Customer Reviews

Baobab N'Wolof

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is amazing. This album shows why they have titled their most recent album "Speicalists in All Styles." There is still the Cuban sound in there somewhere, but it sounds more like something produced by lee perry. Their use of delay on the guitar is so innocent and amazing. Its a rough recording, but that makes it better once you get used to it. Track 3 and track 6 are unbeivable and worth the $... bucks right there. I love thier other stuff, but I cannot explain to you how cool this album is. It's for a hot summer night to just feel happy.

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If you miss the sounds of the Theis markets, a neighborhood baptism or afternoons sipping tea with your Senegalese friends, this is the CD for you. It will take you back to the sights and sounds of Senegal. Filled with traditional Wolof music it is an excellent choice.

These live recordings from 1970-71 capture Orchestre Baobab playing at the very venue in Senegal that they took their name from. The sound quality is slightly rougher than their later studio albums, but the songs are great nonetheless -- these guys were an impressive ensemble! The raggedy vocals, sung in the urban Wolof dialect, may be too shrill for some listeners, but the musical grooves are quite nice. On a couple of tracks, the guitars go wild, soaring into psychedelic heights; mostly, though, this is mellow, beautiful material. I'd recommend their studio work first, but this ain't bad.

This and Pirate's Choice are truly the two essential Baobab recordings. The way I would put it: if you want to get just one album by Orchestra Baobab, well, find some more money and get those two.

It is not clear to what extent this recording was meant for release. The tracks are basically recordings of the group playing its songs during off-hours in their club. It's very rough, but magical stuff. The highlights are Barthelemy Attisso's guitar playing, Issa Cissokho's tenor sax, and in this one album, the singing of Laye Mboup, which is quite something. I'd call him, with a healthy dose of exaggeration, the world's best bad singer: it certainly took some getting used to his voice, but the man's phrasing, and the way he builds up the tension in the music is brilliant.

Baobab's most recent albums have revisited two of the tracks here; "De Mo Woor" on Specialist in All Styles is the same song as "Aduna Jarul Naawo" here; this album also contains the original, much superior version of "Nijaay" from Baobab's 2008 album Made in Dakar. (Though the original track is mistitled in this release, as "N'Diaye.")

Compared to these old, rough recordings, the band's recent two albums sound flat and very, very rushed. In these old tracks, they take their sweet time with the songs, playing them at a slower tempo than they usually do today, building up the tension gradually, then releasing it at the end.

So, to sum up, the music in this recording, however rough, is better than nearly all of the later, very highly regarded albums by Orchestra Baobab, except for Pirate's Choice, which is its equal. If you can find it, don't hesitate to get it.