PROGRAMMÄNDERUNG: Orchestra Baobab

The rich diversity of Senegalese traditions meets the relaxed nonchalance of Cuban grooves. Polyrhythms from West Africa are given a Caribbean tinge. Crisp riffs accompany soaring vocals.

Orchestra Baobab: For more than 50 years, the name of this band has stood for quality.

And even if there has been quite a long break in their activities in between: There is continuity in the sound.

This also has to do with the West African way of teaching music. Away from university institutions - which can certainly hold a candle to comparable European institutions - music is passed on seamlessly from generation to generation in the traditional environment through incessant playing and replaying.

Percussionist Mountaga Koité (who joined the band in 1974!) is a member of the orchestra from the very beginning. The current orchestra leader Thierno Koité was also part of one of the earliest line-ups.

Singer Korka Dieng, on the other hand, belongs to the fantastic young generation of West African vocalists; she has performed with Seckou Keita, the kora player who has also played here twice.

The Orchestra Baobab is archetypal for the concept of re-acculturation: African forms reached North and South America, played a significant role in the history of music there and returned to Africa in a modified form.

Funk, soul, son and reggae have their roots in the west of that continent, which was responsible for cultural transfer to the New World from the 16th century onwards. The fact that this transfer took place with blood and tears, that - to quote Leyla McCalla, who is playing a wonderful concert for us on Wednesday - African-American music history was made through slavery and exploitation, must also be remembered again and again. The lively sound of Orchestra Baobab doesn't want to hide this at all.

The band plays its constantly fascinating, incomparable blend of West African and Latin American forms.

The new album "50 ans" (50 years) has been announced for fall 2024.

Speaking of incomparable. We cannot replace Oumou Sangaré's music with similar sounds following her withdrawal due to injury. But with the Orchestra Baobab, we now have another formation that can equally be described as "iconic"!