Playing for time

ALL ABOARD Orchestra Baobab’s new disc readies the band for a world tour.

Photograph: Jonas Karlsson

It’s the dream of musicians everywhere to quit their day jobs, but Orchestra Baobab cofounder Barthélemy Attisso isn’t ready—at least not yet. Given the acclaim that has put the Senegalese band back on the world’s radar following its triumphant 2002 reunion album, Specialist in All Styles, one might think that Attisso—who’s been singled out as one of the most distinctive guitarist-arrangers the African continent has produced—would jump at the chance to return to the stage full-time. “Before 2001,” he recalls through a French translator, “I hadn’t picked up a guitar in 13 years. This has all been a miracle.” And yet, the fact that Attisso has no plans to close the successful legal practice he has maintained in the tiny West African nation of Togo since the late ’80s suggests that he may take his time easing his way back into this stardom thing—especially since Togo’s capital, Lomé, is about 1,400 miles and several border crossings from Dakar, Senegal, which Baobab’s other members call home.

No one questions Attisso’s ability to make gigs or recording sessions in Senegal, however—to say nothing of joining world tours. If anything, the title of Baobab’s new disc, Made in Dakar, posits a locus while renewing both Attisso’s and the ensemble’s mission. “Last Saturday, we had a great time in the Dakar club called Just 4 U,” Attisso says, referring to the new nightspot where Orchestra Baobab has an informal weekend residency. Although he’s quick to point out that in the ’70s the band held court five nights a week at the Baobab Club, the defunct haunt that provided its name (which in turn comes from an indigenous tree), Attisso was encouraged by the smattering of younger faces in the Just 4 U crowd. Senegalese youth began deserting the ensemble in the ’80s, forsaking Baobab’s Africanized version of Afro-Cuban rumba and jazz for the New Jack kineticism of Youssou N’Dour, which substituted big-beat Senegalese sabar drums for Baobab’s saxes and Havana-bred congas, timbales and maracas.

If there ever was a rivalry between Baobab and N’Dour, though, it’s well in the past. N’Dour produced Specialist in All Styles, and on the new album he duets with singer Assane Mboup on a gorgeous update of “Nijaay,” one of Baobab’s early classics. Along with the harder-edged album tracks “Sibam” and “Ndeleng Ndeleng,” the new version of “Nijaay” has been subtly outfitted with rhythmic flourishes that mirror the griot music N’Dour turned into the Senegalese rock style mbalax. But that’s not indicative of a new direction. “It was always our goal to master as many styles of music as possible, to have variety,” says Attisso. “That’s why we have five different singers. Each has his own character.” For his part, N’Dour has suggested publicly that Baobab’s ecumenism is from an era of postcolonial breadth and possibility that is overdue for a comeback. “[Orchestra Baobab] was pan-African,” N’Dour told the BBC on the eve of the band’s reunion. “Young people understand now how important the 1970s were for [Senegalese] music, so they’re ready to listen.”

There’s a good chance that the rest of the world will catch on this time. The group’s platform now extends well beyond its home continent, even though, as Attisso explains, Baobab was always comfortable filling an ambassadorial role. “Senegal’s culture minister was a regular at the Baobab Club,” he recalls. “And at the time, Senegal didn’t have a national orchestra like many of the newly independent countries in West Africa. So basically, he made us the band who represented Senegal in other nations.” (No small wonder that new songs such as “Cabral” and “Ami Kita Bay” are sung in Portuguese Creole rather than native tongue Wolof or French, signifying the band’s solidarity with neighboring Guinea-Bissau.) One particular island continues to elude the group, however: Cuba. “We’ve missed going there on several occasions,” Attisso says, “the hardest being when [sonero] Ibrahim Ferrer passed away just before we were scheduled to record with him.” His voice lightens after a slight pause. “Of course, eventually we have to get to Cuba, because our music is there too. That’s why it’s called Afro-Cuban.”

Made in Dakar is out Tue, May 20 on World Circuit/Nonesuch. Orchestra Baobab plays the River to River Festival in Battery Park Jun 25 and the BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival Jun 26.