco to the Wolof tradition from northern Senegal.

Organized in 1970, as a multi-ethnic, multi-national club band, Orchestre Baobab adapted the then current craze for Cuban Music (growing out of the Congolese Soukous style) in West Africa to Wolof Griot culture and the Mandinga musical traditions of the Casamance.



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