Bawobab 75 – Orchestre du Bawobab, 1975

🇸🇳 🎸 🎤 🌍 🔥 Baobab or Bawobab? The famous Senegalese orchestra was formed in the early 1970s around singers Ablaye Mboup and Balla Sidibé, and guitarists Barthélémy Attiso and Mohamed Lafti Ben Geloum. The orchestra quickly expanded and performed at the Club Baobab in Dakar, from which it borrowed its name. Their first records were released in 1972, and then in 1975, on their new dedicated label, Buur Records (« the king »), it was a firework display with five albums in that year alone. Famous records like Guy Gu Rey Gi (we’ll come back to it) and the equally renowned Bawobab 75 showcased the afro-Latin groove at which the orchestra excelled. Rumba, bolero, merengue—all infused with an inimitable Mandinka flavour—gave their six tracks a unique edge, also flirting with funk (Saf Mana Dem), as a prelude to a mbalax that had yet to be famed. Among the singers was Thione Seck, who would later become one of the great representatives of mbalax, alongside Youssou N’dour and Baaba Maal. Behind the studio consoles was Jules Sagna, who would later co-found the orchestra Rytmo Africa with Alfredo de la Fé. The Orchestre du Bawobab would subsequently record for Syllart, before disappearing in 1985, only to be revived in 2001 by World Circuit Records—the same label that had just resurrected the Buena Vista Social Club.